GABRIELA USA

Press Statement

July 25, 2011

Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson, gabrielawomen@gmail.com

Conditions for Women Worsen in Aquino’s First Year

While Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino delivers a message of hope and progress during the State of the Nation Address (SONA), thousands of Filipinos worldwide will take part in protest actions in an outcry to the worsening conditions of Filipinos at home and abroad.  Aquino won the hearts and minds of those who voted him into office with the slogan of hope and change, yet for the millions of Filipinos still suffering from poverty, economic plunder and injustice, there has been no change under Aquino’s administration.

Filipino women have suffered long enough, with the continued rise in basic commodities such as food, gas and water, to support their families.  Short term welfare solutions such as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program which aims to provide government funding to those who meet certain criteria for things like enrollment for their children, vaccinations, check-ups at the doctor’s office, are dole out solutions which does not aim to address the root causes of poverty for the majority of Filipinos.  A survey among women who were recipients of the CCT program showed that 77% claimed the CCT could be more beneficial if it offered long term benefits like scholarships for their children or regular employment.

While programs like the CCT program are pushed as band aid solutions to provide basic services and necessities for poor families, Aquino has added the extra burden on women by taking away basic public services such as health care and public transportation, and handing them over to the private sector to supposedly “help” improve these services under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.  However, privatization schemes such as the PPP have proven to only to serve the wealthy multinational corporate investors while the majority of the nation continues to suffer, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

Given the lack of real change, the Filipino people continue to leave the country in droves to seek employment abroad.  According to Migrante International, the state of our and welfare of Filipino migrant workers is “arguably the worst year for OFWs”.  Aquino has failed time and again to address the needs of our overseas compatriots including immediate evacuation and repatriation of OFWs affected by the conflict in the North African region of the Middle East; continued persecution and execution of Filipinos on death row; innumerous mandatory fees; failure to investigate allegations of misuse and corruption of the Overseas Filipino Workers Welfare Administration funds; and the lack of a comprehensive sustainable program for returned OFWs and their families.

While these human rights violations continue under the current administration, we cannot forget the thousands of victims still suffering during Arroyo’s reign of terror, which Aquino has done little to nothing to hold her accountable during her 9 year rule stained with a long list of scandals, tortures, abductions and political killings.  Aquino’s first term as President has not been much different than that of his predecessor, with 45 politically motivated killings, 5 victims of forced disappearance and over 300 political prisoners behind bars.

Aquino campaigned and won on a platform and slogan of change, but aside from the “look and feel” of a clean leader, change has not come in a profound way to the Filipino people.

As the U.S. chapter of GABRIELA- Philippines, Filipino women and their allies continue to hold Aquino accountable for the innumerous failures and false promises laid out by Aquino and his administration, and call for the immediate prosecution for former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.  The women of GABRIELA demand that long term sustainable policies such as the support of the passage of the P125 wage increase, the passage of the Reproductive Health bill and other economic measures that ensure immediate and long term relief for the women and their families, be at the top of Aquino’s agenda.

A list of protest actions across the US in support of the people’s protest against Aquino’s State of the Nation Address are listed below.  For more information contact gabrielawomen@gmail.com.

FiRE – New York

Sunday, July 24 – 12pm

At the corner of Roosevelt Ave & 69th St in Woodside, Queens.

Babae & Samaka – San Francisco

Monday, July 25th

5:30pm Meet @ Powell BART

6:00pm March to Philippine Consulate (447 Sutter St. in SF)

* Please wear black and red *

SiGAw! – Los Angeles

Monday, July 25, 2011 – 5:30 PM

At the Philippine Consulate: 3600 Wilshire, Los Angeles, CA 90010

Pin@y sa Seattle – Seattle

Sunday July, 31, 2011, 11am-4pm

Pista sa Nayon Information Booth and MK Survey – 5895 Lake Washington Blvd. S

Press Statement

July 17, 2011

Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson of GABRIELA USA, gabrielawomen@gmail.com

Filipino American Women in the US Stand with Undocumented Journalist, Jose Vargas

Members of GABRIELA USA stand in solidarity with acclaimed journalist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Jose Vargas, who recently published an article in the New York Times about his life as an undocumented resident in the United States.

His story represents one out of the million undocumented Filipinos in the U.S. Vargas’s article has exposed the U.S. immigration system as one that strips human beings of their worth based on citizenship. Regardless of one’s social contributions, whether as a writer, healthcare professional, student, teacher, or domestic worker there is no clear path to citizenship.

Member organizations of GABRIELA USA and other immigrant rights advocates have been raising the need for “Legalization for All” since 2006 when the Sensenbrenner Bill was about to be passed, which would have criminalized undocumented immigrants and those who helped the undocumented, and again in 2010 when Arizona’s SB1070 legislation would have allowed police to racially profile and question anyone that “looked” like an undocumented immigrant. However, due to the outpour of resistance from immigrant communities and allies nationwide these bills were not fully enacted into law.

“We applaud Vargas and his truth-telling because he shows the reality of the Filipino community, and it’s important and crucial that we as Filipinos, undocumented or citizen, stand up for the rights of all immigrants,” said Tina Shauf from Babae in San Francisco.

Vargas is one of many Filipinos, undocumented or not, who migrated to the US as a result of the poor Philippine economy brought about by a long history of colonialism and imperialism. The pressures of an economy completely lacking in any national industry; the overwhelming debt of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank; and the unfair Labor Export Policy that forces Filipinos to leave their homes in order to seek jobs overseas–has led to a culture of migration, one that necessitates that Filipinos leave their country if they want to be able to support their families, and which ironically, ultimately breaks many families apart.

“We have seen the effects of the U.S. Immigration system on our community– mothers and fathers being separated from their families for years because they don’t have the right papers to travel back home. Parents should not have to leave their children and families in order to support them, there should be jobs in the Philippines to provide some economic stability,” said Irma Bajar, chairperson of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment in New York City.

“Our migration story is not old, our families have been migrating to the US in waves since the Filipino farm workers in the 1900s, to the nurses in the 1970s, and still to this day there is no systematic way for immigrants to become a citizen. This is the US continuing to use the immigration system in it’s original design to create a workforce of undocumented immigrants as cheap, docile, fearful, and vulnerable workers to extract as much profits for the U.S. Corporations. The system is not broken, but it is meant to divide workers and further exploit immigrants and push them into the shadows.” said Raquel Redondiez, chairperson of GABRIELA USA.

Vargas’ article has helped raise the discussion and the need to change the dehumanizing immigration system.  His courageous expose is an inspiration for other immigrants, and has encouraged others like the Florida 15, trafficked workers from Miami Florida, to speak out. Similarly, undocumented students in San Bernadino, CA rallied against the unjust immigration laws that criminalize students working hard to be productive contributors to U.S. society.

“In Los Angeles, which is predominantly Mexican and Latin American – Vargas’s article has helped raise the issue of immigration as a unifying issue for our communities. We must continue to keep fighting together on this issue to assure that we change this immigration system not just for Filipinos but for all immigrants,” stated Terrie Cervas of Sisters of Gabriela, Awaken! (SiGAw) in Los Angeles.

As long as our homeland and many others in the world are plundered for their natural resources and prevented from industrializing, as long as our people are displaced by militarization, and our governments plagued by corruption, forced migration will continue to be a problem. “To address the needs of immigrants in the U.S., it is necessary for us to also address the reasons why our people are forced to leave our home country to begin with. The Philippine government has a hand in it as well,” says Claudia Parras from Pinay sa Seattle.

In support and solidarity with Jose Vargas, and millions of other undocumented immigrants, we urge that you sign this petition of support and help spread awareness on this important issue: http://bit.ly/100k-4-Colbert.

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For Immediate Release
July 8, 2011

Reference: Valerie Francisco, GABRIELA USA, Solidarity Officer, gabwomen@gmail.com

US Delegates Link Arms with Women From All Over the World at the First International Women’s Alliance Assembly in Philippines

Manila, Philippines–From July 5 to July 6, 10 delegates from GABRIELA USA organizations Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) in New York, BABAE in San Francisco, Sisters of Gabriela Awaken (SiGAw) in Los Angeles and Pinay sa Seattle in Seattle, joined by Monica Moorehead, a representative from the Women’s Fightback Network, NYC joined the first general assembly of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) in the Philippines. In attendance was over 100 women from 60 or more grassroots women’s organizations from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania and North America. The theme for the assembly, “Advance a Militant Anti-Imperialist Women’s Movement: Strengthen the International Women’s Alliance,” brought these women together to accept new members, ratify the alliance’s constitution, agree on an international plan for the next 4 years and elect the first-ever executive council of the IWA.

Monica Moorehead, one of the esteemed speakers of the first day plenary, shared the hardships and difficulties that are faced by working women, women of color and poor women in the US. She identified austerity measures and rampant attacks on migrant rights as key issues that women in the US struggle against. “It is timely for an assembly like this, an alliance like this to form because the attacks of imperialism on our people are intensifying and therefore the response of women from the grassroots must get stronger.” Moorehead’s contribution to the assembly brought light to the fact that even in the “developed” countries, women, their families and communities still fall victim to neoliberal attacks on social welfare and freedom.

The second day of the assembly called upon the expertise of delegates in women’s organizing and resistance strategies against the impacts of imperialism. Workshops on different global regions and their inputs ultimately became part of the IWA’s 4-year plan of action. Valerie Francisco, GABRIELA USA’s solidarity relations officer and a member of the organizing committee for the assembly stated, “Learning about the conditions and issues of women from different parts of the world allowed us to see the common patterns of imperialism and inspired us to take up resistance strategies that worked for women’s organizations in other places.” The time for delegates from the US to exchange lessons produced productive and informative discussion on forms of action and struggle.

The first general assembly ended with the recognition of “Women of Valor” who have dedicated their lives to cause of women’s rights and issues in the anti-imperialist struggle. The recognized women were Nanay Mameng Deunida of the Philippines, Clelia Santos of Argentina, Leila Khaled of Palestine and Edith Ballantyne of Sweden. The assembly ended on a high note as the delegates accomplished all of the goals set out for them, honored women in their ranks and looking forward to coordinating and working together with other women’s grassroots organizations in the future.

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