Media Release

With impeachment killed and e-VAT pushed, Filipinos in Canada rally to demand Arroyo's immediate ouster

September 2, 2005

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Around thirty Filipinos and their supporters rallied in front of the Philippine Consulate office in downtown Vancouver today to call for the immediate ouster of corrupt Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

As pro-Arroyo solons killed the impeachment complaints in the Philippine Congress this week and the Supreme Court ruled constitutional the expanded value-added tax (e-VAT), Filipinos in Canada reiterated the need to demand for Arroyo’s immediate ouster.

In a statement read at the rally, the protesters said, “with the recent derailment of a just impeachment process, we join the Filipino people in exerting all-out effort to directly oust Arroyo from presidency as the only viable option left.”

They said the implementation of the e-VAT will further burden Filipinos at home and abroad as workers are pressured to send back more remittances to prop up the ailing economy.

Chanting slogans and holding placards which read, “Put up a transition council,” “Forward the People’s Agenda” and “GMA and Bush: Guilty of Crimes vs. Humanity,” the mostly young protesters with children in tow gathered the attention of Filipinos as well as downtown workers, foreign students, tourists and passersby.

The protesters also criticized Arroyo's plans to travel to the US later this month. "She and her husband spend money gallivanting around the globe in the middle of an intense political and economic crisis," read the statement. "This shows how Arroyo along with her mouthpiece in the Philippine Consulate are ignorant to the needs of overseas Filipinos."

Speakers representing Filipino migrant workers, youth and women berated Arroyo as well as the local Philippine Consulate for spending more time and effort to export Overseas Filipino Workers and promote the Dual Citizenship Act then to protect the rights and welfare of OFWs in Canada, many of whom are exploited as domestic workers.

Since June, Filipinos in Canada have been sustaining protest rallies, forums and have gathered over 150 signatures on a petition letter addressed to President Arroyo to demand her resignation or ouster. In June damaging tapes were released to the media which contained Arroyo in conversation with an election official about fixing the results of last year’s presidential elections.

Beth Dollaga, member of the B.C. Committee for Human Rights (BCCHRP) who recently returned from the Philippines where she attended the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) read the verdict of the International People’s Tribunal which found Arroyo and Bush guilty of crimes against humanity.

Members delivered a letter from BCCHRP chair Barbara Waldern addressed to Raul S. Hernandez, Acting Post of the Philippine Consul General for Western Canada to protest a recently-published statement made by the Consul in the local Philippine media.

The Consul’s statement read, “the Philippine government has a strong democratic tradition and will be committed to ensuring respect for human rights.”

A total of 4,207 cases of human rights violations committed by the Arroyo administration from January 2001 to June 2005 were presented to the tribunal. The cases affected 232,796 individuals, 24,299 families and 237 communities. At least 400 were victims of summary execution; 110 were victims of forced disappearances. Twenty of those killed were human rights volunteers.

- 30 –