FILIPINOS IN NEW YORK SAY NO TO WAR

FILIPINOS IN NEW YORK SAY NO TO WAR;PLANS FOR
DEMONSTRATION UNDERWAY
Contact: Robert Roy
Inang Bayan Movement
122 West 27th Street, 10th floor
New York, NY 10010
Tel. 212-741-6806
philforum [at] juno.com

NEW YORK- The coalition of social justice
organizations known as the Inang
Bayan Movement have announced plans for a mass
anti-war demonstration in
participation with the upcoming Anti-World Economic
Forum Counter Summit on
Saturday, February 2. The Inang Bayan Movement will
be convening at the
South West Corner of 59th Street, Columbus Circle and
joining the organized
rallies and demonstrations. Projected as a counter
effort in protest to the
upcoming annual World Economic Forum, to be held this
year in Manhattan's
posh Waldorf Astoria hotel, the demonstration will
call upon the local
Filipino community to highlight the ramifications of
the recent President
GMA-approved deployment of over 660 US military troops
to the Philippines.

"It is clear that this US-led war of aggression has
found a new target in
the Philippines," says Rusty Fabunan of Philippine
Forum, a member
organization of the Inang Bayan Movement. "Now is the
most critical of
times for compatriots all over the world to expose and
oppose this
military action and the consequences it will entail
for the ongoing
Filipino people's struggle for territorial integrity."

Tailing the US military's war activities to root out
the terrorist network
Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the deployment to the
Philippines marks the first
major effort to expand the "war on terrorism" to an
international operation.
Last week in Manila, American and Philippine military
officials signed for a
joint command, Operation "Balikatan", with the
objective to hunt down the Al
Quaeda-linked terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. But as this
new wave of US troops
continue to land on Philippine soil, the reception of
Filipinos remains
mixed. Many see the operation as more harmful than
helpful to the people's
immediate needs. Others, such as the New York-based
Inang Bayan Movement,
have taken a more pro-active stance in opposition to
it.

"Historically, the presence of US military on
Philippine soil has
never led to the best interests of the Filipino
people. In the past this
resulted in the mass movements to close down Subic
Naval and Clark Air
Base and terminate the long-standing dependency of the
AFP to the military
arm of the US," says Riya Ortiz, a coordinator for the
Inang Bayan Movement
demonstration. "The struggle continues now with
Estrada's legacy of the
Visiting Forces Agreement. Operation Balikatan
can only further reinforce this outright violation of
our national
sovereignty."

Not to mention the blatant violation of the Philippine
Constitution, which
explicitly forbids the entry of foreign troops to
engage in combat in the
country without the signing of a treaty. While the
whirlwind of critical
opposition quickly amasses, US-RP bilateral agreements
continue to boost
Balikatan as mere advisory operation, one in which US
troops will only act
as supervising consultants to modernize the AFP's
combat strategies in
capturing the small but media-exploited Abu Sayyaf,
who have garnered an
overexposed track record in ransom kidnappings and
victimizing civilians,
and currently hold two American missionaries hostage
in the southern island
of Basilan.

"While we condemn the terrorist activities of all
renegade extremist
groups, this should not be used as a convenient excuse
to justify this
massive intrusion of US forces," says Bernadette
Ellorin of the Filipino
Organization for Women's Advancement, Rights, and
Dignity (FORWARD). The
Pentagon has already promised a ten-fold increase in
military
assistance-from $1.9 to $19 million in the year 2002
alone. Helicopters,
advanced communication gear, surveillance capabilities
and even
bloodhounds have been shipped to lavishly equip the
growing military
activity. Central to the controversy remains GMA's
pledge of all-out
allegiance to Bush's crusade to weed terrorism on all
fronts by offering
to re-open Subic and Clarke Naval Bases. All this, in
the name of
squelching a group of bandits partly composed of
remnant fighters who
trained under US supervision in battling the Soviet
invasion of
Afghanistan during the sixties' Cold War.

"President Macapagal-Arroyo should learn more from the
mistakes of her
ill-fated predecessor," claims Ana Liza Caballes of
Philippine Forum's
Youth Initiative for Social Action (YOUTH IN ACTION)
Program. "Another
US-puppet regime cannot and will not be tolerated by
the Filipino people."
Indeed, frequent visits to Washington, D.C. have
already solidified Arroyo's
commitment to long-term cooperation with President
Bush, one that will
surely go beyond fighting the Abu Sayyaf. This
GMA-Bush relationship may in
fact work to strike against the growing people's
movement to oppose an
oppressive, anti-people regime under the puppet
strings of globalization-a
movement that tactically led the successful ouster of
yet another corrupt
leader of such a regime, Joseph Estrada.

On Thursday, January 31, a five-day summit convening
heads of the world's
largest transnational corporations, as well as
political leaders such as
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will commence in New York
City. The World Economic
Forum is slated to increase global and corporate
support of Bush's war, and
is currently the target of a number of organized
demonstrations, including a
mass mobilization on February 2nd beginning on the
corner of Columbus Avenue
and 59th street and proceeding to march to the
heavily-guarded
Waldorf-Astoria. Representatives from the Inang Bayan
Movement are scheduled
to speak and shed a public spotlight on the situation
in the Philippines,
and will continue to actively organize events and
speaking engagements in
the upcoming weeks. "GMA needs to hear the voice of
the Filipino people,
even those as far away as New York," explains
Caballes. "We as a migrant
community cannot disconnect ourselves
to the community back home."

For more information on Inang Bayan, scheduled
activities, and speaking
engagements, please call 212-741-6801 x Philippine
Forum or contact Riya
Ortiz at riya_ortiz [at] hotmail.com.