National Statement of Overseas Filipino in Canada

FILIPINOS IN CANADA JOIN GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES: MARTIAL LAW NEVER AGAIN!

September 21, 2006

As Filipinos in Canada, we join other Filipinos and supporters in other parts of the world in the call for an immediate stop to the political killings and repression in the Philippines.  From the streets of Vancouver to Montreal and Toronto, we raise high our voices of protest with our compatriots and supporters in 14 countries, 26 cities and 3 global regions worldwide to internationally condemn in unison, on the 34th-year anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, the unabated wave of political killings of activists and ordinary people critical of the repressive administration presently ruling the Philippines.
 
Since Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed power in January 2001, human rights violations against the Filipino people have continued and even escalated to alarming proportions.  Summary executions, illegal arrests, abductions, enforced disappearances, harassment, vilification campaigns, and the suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms have become the hallmark of the Arroyo government, while the welfare and social conditions of the Filipino people continue to worsen.
 
Unbridled use of state terror
 
These killings come at a time of intensifying state terrorism under Arroyo and her military counter-insurgency campaign Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch).  Of the 752 killed, they were trade unionists, church people, journalists, indigenous people, students, progressive parliamentarians, human rights workers, and ordinary workers and peasants.  Many of the victims are leaders and members of progressive community organizations, like the Cordillera People’s Alliance, militant trade unions, human rights groups, and political parties, like Bayan Muna (People First) asserting national freedom, social justice, democracy, and a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.
 
These state-orchestrated attacks are clearly crimes against humanity proscribed not only under Philippine law but also in international humanitarian and human rights laws. The increased level of violence targeted at civilians comes at a time of growing progressive movements and grassroots resistance to government policies and in defense of their rights. The means, motives and opportunity behind the killings point to elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and/or their agents like the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and death squads.  These allegations are supported amongst others, by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation, the United Church of Canada, the Uniting Church of Australia and the Asian Human Rights Commission.
 
Martial Law: Then and Now
 
Three decades ago, the Marcos regime violently dispersed mass actions, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1971, then issued Proclamation 1081 placing the country under Martial Law in 1972. Last year, the Arroyo regime issued the Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR) to suppress mass actions and issued Presidential Proclamation 1017 (PP1017) placing the country under a state of national emergency on February 24, 2006, the 20th anniversary of EDSA 1 which ended 14 dark years of the Marcos dictatorship.
 
The Marcos dictatorship closed all media establishments and arrested people from a broad spectrum of opposition; the Arroyo regime raided the Daily Tribune and threatened media establishments with closure or censorship. Marcos blamed communists and demagogues for the problems confronting the nation; Arroyo blames the communists and “destabilizers” for the crisis enveloping the country.
 
The Marcos regime, in 14 years of dictatorship, arbitrarily arrested and detained around 120,000 people; the extrajudicial execution of 1,500 activists; and the enforced disappearance of 769 individuals. Since 2001, the Arroyo regime ordered the filing of trumped-up charges against Bayan Muna (People First) party list members and libel suits against the media and the opposition; threatened anybody opposing the regime with charges of rebellion and inciting to sedition; ordered the extrajudicial execution of 752 activists and their supporters and the enforced disappearances of 184 people. Human rights are being violated with impunity then and  now.
 
Although miles away, as the fourth largest visible minority community in Canada of around 500,000 Filipinos, the news of political killings and relentless cases of human rights violations and harassment of innocent civilians stirs our peace-loving and patriotic sentiments.
 
We support the struggling masses of the Filipino people fighting against the intensification of state terrorism unleashed by the Arroyo administration.
 
The blood of our martyrs will water the fields of our liberation.
 
Never again to another dictatorship!
Uphold the dignity of life!
Stop the killings in the Philippines!
Uphold and advance the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants and their families!
Forward the Filipino people’s struggle for national freedom and democracy!
Oust Arroyo!