People’s Rights International Solidarity Movement (PRISM) People’s Rights Promotion: Our International Solidarity Mission

 

 

 

 

 

 

No to U.S. Intervention in the Philippines!

No to War in Iraq!  Let Peace and Justice Prevail!

 

 

People’s Rights International Solidarity Movement (PRISM), an organization comprised of Filipino and American human rights advocates in Southern California, is alarmed and voicing out its grave concern and opposition to the U.S. direct military intervention in the Philippines. 

 

PRISM believes that the Macapagal-Arroyo government, in the name of “fighting global terrorism,” has gone too far.  In allowing direct U.S. intervention, Macapagal-Arroyo violates the Philippine Constitution.  Sovereignty, economic livelihood and human rights of the Filipino people are at stake.

 

Despite of the headlines in prominent U.S. newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the Arroyo administration continues to evade the issue that it agreed to place U.S. troops alongside Filipino soldiers in direct combat against the bandit group, Abu Sayaff, in Southern Philippines.  The White House, through its spokesperson Ari Fleischer, also confirmed this deployment.

 

Quoting unnamed Pentagon officials, the Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. is sending 3,000 troops to the Philippines.  Unlike previous deployments of Americans for “training exercises with Philippine troops,” the new commitment allows an open-ended direct patrol and combat involvement of U.S. forces.

 

At first, Macapagal-Arroyo wanted the “military exercises” to be held at the Southern Luzon Command headquarters in Lucena, Quezon. She did not explain her original preference, but this military command is in charge of anti-insurgency operations in the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions against the forces of the National Democratic Front (NDF).

 

As we can recall, the U.S. itself confirmed the strategic importance of the Philippines in its so-called global war on terror.  The U.S. troops deployment attests the claim that the Philippines will not only be used as launching pad against the impending war on Iraq but also as a strategic second front of the global war on terror.  Its importance to the United States is underscored by the appointment of Maj. Gen. Joseph Weber, a commander of the Marines in the Pacific, as head of the new force.

 

PRISM is deeply concerned of the repercussions of the war in Iraq and the encroachment of American forces in the Philippines. 

 

The war in the Middle East still remains a threat. Yet oil prices have already increased four times in less than two months in the Philippines. War jitters have caused the value of the peso to slide down to P54 per dollar and it is further devaluing. Consequently, the prices of goods and services are rising out of bounds.

 

At least 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East are directly in danger in case the U.S.-led war breaks in Iraq. For those who would be lucky to return home alive, they and their immediate families will face joblessness and poverty.

 

In Mindanao, the Philippine military continues to launch carpet-bombing on villages in the middle of peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  As a result, about a hundred thousand people are displaced.  Many children continue to die of lack of food and medicines in over-crowded and unhealthy evacuation centers.

 

PRISM calls on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to oppose the war and stop echoing the U.S. line that “the war against Iraq is part of the global war against terrorism.”  Macapagal-Arroyo must heed the call of millions of people around the world: “No to US-led war against Iraq!”  Macapagal-Arroyo should also abandon purely military solutions to Philippine problems, re-channel big military budget and turn to genuine economic and political solutions to alleviate the plight of the Filipino people.

 

PRISM believes that U.S. presence and military intervention in the Philippines will intensify the armed confrontations in Mindanao and elsewhere. The Philippine government’s reliance on U.S. military support to supposedly wipe out a handful of bandits is an actual escalation of war against MILF and the NDF. Such a policy will make just and lasting peace remains a distant dream for the Filipino people.

 

No to U.S.-led war against Iraq!

No to U.S. intervention in the Philippines!

Stop the total war of the Macapagal-Arroyo government!

Resume formal peace talks with the NDF and MILF!

Let genuine peace and justice prevail in the Philippines and the world!

 

 

PRISM

Southern California

February 26, 2003