Anakbayan Los Angeles

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, a national alliance of Filipino organizations in the United States expresses heartfelt congratulations to South African freedom-fighter Nelson Mandela over his recent dropping from the dated US immigration watch list of possible terrorists. The US State Department has also dropped Mandela’s organization, the African National Congress (ANC) from the same list after more than decades of being tagged. This precedes the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list developed by the US State Department after September 11, 2001. BAYAN USA also calls on the US government to follow suit with this momentous victory by dropping Professor Jose Maria Sison, another freedom-fighter and political refugee in the Netherlands, as well as his former organizations the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), off the FTO listing as well.

Effective last Tuesday, President George W. Bush signed off on a bill that would allow Mandela to travel to the United States without having to get certification from the US Secretary of State that he’s not a terrorist. “Today the United States finally has removed from its legal code a vestige of that time of collective insults against human dignity,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, one of the bill’s supporters.

“Categorizing someone as admired as Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists is an indication that US government labels are ridiculous and not indicative of the truth. Nelson Mandela was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his activism while the US government listed him as a terrorist. Meanwhile, Jose Maria Sison is still demonized by the US and Philippine governments and European Union, and is still in exile. The reality is that what Sison symbolizes to the marginalized and impoverished Filipino majority and others around the world is also deserving of worldwide admiration, not condemnation,” states BAYAN USA Chair Chito Quijano.

As for the CPP-NPA listing, the alliance stood firm that although they themselves do no endorse or engage in armed struggle, they assert the listing of these organizations as terrorists are unfounded and unjust.

“Just like the US State Department retracted its listing of the ANC as a terrorist organization, they should also retract such labels on the CPP-NPA. If we are to qualify terrorist organizations as those who inflict unnecessary harm and sow fear among the people, the Philippine military under the command of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime is more of the real terrorist, not the CPP-NPA. They are waging a principled struggle in the countryside based on legitimate demands of the majority of the Filipino people who are fed up with a rotten and abusive system. We may have no link to them, but we do recognize the legitimacy of their fight as a popular one, ” Quijano added.

“If Mandela and the ANC can be hastily labeled as terrorists by the US government then be dropped decades later out of acknowledged error in judgement, surely we can deduce that the US government was just as hasty and erroneous when they labeled Sison, the CPP, and the NPA as terrorist organizations as well. We hope the US government will also acknowledge their error as they did with Mandela and the ANC,” Quijano ended.

The FTO labels on the CPP-NPA were a strong contributing factor to declaring the Philippines as the so-called Second Front to the War on Terror by the Bush administration in 2002. This led to the massive deployment of US troops to the Philippines to conduct joint military exercises under the auspices of anti-terrorism.

Professor Jose Maria Sison has been the target of several assassination attempts, including an illegal arrest and raid last year in Utrecht. Although a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands, Sison’s democratic right to travel and to work were stripped due to the FTO listings of the US government and EU. His office in Utrecht remains a popular hangout for peace and anti-war advocates visiting the Netherlands.

Anakbayan Los Angeles pays our deepest respects to our comrade Don White, who passed away on June 19 of this year. We honor and thank him for all the years of support that he has given to the liberation of the Filipino people against oppression and exploitation. He was truly an internationalist who with his kind-hearted demeanor never failed to call out injustices for what they were.

We send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Don, including the organizations which he had dedicated his life to serving, such as Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), KPFK, and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). The pain of all our fallen freedom fighters still echoes through our hearts, but we know that the void can only be filled by the strength and courage of the people continuing on with the struggle.

The spirit and work of Don lives on through the people! Mabuhay Don White!

For more on Don White, please visit KPFK.

You may also watch the video at LA 18.

Genuine Platform for Change Comes Only from People’s Struggle, Not Candidates

On the heels of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s US tour this month, the national alliance of Filipinos in the US known as BAYAN USA expressed disappointment over US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s statement of high appreciation over the controversial Arroyo visit.

“I welcome the visit this week of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her delegation to the United States. President Arroyo’s visit is an opportunity to strengthen our historic alliance, and to discuss a host of issues of mutual interest,” stated Obama in a press statement of Arroyo’s visit to Washington DC last week.

Issues of “Mutual Interest”

Among the ‘issues of mutual interest’ Arroyo and President Bush took up were the continuation of the Balikatan joint military exercises, the future of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), financial assistance from the US-based Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the global food crisis, and the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007. Obama also spoke of “shared values” between the US and Philippine governments.

“While we don’t pin our hopes on one leader to usher in radical change for society, Obama’s remarks of so-called ’shared values’ paint a deceptive picture of perfect and equal cooperation between the US and the Philippines. He should be reminded that this relationship is a starkly unequal, one-sided, neo-colonial one, born out of war and genocide. Perhaps he should re-study history,” states BAYAN USA Chair Chito Quijano. ,

Last February, several of Obama’s staff members met with and were brought to tears by Edita Burgos, mother of abducted Filipino agriculturalist Jonas Burgos, a known critic of the Arroyo government. Ms. Burgos was in the US appealing to US Congressional representatives on behalf of the hundreds of Filipinos abducted by Arroyo’s military. The Burgos case has been acknowledged and widely-documented by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and by UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial Killings Philip Alston.

People vs. Politicians

“Although the people need better politicians, and we certainly see the significance of the first black male US Presidential candidate in history, change won’t come from one leader or administration. Change will only come from people in struggle, just like Obama’s candidacy was made possible from the mass movement of Black people in the US decades ago,” Quijano added.

Quijano stressed that the real change for Philippine society must start with the initial step of uniting to remove Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from office, by resignation, impeachment, or popular ouster. He also stated that so-called “People Power Fatigue” is a myth being used by the Arroyo clique to prevent massive demonstrations in Manila.

No Such Fatigue

“Ousting Marcos and Estrada did not mark significant change in the Philippine government and for the Filipino people because the same system of elitist, traditional, bureaucratic politics was allowed to pervade,” Quijano added. “When we demand a change in the Philippine Presidential seat this time, we need to continue this massive pressure to hold our leaders accountable to our legitimate demands, and push for adequate government representation from the basic sectors of Philippine society-- the urban poor that lack jobs and the agricultural sector that lack land reform-- not the same old wealthy families with narrow interests the Arroyo clique represents.”

Arroyo’s national US tour and demand for more financial aid from the US government is widely-believed to be programmed into failing counter-insurgency tactics, wide-scale militarization, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, and rampant government corruption.

“The key for real change is the mass movement on the ground, not who’s President of the United States,” Quijano declared.

The Fil-Am Vote

Quijano added that Filipino-American voters should also exercise their vested interest in US foreign policy and it’s agenda for the Philippines when selecting a US president. “While we stand with the democratic American public in calling for major social reforms within US borders, at the forefront of which is accessible healthcare, affordable housing, bringing the US troops back home, immigration policy reform, and more federal funds for social services, we have an extra responsibility to care about what’s happening in the Philippines, the second front in this so-called War on Terror. We cannot afford to be apathetic just because we are in the US. The more US government intervention there is on Philippine economic and political affairs, the more poverty will remain widespread in our homeland and more Filipinos will have no choice but to migrate to survive. We need to hold ALL US government officials accountable to this agenda as US taxpayers,” Quijano ended.

Extravagance in a Time of Poverty and Disaster

Bringing each of her 10 Cabinet members and some representatives of the Philippine Congress with her, Arroyo’s US tour is perhaps among the most expensive and lavish yet. This also comes at a time of high economic crisis in the Philippines with the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities such as oil and drastic shortage of food, such as rice.

During her tour, a major typhoon hit several regions in the Philippines, wiping out whole communities. Striking a parallel with the US government’s inaction when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced thousands along the Gulf Coast in 2005, the touring Philippine diplomats decided to remain in the US rather than cut their trip short to attend to the victims. ###