MEDIA ADVISORY
14 July 2004
Contact: Dorotea Mendoza, Secretary General, GABRIELA Network
[EMAIL PROTECTED], (212) 592-3507
WOMEN'S GROUP GABRIELA NETWORK STAGE DESPEDIDA (FAREWELL) PARTY FOR
PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO THROUGHOUT U.S.A.,
SIMULTANEOUS WITH GABRIELA'S WOMEN-LED RALLY IN THE PHILIPPINES
On Monday, July 18, 2005, GABRIELA Network USA (GABNet), a Philippine-US
women's solidarity organization established in 1989, will hold a
nationwide Despedida (farewell) Street Party to bid Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) goodbye. There will be actions in Chicago,
Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.
"Election fraud," according to GABNet Campaigns Director Milady Quito, "is
but one of the many reasons Gloria must be relieved of her title and
position. Her regime has long been plagued not only with allegations of
fraud but extreme graft and corruption, human rights violations, and
countless policies that are detrimental to Filipino women's welfare."
For interviews, please call (212) 592-3507 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WHAT: Nationwide Despedida (farewell) Street Party for Philippine
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, simultaneous with women-led
rally in the Philippines
WHO: Organized by GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-US women's solidarity
organization, est. 1989.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 2005
LOCATIONS and TIMES:
Chicago: 5PM, in front of Philippine Consulate, 30 North Michigan Ave.
(just north of Madison Ave., across from millennium park)
Los Angeles: 5PM, in front of Philippine Consulate, 3600 Wilshire
Blvd. (at Kingsley)
New York: 7PM, in front of Philippine Consulate, 556 5th Ave. (at 46th
St.)
Portland: 6PM, Chapman & Lonsdale Square, SW 4th & Main Streets (in
front of Federal Building)
San Francisco: All day, farewell banners and streamers to be unveiled
throughout San Francisco
Seattle: 5:30PM, in front of the Filipino Community Center of Seattle,
5740 MLK Jr. Way South
INTERVIEW AND PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES. ###
...
PRESS RELEASE
July 13, 2005
GABRIELA International Network
Contact: Ninotchka Rosca, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
A "GOODBYE GLORIA" RALLY AND PARTY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PACIFIC
When GABRIELA Philippines holds its July 19th rally calling for the ouster
of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, its sister organization
GABRIELA Network will hold a July 18th "despedida" or farewell party in
the streets of the United States. Despite the date difference, it's
actually the same day.
The two organizations have been models of militant sisterhood across
national boundaries and cultures, cooperating in the struggle for women's
liberation, especially for the liberation of women of Philippine ancestry,
for the last 16 years.
GABRIELA Philippines opened its "Goodbye Gloria" campaign with a 5:30 a.m.
coffee klatch at the rotunda where the cities of Manila and Quezon touch
in the Philippines. Setting up tables and chairs under wide umbrellas,
GABRIELA members served coffee to passersby while discussing the
continuing political crisis in the Philippines. The women's cultural
group, Sining Lila, serenaded the crowd with songs parodying the "Hello
Garci tapes." Members of the GABRIELA Women's Party wore "Gloria Resign"
t-shirts to commemorate the national day of protest against Mrs.
Macapagal-Arroyo's presidency.
GABRIELA Network USA, on the other hand, started with a dramatic six-city
protest-vigil against human rights violations and the assassinations of
eleven women organizers in the Philippines on May 20th. The July 18th
GABNet despedida street party will feature streamers, posters,
petition-signing, leaflet distribution, discussions and a "good riddance"
cake, slices of which shall be distributed to passers-by.
Both organizations emphasize that while vote-count rigging and graft and
corruption were the triggers for the current public repulsion toward the
Macapagal-Arroyo administration, more profound and basic issues underlie
the public's anger. The economic policies of the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration, with its emphasis on subservience to the International
Monetary Fund/World Bank and the World Trade Organization, have failed to
relieve the country's chronic state of economic crisis. Fully a third of
Filipino families go without dinner every night and half of all children
in the country are born without access to medical care, whether pre-natal,
birthing or pediatric. As with preceding administrations, the
Macapagal-Arroyo government relies on the massive export of Filipino
workers, 65% of them women, to menial and de-skilling jobs in other
countries. Remittances from overseas workers, amounting to almost $10
billion per annum, provide some relief but also fuel inflation.
The dismal human rights record of the Macapagal-Arroyo government, said to
be worse than that of the Marcos Dictatorship, adds to popular discontent.
But to cap all these disastrous policies, the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration insisted on a Value-Added Tax Law which would add to
inflation. GABRIELA Philippines Secretary-General Emmi de Jesus was quoted
as saying that the implementation of the value-added tax law "will seal
the fate of this tainted presidency. The full impact of E-VAT will surely
be felt by every Filipino household, especially the women who hold the
family budget. (It) will not be taken by Filipinos sitting down."
GABRIELA Network National Chairperson Annalisa Enrile, on the other hand,
dismissed both the intervention of former President Fidel V. Ramos on
behalf of Macapagal-Arroyo and his proposal to the Philippine
Constitution. "The people's movement for the ouster of Macapagal-Arroyo
cannot be halted by one man," said Ms. Enrile. "Besides, the Ramos
government itself was plagued with corruption scandals. And changing from
presidential to a parliamentary form of government will not address the
country's fundamental problems. Most likely, the intent would be to
remove, first, the Constitutional proviso against the presence of foreign
troops and military bases in Philippine territory; and second, to ensure
that progressive political parties such as Bayan Muna, GABRIELA Women's
Party, Anakpawis, Soara Bangsa Moro and others will be deprived of access
to participation in electoral politics."
The GABNet chairperson cites negotiations between the Macapagal-Arroyo
government and Pentagon for the possible relocation of the US military
bases in Okinawa to the Philippines, specifically Mindanao Island. "This
is where multinational corporations are making an intense push to grab
natural resources. To drive the people away, entire areas are
militarized, under the guise of the alleged war on terrorism," Ms. Enrile
added.
Congresswoman Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women's Party said it was "time to
put into place a transition council that will uphold civilian supremacy
and will be genuinely representative of the various sectors of society,
especially the poor and marginalized." ###
...
TOP TEN REASONS TO OUST A PRESIDENT
by Ninotchka Rosca, GABRIELA International Network (GAIN)
1) Demanding a Value-Added Tax law when oil prices are reaching a record
$60 per barrel, thus ensuring that people of the Philippines will have to
contend with triple digit inflation. Why not nationalize the
petrochemical industry, including the Malampaya gas reserves, and impose
price controls on everything?
2) Allegedly sacrificing husband Mike by "exiling" him to the US where
the comfort level is high and hot water runs from the tap 24 hours a day.
Perhaps he has his eyes on Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Why not exile
him to Baghdad so he can experience the nightly serenade of mortar attacks
and bomb explosions experienced by 4,000 Filipinos subcontracted to
multinationals corporations in the war arena?
3) Losing her tongue when the Philippine military goes on a rampage and
assassinates activists, organizers, unionists, church leaders,
politicians, women, the balut (duck egg) vendor and just ordinary people.
4) Promoting Palparan, instead of trading him for Filipinos held hostage
in Iraq. The surest way, it seems, to get a military promotion is to
kill women, children and the balut-vendor; and if you kill and terrorize
enough Filipinos, you may become president of the Philippines. Meanwhile,
traffickers of dope, guns, women and children, and young transgender
men--the newest export to Japan -- roam the country freely; entire
islands are occupied by foreigners and multinational corporations grab
land and resources in Mindanao with impunity.
5) Proudly proclaiming that her administration had exported a million
Filipinos in 2004, 65% of them women, and vowing to export a million more
each year; then losing her tongue again as a woman lies brain-dead in a
Saudi Arabia hospital after jumping or being pushed from a third floor
window of her employer's house; and turning deafer and muter when a
Filipina mail-order bride is drowned by her husband in Atlanta, Georgia.
6) Enabling de Venecia and Ermita to scuttle peace talks with the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines, thus encouraging a
war-freak mentality when it comes to Filipino dissenters. Why not send
them to Afghanistan where perhaps they can better serve the so-called "war
on terror?"
7) Consenting to the return of US troops and military bases to the
Philippines from Okinawa where 7,000 Filipinas already work in military
prostitution, as "entertainment" for American GIs. It took 50 years, one
volcanic eruption and the mammoth effort of generations of Filipinos to
get the US bases and troops out - a historic, national undertaking which
she sought to erase from our collective memory with one nod of her little
head. Or maybe, it didn't even register with her at all, despite the
Pampanga origins of her forebears.
8) Failing to declare the US ambassador and other so-called diplomats
persona non grata for constant, consistent and caviling interference in
Philippine internal affairs, even attempting to define for the Filipino
people what constitutional process should consist of - which, based on the
US record in the Philippines, seems to include invasion, occupation,
terrorism, despoilment of the environment, theft of natural resources
including the Malampaya gas reserves, enslavement of women into
prostitution, abandonment of children fathered by GIs, slapping the late
President Magsaysay because he wanted to deliver a speech written, not by
Col. Lansdale, but by a Filipino, and just about everything else
humiliating and degrading to the Filipino people - but, and note this,
excluding people power, a democratic act invented by Filipinos and over
which the US was happy enough when it occurred in Berlin, Poland, Romania,
etc. In other words, the democratic exercise of people power is
acceptable when used against a US enemy but not when used against a US
puppet.
9) Losing her tongue when the Hacienda Luisita massacre occurred and
being unable to compute, despite her economics degree, that there's no way
a family can survive on an aggregate paycheck of $9 per month.
10) Finding her tongue just long enough to be taped discussing fixing one
million votes. It is a given that cheating occurs in every election, even
in the US, but no one has been caught, till now, with his/her hand in the
ballot box as it were. As one American who'd lived in the Philippines
exclaimed, "why'd she have to do it herself? Why not order her campaign
manager, her assistant, her security, her girl-Friday, her maid, her
driver, or even the balut-vendor to make the call?" Arrogance, for one,
in the absolute certainty that she was entitled, not even conscious that
the act was a statement of supreme contempt for the people's sovereign
rights and powers. As for other reasons - tango was the term we used to
use for extreme absurdity. Tanga na; gago pa. (not simply stupid but
moronic). Or in this case, tang-ga!
Considering how intelligent and valiant Filipinos are, there's no reason
to be ruled and governed by nincompoops. Certainly, no justice. ###
Please sign our petition: http: //PetitionOnLine.com/nohrv05/petition.html
GABRIELA INTERNATIONAL NETWORK (GAIN)
Equality in Unity; Justice in Strength
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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