National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
Statement

Assert Women’s Resistance for our Genuine Emancipation!

March 8, 2007

As Filipino women workers, immigrants, migrants and youth in Canada, we pay tribute to the countless Filipino women who have struggled for Filipino women’s emancipation and the liberation of our beloved Motherland. We also pay tribute to the women around the world struggling for their emancipation and an end to exploitation and oppression under imperialism.

We honour our women martyrs, from Gabriela Silang who valiantly fought against Spanish colonization in the 17h century to Lorena Barros who struggled against the Marcos dictatorship, to Benjaline Hernandez who was brutally killed under the current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

We also draw inspiration from the resistance of Filipina leaders like Congresswoman Liza Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party List facing political persecution and harassment. We condemn the recent baseless charges of murder laid against her and other progressive parliamentarians as yet another attempt of Arroyo to repress her political opponents.

With Arroyo’s recent signing of the Anti-Terrorism Bill in the lead up to the May elections, we fear even more political harassment, persecution and repression.

Since 2001, 78 women and 58 children have fallen victim to extra-judicial killings. They are part of the documented over 800 killings of civilians under the Armed Forces of the Philippines counter-insurgency plan, ‘Oplan Bantay Laya” (Operation Freedom Watch).

Under the puppet, fascist and dictator Arroyo, women and children are facing violence and terror on a daily basis. The case of ‘Nicole’, the 22-year old Filipina who was gang-raped by six US marines last year is yet one example. While Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was solely convicted of rape by the Philippine courts, he was secretly removed from a Philippine prison into the custody of the US Embassy. With the resumption of Balikatan joint military exercises, we fear more cases of rape and abuse to follow.

Now more than ever, the anti-women and anti-people policies of Arroyo are hitting Filipino migrant workers hard. Dependent on our annual over $10 billion remittances to prop up her ailing economy, Arroyo continues to actively export 3000 Filipinos every day to 192 countries worldwide.

Nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada since the 1980’s to work under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Under this program, women work and live in their employers homes taking care of children, the disabled, or the elderly for minimum wage or less. The women face a lifetime of socio-economic violence, de-skilling and all forms of physical, sexual and verbal abuse including rape. Many women endure years of violence in order to qualify for the chance at permanent residency, reunification with their families and eventual citizenship.

Those who do not finish the required 24 months of live-in work within the stipulated three years are unjustly deported. However recently, many are being issued temporary working permits allowing them to stay and work in Canada but revokes the chance to apply for permanent residency. We see this as part of the expansion of the Temporary Workers Program which will only worsen the exploitation of migrant workers.

We are also seeing the negative impacts on women and our whole community beyond the LCP. Many women enter into abusive relationships after the LCP where the cycle of abuse continues, not from their employers but from their partners or spouses. Some women are forced into off-street prostitution in order to supplement their incomes and because they are unable to enter into other jobs other than domestic work or cleaning. Many youth who are reunited with their mothers after long periods of separation are having difficulty in adjusting to their new lives in Canada and are dropping out of high school.

Because of these short and long-term negative impacts on our women and community, we reiterate our call for the scrapping of the LCP. We also call on the Canadian government to implement a national childcare program and allow for the full recognition and accreditation of foreign-trained professionals as a way to combat our community’s extreme marginalization and economic segregation.

At the same time we support the Filipino women and the Filipino people’s call for national democracy, genuine liberation and a just and lasting peace in the Philippines in order to end our forced migration once and for all. It is only through the liberation of our nation that women may hope to be truly liberated themselves. Thus, as our sisters before us have taught us, we continue to call, “Women! The rest of our lives must be lived in the best of struggles!”

No to violence against women! No to state terrorism!
Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Stop political repression and killings in the Philippines!
Forward our struggle for genuine equality, development and a just and lasting peace!
Long live international solidarity!

Issued by: National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada

Philippine Women Centre of BC
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
Philippine Women Centre of Quebec
Philippine Women Centre of Manitoba
Pinay (Montreal)