SCARED GMA RAN AWAY TO PERU AS FILIPINO AMERICAN COMMUNITY PICKETS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 24, 2008
Contact: Jason Geaga Yap
magsasakapil [at] hotmail.com
Tel: 213-241-0995

SCARED GMA RAN AWAY TO PERU AS FILIPINO AMERICAN COMMUNITY /AJLPP -ANSWER-GABNET-LA PICKETS AT LAX SHERATON

LOS ANGELES- OUST GMA, YOU’RE OUSTED! YOU’RE BUSTED!

US puppet Gloria Arroyo just ran scared as she always does, this time to the APEC meeting in Lima, Peru.

This while hundreds of activist from the ALLIANCE for a JUST and LASTING PEACE in the PHILIPPINES (AJLPP), ANSWER-LA and GABNET/LA and their allies turned out in full force Friday, November 21, 2008, 6 PM, with a picket and a rally in front of the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, 6101 West Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045, to protest her supposed reception for the community in the US.

Philippine Ambassador to the US Willy Gaa represented PGMA and the community reception went on sans President Arroyo. Arroyo did not stay long in Los Angeles to avoid the angry Filipino American community. Los Angeles is where the largest Filipino population is located in the United States. They number more than 380,000 out of the more than 1.5 million in California.

Lively, Militant and Committed Anti-GMA picket and rally

The Filipino-American activist and their allies from ANSWER-LA held big banners that said: STOP THE WAR IN MINDANAO, OUST THE US-ARROYO REGIME, STOP HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES, drawing honks and applauses from Filipinos and passersby.

The rally and picket also militantly condemned the US-Arroyo utter neglect of the Filipino American community at a time of deep crisis in the United States. They said that US Arroyo regime instead of catering to the needs of the Filipino American community exacerbates their sufferings.

AJLPP West Coast Coordinator and ANSWER National Steering Committee member Arturo P. Garcia and said “ by promoting a labor/workers export program of OFW’s, following the dictates of World Bank-IMF, kowtowing to US ;War on Terror' policies and waging war against the Filipino people and miring the Philippines into a $ 51 B dollar debt and rampant graft and corruption, the US puppet deserves our utmost contempt and condemnation.”

Kabataang makaBAYAN (KmB) national chair Christine Araquel called a stop to the US-Arroyo war in Mindanao that victimized 611,000 people as refugees and demanded the resumption of the peace talks between the GRP and the MILF and the NDFP.

GABRIELA Network Secretary-General Jolene Leved scored the killing of activist in the Philippines that ran to 1,221 with 93 women leaders ordered killed by the fascist US-Arroyo regime. She also condemned the trafficking of women and children and promoting tourism, saying that "Arroyo made the Philippines one giant brothel for foreigners.”

Annalisa Enrile, MARIPOSA Alliance (MA) initiative committee anf former GABNET Chair demanded that the US-Arroyo regime stop its crackdown on the progressive movement in the Philippines and called for international solidarity against the fascist US-Arroyo regime.

PGMA –Anti Filipino

The AJLPP also said “Arroyo is guilty of being silent on the community demand for amnesty and legalization of 12 million immigrants in the US, the US-Arroyo regime shows its brazen puppetry. By mandating the use of English instead of Pilipino in schools in the Philippines, Arroyo is throwing back the Philippines into American colonial times and is turning the Philippines into one giant ”call enter” as its basic industry.

By not promoting Filipino Studies and Culture in the United States and fostering an escapist and colonial-feudal culture, Arroyo is guilty of self-promotion as top US lackey and lapdog in Southeast Asia.

In a final act of mendicancy last year, Macapagal-Arroyo in anticipation of the passage of the Filipino Veterans Equity bill and in order to grab the credit from real activists in the US, subserviently conferred the Philippines' highest awards on some congressional leaders in expectation of the passing of the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill. It did not pass and the promised benefits were removed from SB 1315.” The AJLPP statement stated.

The 4-½ hours rally rang out with speeches and chants as well as lively Christmas carols with the words MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT.

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