National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
Statement

A tribute to Filipino mothers fighting for the freedom of our Motherland

May 13, 2007

The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) sends its warmest greetings to all Filipino mothers and women on this year’s Mother’s Day.

This year as we gather to mark this day with our mothers and families in Canada, we pay tribute to our sisters struggling in the Philippines. We call for
justice for 9 year-old Grecil Galacio who was shot and killed by the Philippine military on March 31 while taking a bath in Southern Mindanao. She was
unjustly suspected as a New People’s Army (NPA) rebel. We also demand that the military resurface Luisa Posa-Dominado a former political prisoner
and member of SELDA-Panay who was abducted along with Nilo Arado in Panay Island on April 12, 2007.

These women are only a part of the over 1000 victims of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country since 2001. Under
the rule of a fake, fascist and puppet woman president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 160 women and children have been killed as part of the
government’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya I and II (Operation Freedom Watch) which openly targets civilians and non-combatants
as suspected supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines or New People’s Army.

The long-standing civil war and the chronic economic and political crisis in the country is the reason why we or our mothers have been forced to
migrate abroad to countries like Canada in order to support our families back home.

Since the early 1980’s over 100,000 women (including many mothers) have come to Canada to work and live in their employers’ homes as part
of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live in Caregiver Program (LCP) and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM). Women
continue to face the painful decision of leaving behind their children and spouses sometimes up to 10 years or longer to come to Canada as live-in
caregivers for Canadian mothers. These women endure great sacrifices in order for the chance of applying for permanent residency in Canada and
eventually sponsoring their families.

As live-in caregivers women face and endure all forms of physical, verbal and sexual abuse. The NAPWC has been advocating for the scrapping of
the LCP as an anti-woman and racist policy which legislates women into poverty. The NAPWC also opposes the expansion of other temporary worker
programs which will only worsen the working conditions of women workers.

At this time today in the Philippines, the Filipino people will be voting in the local and national elections. As Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)
in Canada we support the platform and program of Gabriela Women’s Party-list who is vying for three seats in the Philippine Congress through the
party-list system. It is only the GWP that genuinely advocates for a pro-OFW and pro-people program and for the scrapping of various anti-OFW policies.
As Filipino women in Canada we honour and pay tribute to all of our brave mothers and call on our sisters to fight for our rights and welfare in
Canada and our genuine emancipation as women.

We also call on Filipino women in Canada to join our sisters in the Philippines who are actively struggling for our nation’s genuine freedom,
democracy and a just and lasting peace.