GABRIELA: Call for Solidarity! June 12, International Day of Action for Justice and Peace in the Philippines
End Martial Law in Mindanao! Stop indiscriminate aerial bombing!
We call on women, justice and peace advocates, friends of Filipino people around the world to stage solidarity actions in front of Philippine embassies or consulates in your country/area on June 12, 2017 in time for Philippine Independence Day. Please help us in calling for the Philippine government to stop the indiscriminate aerial bombings in Marawi City, immediately lift Martial Law in Mindanao, and stop the attacks against civilians, especially women and children peasants and indigenous people.
Last May 24, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared Martial Law in Mindanao through Presidential Proclamation 216, after a botched military operation against Isnilon Hapilon the leader of the Maute/Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group allegedly connected to ISIS. Under Martial Law, the Philippine military has intensified indiscriminate aerial bombing even as civilians are still trapped within the city. As Philippine authorities claim, 20-38 civilians have been killed, thousands have evacuated and taken refuge in several parts of Mindanao, while hundreds more were arrested mainly because they could not present identification cards which for many indigenous people and peasants in far flung areas are very difficult to obtain.
Even before PP216, state impunity perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines already claimed the lives of 34 people, mostly farmers and Lumads (indigenous peoples in Mindanao), who have been victims of politically-motivated extrajudicial killings, while 20 incidents of indiscriminate aerial bombings and operations have occurred since February of this year.
The filing of trumped-up charges against activist leaders continued under the Duterte administration. One such case is that of 73-year old Ateliana Hijos, Chairperson of GABRIELA-CARAGA region in Mindanao, who was charged in 2016, along with five other leaders, with trumped-up and ridiculous charges of „malicious“ and „other“ mischief, with no other intent but to silence her voice in the Lumad struggle for land and against militarization in Mindanao. Meanwhile, Jonaline Campos, Anabelle Campos and Joan Sinzo – all volunteer teachers of Lumad school TRIFFPS and ALCADEV in Surigao, together with their nine male co-teachers, are prevented from teaching with threats of arrest and harassment from the military.
Another Lumad group KALUHHAMI on May 12thsought help to air the plight of 1,000 refugees fleeing harassment by the 7th Marine Battalion Landing Team. The indigenous people based in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat are defending their ancestral lands from being grabbed by the Consunji/DMCI group of companies. After Duterte proclaimed martial law, operations increased in number and intensity, blocking movements of refugees more tightly and resulting to worse hunger and loss of livelihood.
Under martial law, Davao City rounded up and detained 250 residents for lacking identification cards, and arrested two farmers in Compostela Valley on accusations of membership in the communist New People’s Army.
We likewise deplore President Duterte’s boorish remarks that he will take responsibility when soldiers rape women while in pursuit of the terrorists. Such statements only worsen the current impunity with which the Armed Forces of the Philippines commit human rights violations against women. It is also a cheap attempt to feed the macho-fascist character of the Armed Forces of the Philippines which have time and again used rape as a tool of war, to suppress dissent and women’s active roles in the defense of their rights, that of their communities, and in the national fight against elite and foreign domination.
Once more we enjoin you to be one with us as we amplify calls to address the root cause of armed conflict in Mindanao and the whole country instead of resorting to militarist acts at the cost of civil and political rights and people’s lives.
We are also calling for an investigation into the role of the Trump administration in the orchestration of the AFP’s supposed war against terror, a war that has resulted in the massive displacement of civilian populations to protect US hegemony in the country while at the same time profit from the sale of arms to the Philippine government. This underhanded and militarist orchestration has scuttled peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and attempts to obstruct all available channels of dissent through the imposition of iron rule.
Our calls:
No to Martial Law! Yes to just and lasting peace!
Stop aerial bombing in Mindanao!
No to terrorism! Yes to just and lasting peace!
Stop using rape as a tool of war!