GMA’s Handling of Typhoon Ondoy is the Real Disaster

For immediate release

Contact: Al Garcia (Los Angeles), People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment, 213-241-0906; Leah Obias (New York), Damayan Migrant Workers Association, 212-564-6057, sagip.tulong@gmail.com

September 28, 2009



GMA’s Handling of Typhoon Ondoy is the Real Disaster


New York, NY—In response to the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy, members of the national Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) and the Filipino youth-based Daluyong Coordinating Committee are organizing Sagip-Tulong Sa Pilipinas (STP) Emergency Relief Fund Campaign.


This campaign will raise material and monetary support for the typhoon victims and aims to raise $5,000 by Monday, October 5, and another $5,000 by Friday, October 16.


As overseas Filipinos rush to assure the safety of their loved ones back home and come to the aid of the hardest-hit victims, a disturbing narrative of government incompetence and neglect, in the wake of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s lavish foreign trips, reveals the true character of the present regime the same way George W. Bush was exposed for his handling of Hurricane Katrina.


With maximum winds of 85 kilometers per hour, the storm was not as powerful as many of the typhoons that have hit the country. But by Sunday evening, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported that at least 330,000 residents had been displaced, 73 people had died and 23 more went missing. In the days following the storm, the death toll has risen, including a four-year-old girl who was killed when a wall, weakened by floodwaters, collapsed on their shanty along NAIA Road in Barangay Piñahan in Quezon City.


The response of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s government, both prior to the flood and after the disaster, is one aspect of the tragedy of the typhoon. The chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) blamed the public for not heeding storm warnings. And yet no evacuation order was made prior to the flood. Local government units were paralyzed at the onset of the flood and were not able to issue official advisories on what the vulnerable population should do. As floodwaters receded, hundreds were still stranded. Residents saw overwhelmed rescue choppers leaving many people behind. In Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, the parish priest, Fr. Orlando Noriella, claims that while a state of calamity had been declared to facilitate the release of funds, no food and medicines had reached the affected residents. The government admitted that they do not have enough rescue vehicles or facilities.


Consistent with the utter lack of preparedness, the stage had been set for disaster even before the typhoon hit. The massive land conversion of the Marikina watershed and the mountains of Rizal put people in imminent danger, especially those living near riverbanks and mountain slopes. Despite warnings by community groups of the danger of high-risk projects, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources did nothing to put in place protections for residents in these areas. According to local community groups, powerful foreign corporations, granted permission by GMA, are engaged in housing projects and quarry operations and have been leveling the mountains of Rizal for years. GMA’s administration continues to allow big time loggers, commercial miners and other developers to cause massive ecological devastation in the country, making the Philippines even more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. And with climate change, as typhoons and hurricanes worsen and sea levels rise, communities are being forced to relocate to vulnerable and poverty-stricken areas.


The GMA regime, the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment program, and foreign countries such as the United States and Japan have this devastation on their hands. Their criminal negligence and destruction of the environment such as continued quarrying, illegal logging and land conversions from farmlands to subdivisions contributed to the environmental disaster of Typhoon Ondoy. For over a century, the mineral resources of the Philippines have been extracted largely for export, for the benefit of foreign countries and mining corporations. As a result, communities are displaced and forcefully evicted, and environmental devastation such as the Payatas landslide and Typhoon Ondoy’s floods flow uncontrolled down the plundered land, causing the death and destruction we are witnessing today.


The member organizations and endorsers of the Sagip-Tulong sa Pilipinas (STP) Emergency Relief Fund Campaign stand in solidarity with the people of the Philippines who continue to suffer from this tragedy. The STP relief fund campaign is organized by Damayan Migrant Workers Association (NY) and Ugnayan ng mga ng Anak ng Bayan (NY), KmB/Pro-People Youth (CA), People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (CA), and Justice for Filipino American Veterans (CA). The list of endorsers is still in formation.


To donate online or be part of the Facebook Cause: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/362079?m=40c37195

To organizationally endorse or take part in the STP Campaign, please email us at sagip.tulong@gmail.com.



In Los Angeles: Send cash or check donations to People's CORE, 1610 Beverly Blvd. Suite No 2, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Donations more than $50 are tax deductible. Material donations drop off (donations; shoes, clothes, canned goods. medicines etc. ) at ANSWER LA office at 137 Virgil St. Room 203 , Los Angeles, CA 90042; Contact: Al Garcia 213.241.0995



In New York: Send cash or check donations to DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, 406 West 40th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10018. Donations more than $75 is tax deductible. Donated materials (clothing, shoes, canned goods, etc) can be dropped off on Saturday, October 3 from 11 am until 7 pm at Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, 53-22 Roosevelt Avenue, 2nd floor, Woodside, Queens (between 53rd and 54th streets). After October 3, materials can be dropped off at the DAMAYAN Office, 406 West 40th Street, New York, NY, 10018). Contact: Leah Obias, Chevy Evangelista, 212.564.6057



One hundred percent of the cash and material donations will be directed towards those affected by victims of typhoon Ondoy.


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Press Release: With the Passing of an Icon, Filipino Youth in America Uphold a Legacy

For Immediate Release

August 6, 2009

Contact: Chris Araquel (CA), Demetrio P. Maguigad (IL), Anang Palomar (NY)
Web:www.daluyong.com
E-mail:daluyong.filamyouth@gmail.com
Los Angeles: 213.241.0906 (phone), 213.241.0944 (fax), propeopleyouth@gmail.com
Chicago: 312.324.0129 (phone), masa@bagwiscollective.org
New York: 212.564.6057 (telefax), ugnayan.nynj@gmail.com


With the Passing of an Icon, Filipino Youth in America Uphold a Legacy
National Filipino American Youth Consultation Creates Action Plan to Serve Their Community, Struggle for Their Future

Los Angeles, CA - As Filipinos across the world mourn the loss of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, a new voice echoes to reclaim the legacy of the Filipino people – proud, indignant and courageous in the face of struggle. From July 26th through the 28th, over 75 Filipino American youth leaders, workers, students as well as parents, Filipino WW2 veterans and their widows, domestic workers, laity, and allies gathered and participated in the national youth consultation “DALUYONG: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times” to address and link local, national and international issues concerning their community.

The consultation was jointly organized by Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan based in New York and New Jersey, Kabataang maka-Bayan (KmB) in California, and Bagwis Collective and Committee on Pilipino Issues (CPI) based in Illinois under the auspices of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines.

“The consultation was a necessary evolution that has formalized relationships not only among Filipino American youth and student organizations across the US, but also among organizations representing women, domestic workers, cultural groups, veterans and more,” says Demetrio Maguigad, co-founder of the cultural collective Bagwis. “The passing of Cory Aquino does not declare an end of an era in Filipino history, but it is a call for us now to unite, uphold the legacy of peace and justice generations have written before us, and for us now to be the creators of our destiny.”

Featured keynote speaker Christine Araquel, Chairperson of KmB, spoke about the current economic crisis affecting Filipino Americans today and the centrality of youth in effecting social change. A multi-generational panel presentation consisting of five speakers from different regions in North America synthesized the current global economic crisis, US foreign policy in the Philippines, the effects of forced migration and assimilation on youth, the resurgence of youth activism through the anti-war movement, and the role of culture as a tool for creating positive social change in our communities.

“DALUYONG was one way that we intend to build a strong Filipino American community that is socially conscious, critical, and equipped to advocate for the needs of local and international community,” said Araquel. “It strengthened our organizational ties with all like-minded youth who share our sense of social responsibility to our community, while relating back to the struggle of the Filipino people in our homeland.”

Participants further examined the keynote address and panel synthesis through a series of youth-led workshops highlighting topics on Family Separation and Reunification, Education, Labor, and Women’s Issues.

“In the Women’s workshop, a space was created to build trust among young Filipino American women to share personal stories and issues that wove together with the collective experience of all women. In the end, the workshops developed individual and collective solutions to combat women’s oppression and exploitation,” said Joana Palomar, spokesperson for Ugnayan.

“In the Labor workshop, we explored the broader context of racism in the workplace through an interactive people’s theater exercise, collectively arriving to an analysis of society’s power structures as they exist today. Participants then used the same process to envision the ideal power structures, and discuss ways to get there,” said Raven Guerrero of the Bagwis Collective.

Participants celebrated DALUYONG on Saturday night through a cultural event at Remy’s on Temple in LA’s Historic Filipinotown where Bagwis, Bambu, the Fighting Cocks, the Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble, and members of the Women’s workshop performed. It was a diverse and energetic lineup representing the stories and aspirations reflected in the stories shared throughout the day and an affirmation of commitment towards social change.

Films created by the youth in People’s CORE’s Youth Media Arts Project were showcased, some of which included teen suicide and high school drop out rates. Solidarity messages were also read by the youth organizers and participants.

PLAN OF ACTION

Participants resolved to continue working together as a national Filipino American youth formation and crafted a national plan of action for the coming year. It included further investigating the situation of Filipino American youth and coordinating an educational curriculum that serves the needs and interests of youth and their families. The DALUYONG organizers will also be releasing a summary report in the fall containing the speeches, workshop outcomes and resolutions, plan of action, and photos from the consultation.

Although Filipinos continue to mourn the loss of Corazon Aquino who became a symbol of the people’s uprising against the fascist Marcos dictatorship, youth participants and their allies in the DALUYONG national consultation are focusing on how they will confront and tackle the crisis of their times.

“It’s been amazing,” said Kim Baglieri, Ugnayan organizer and a young mixed-race second-generation queer Filipina from New York. “It’s transformative to be able to voice our concerns and come together with a plan of action to change our society for the better! If not youth, side by side with the other sectors in our community, then who?”

For more information, please visit the official website at www.daluyong.com or contact 213.241.0906 or daluyong.filamyouth@gmail.com.

Regional speakers available for interview upon request.

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Los Angeles and Chicago are on board for Daluyong!!!!!

Upcoming Event -- UGNAYAN'S SUMMER WALK-A-THON (A fundrasing event for DALUYONG)!!!

You can still donate to this fundraising event for DALUYONG: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times, a National Filipino American Youth Consultation that will be held on July 24-26, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA!

Donations can be made until Sunday, July 26.

Proceeds will help fund the transportation costs of low- and no-income Filipino American youth who'll be participating in the consultation.

DONATE NOW AND JOIN THE FUN!!!!

Filipino American Youth Across the U.S. Come Together to Address National Issues – Build National Movement

DALUYONG: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times

Los Angeles, CA – Filipino American youth, both immigrant and US-born, are agitated and getting ready to tell the rest of the country where they stand and how they are to respond to the current economic crisis affecting their families, their education, their work, and their rights. They are concerned over current immigration policies, race relations, exploitation of women and children, and how these and other issues are linked to the broader global economic crisis and war. They are surging forward to claim what is inherently theirs – the future.

On July 24-26, a three-day consultation bringing together grassroots Filipino American youth organizations to build mechanisms of coordination on national issues, and bridge the divide amongst the Filipino Diaspora in addressing Philippine and International concerns. The national consultation, “DALUYONG: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times”, is organized by the Bagwis Collective (IL), Committee on Pilipino Issues (IL), Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (NY/NJ), and the host organization Kabataang maka-Bayan (KmB or Pro-people Youth, CA) under the auspices of the Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (Alliance Philippines). The event is also endorsed by a number of other progressive organizations across the U.S. and Canada (see complete list of current North American endorsements).

In a new era, with a growing community along with expanding issues and concerns, an African American president who promised “change” and a global economic crisis, it is essential for immigrant and US-born Filipino youth nationwide to come together to assess, share and plan the essential steps to advocate for our community’s concerns and build a broad movement and program towards fundamental and genuine change.

“Ugnayan recognizes the impact of the economic crisis on Filipino American youth locally, especially on the undocumented immigrant youth, who suffer lower wages, are denied of benefits, experience cutbacks of working days, as well as discrimination and racism in the workplace. International student graduates struggle to find a job so they stay in the US, nursing graduates are left with working on lower wages and are exploited by agencies,” said Gladys Fontanilla, a young immigrant Pinay and Ugnayan organizer. “We do not see these stories in the mainstream media… this is the venue to share our stories and come up with a plan of action for our community,” she added.

The number of Filipinos leaving the Philippines daily reached a staggering 4,100 in 2008, forced to migrate because of the chronic economic and political crisis in the Philippines. Here in the US, Filipino Americans comprise the second largest Asian population in the US, poised to become the largest Asian group by 2010, with over 100 years of significant Filipino American presence on US soil.

Other results of forced migration are the “generation gap” and the divisions in our community among immigrant Filipinos and US-born Filipinos. This consultation aims to bridge the ever growing disconnect

Filipino Americans have by building a sense of social responsibility and embracing our culture of resistance. US-born Filipino American youth have one of the highest high school dropout rates in the nation. Generally,

their levels of educational attainment yield the lowest socioeconomic returns with respect to jobs and salary levels among all racial or ethnic groups.

“In turn, we aim to open up opportunities and outlets for US-born and Filipino immigrants to unite in addressing local issues as well as to connect back to the Philippines by advocating for the interests of the Filipino people who face rampant political repression,” said Christine Araquel, Chair of KmB (Pro-People Youth), a Filipino American youth organizer born in the US.

Despite our historical and cultural contributions in this country as well as our labor supporting a century of US economic development, the Filipino American community remains economically, politically and socially marginalized.

DALUYONG will bring together organized immigrant and US-born Filipino groups from the East Coast, the Midwest and West Coast to Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles in order to address community concerns through workshops, panels sessions, cultural sessions, and group discussions to outline concrete steps in formulating a new progressive and united Filipino American movement in the United States.

For more information, please visit the official website at www.daluyong.com or contact 213.241.0906 or daluyong.filamyouth@gmail.com.

INITIAL ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS:

CHICAGO: Alliance For Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE), Center for Immigrant Rights and Community Arts (CIRCA), Chicago Pinoy Music Scene, and Pintig Cultural Group

LOS ANGELES: Beatrock, Echo Park Community Coalition, Dekada 70, Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV), Mindanao Bangsamoro Caucus, People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (People’s CORE), Philippine Peasant Support Network, and The Park’s Finest

NEW YORK: Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, DAMAYAN Migration Workers Association, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Poptimes Magazine, and Sulu Series

SAN DIEGO: Hip Hop Karaoke San Diego (HHKSD), Kamalayan Collective, and Pnoy Apparel

USA: Gabriela Network of the Mariposa Alliance

CANADA: Kabataang Montreal (Montreal Youth)

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Filipino Youth of NY & NJ to March on International Workers Day... Assert Full Workers' Rights & Full Legalization NOW!

May Day Statement
AJLPP-USA
May 1, 2009
FIGHT FOR FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS NOW! END US IMPERIALISM!

This May Day, 2009, the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) celebrates with pride and honor International Workers’ Day in the United States. Today, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters worldwide commemorating working-class struggle against US imperialism. We march in almost all the major cities and towns of the US where there is a Filipino American community.


The Alliance-Philippines calls for full rights for all immigrants and an end to US imperialism in the Philippines, the root cause of the Filipino people’s forced migration.

We join the 14 million undocumented immigrants in the US demanding genuine, comprehensive and humane immigration reform, full legalization, amnesty, a stop to racist enforcement measures like deportations, detentions and border militarization, and full protections for all workers.


This marks the fourth consecutive May Day that the Alliance has demanded full rights for immigrants, echoing the call of millions that immigrants’ rights are workers’ rights. On May 1, 2006, in response to the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner-King bill, millions of immigrant workers and advocates surged into the streets in historic nationwide marches. By that time, the US economy had already begun to slow down, US public outcry against President Bush and the war was at its height, and immigrants refused to be scapegoats.


Amidst a deeper economic crisis today, their demands are even more urgent.


From the Bush regime to the Obama administration, more than $13 trillion have been given to corporations and banks. Using US taxpayers’ money, bailout after bailout is passed—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, auto industry, Citigroup, Bank of America. It has meant the largest transfer of wealth from the working to the ruling class by state intervention in history.


Meanwhile, more and more people have to fight to meet their basic human needs. There are more than 19 million people losing their homes and cannot pay rent, while there are at least 13 million unsold homes. Pay cuts, budget cuts, terminations, lay-offs and less and less entitlements plague the people.


Immigrant workers, mainly women, are on the frontlines of this crisis. They contend with all of these so-called new indicators of economic crisis in addition to lack of status and lack of basic recognition as a labor force, as well as separation from family. The crisis merely threatens to push immigrant communities further into the shadows. More than 46,000 Filipino World War II veterans continue to struggle for recognition as veterans. Instead of lifetime pensions, they were given a one-time lump sum with a quit claim, without recognition. And roughly 1.4 million domestic workers nationally—of which between 15 and 20 percent are Filipino women—continue to work under dirty, dangerous and exploitative conditions with no labor protections and under constant threat of deportation.


Abroad, US imperialism is propping up cruel dictatorship in the Philippines, backing the Arroyo regime’s proposed change to the Philippine constitution in a bow to US corporate interest. This will aggravate more exploitative conditions, in favor of extracting wealth and natural resources. It results in more wars like in Mindanao where there is 600,000 refugees, human rights violations, export of labor, exploitation and trafficking of women and children and exodus of overseas labor.


For too long, US imperialism has exploited immigrant workers while continuing to profit from their labor. This worsening crisis marks the decay of imperialism and the opportunity for genuine change.


This May Day, demand that Obama keep his promise of immigration reform! March for full rights for all immigrants and for the interests of all workers! March towards liberation and a better tomorrow!


FIGHT FOR GENUINE WORKERS LIBERATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE!

FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS!

MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT!

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

Media Coverage: Fil-Ams bring protest vs VFA to Pentagon

Fil-Ams bring protest vs VFA to Pentagon
By RODNEY J. JALECO, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau | 03/25/2009 9:57 AM


WASHINGTON D.C. - Militant Fil-Ams brought their clamor for scrapping the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) to the Pentagon, joining thousands of anti-war protesters marking the 6th anniversary of the US war in Iraq last Saturday.

“We’re here to denounce the continued occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the US support for Israel against Palestine,” said Chevy Evangelista of Alliance Philippines.

“But most of all,” he added, “we’re here to oppose the Visiting Forces Agreement in the Philippines that is a source of attacks on the people of Mindanao.”

“We want the VFA scrapped. No US troops in the Philippines, they have no business there,” Evangelista told ABS-CBN’s Balitang America.

It was no surprise his message resonated with Americans gathered for the large anti-war rally, the biggest yet since President Obama was swept to power, partly on a platform of ending the US war in Iraq.

Organizers put their numbers at 10,000 but police pegged the crowd at a lower 3,000.

The police also came in full force, blocking freeway exits and roads around the Pentagon. Backed by fire trucks and a Huey helicopter that circled continuously above the marchers, the policemen were in full anti-riot regalia.

But this didn’t stop some demonstrators from taunting the cops.

Some rode on motorcycles and squad cars, others on horses. Using binoculars, some officers took vantage positions on rooftops of office buildings, keeping a wary eye on the protesters.

The police also threw a protective ring around the offices of big US firms like Boeing, SAIC and KBR that have huge contracts with the Pentagon.

Demonstrators accused them of supporting US wars abroad.

The day’s protest action started with speeches near the Lincoln Memorial. Evangelista, who together with other Filipino protesters, came all the way from New York, was among the speakers at the makeshift stage.

“It’s very important to be here because Filipinos are affected by the US war in Iraq, especially our migrant workers in the Middle East,” Mona Lunot of the Damayan Migrant Workers told Balitang America.

“The US economic crisis is rooted in the unbridled spending for America’s wars around the world,” she averred.

Lunot blames the war for the loss of jobs as America’s recession adversely affects the rest of the world.

She asserts that the US has used the global war on terror as a pretext for posting troops in “frontline” countries, including the Philippines.

VFA tied to ‘Nicole’ saga

“American soldiers are going to the Philippines, for what? Para magkalat ng lagim?” she asked.

The VFA sets the rules of engagement and conduct for US troops posted in the Philippines. The RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty calls on the American military to come to the Philippine’s aid if it is attacked by another country, and lays the basis for annual joint training exercises.

But the accord has come under steady attack from militants back home, especially in the wake of the “Nicole” saga.

US marines Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was convicted of raping ‘Nicole’ inside the former US Navy base in Subic, Zambales.

Smith’s trial and conviction were all covered under the VFA. Invoking the agreement, however, the Philippines was only able to take brief custody of the accused before he was whisked off in the middle of the night to the US embassy in Manila.

Even after he was convicted, Smith remained in US hands.

Earlier this month, Nicole signed a new affidavit that cast doubt on her own testimony of rape. The assertion was made public by Smith’s Filipino lawyers. Before that, news leaked that ‘Nicole’ was now living somewhere in the US.

“She was pressured by both governments to withdraw her case even though in 2006 Daniel Smith was convicted because of the evidence,” declared Catherine Judge, GABRIELA Network coordinator for New York-New Jersey.

“Some people may see this as intimidation of a powerless woman because of the lack of justice in the Philippines and US,” Lunot declared.

“Some foreigners may also now see Filipinas in a bad light, as someone who can be paid off,” she said, adding, “it all depends on who is looking.”

Judge said all future military pacts by the Philippines should have clear guarantees against abuses.

“We demand clauses in all military agreements to protect women against violence from the military,” she stressed.

As the protesters snaked through DC’s streets and across the Memorial Bridge to Arlington, Virginia, they carried symbolic coffins, including one that bore the Philippine flag.

They stood for the human cost of America’s wars, waged in the name of global security.

“We don’t need them there. We can protect ourselves, we don’t have to depend on America,” Lunot declared.