Philippines under de facto martial law

Berna Ellorin WW photo: Arturo Perez-Saad

The following is from a talk by Berna Ellorin of Bayan USA to an Inter na tional Women’s Day forum sponsored by Workers World Party in New York on March 10.

I’d like to salute all the women who work for change in the number-one imperialist power in the world. Your contributions to the world anti-imperialist struggle are important.

International Women’s Day is much celebrated in the Philippines. Within the Bayan alliance, the confederation of women’s organizations called Gabriela led mass demonstrations on March 8.

Women have historically played a very important role in advancing the Filipin@ people’s struggle, beginning with Spanish colonial times, when the first revolt was led by a woman named Gabriela.

During the 1970s when the U.S.-puppet regime of Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, a very dynamic women students’ organization was formed called Makibaka. Like other legal, democratic organizations, it was forced to go underground.

Activists targeted by the Marcos regime made a huge exodus from urban centers to the countryside. Lorena Barros, founder of Makibaka, was one of the first martyrs of the martial law. She had joined the New People’s Army and was assassinated in an encounter.

Right now, a crisis in the Philippines is being perpetuated by U.S. imperialism and its puppet Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Filipino culture and society are historically very patriarchal, very Catholic. But the principal oppression being waged against the majority of women workers and peasants right now is class oppression, and Macapagal-Arroyo is the symbol of the bourgeois comprador class. She comes from one of the handful of families that carry out the dictates of U.S. imperialism.

Although the government denies it, there is a new martial law in the Philip pines right now, since the regime declared a state of emergency. It has provided the pretext for human rights violations like warrantless arrests and the killing of mass leaders. Another Bayan leader was killed yesterday in central Luzon.

The major news organizations are being monitored by the military. The Philippines is now the most dangerous place in the world to practice journalism.

Another issue that has galvanized the Filipino people is the gang rape in November 2005 of a Filipina woman by U.S. Marines. She was raped and knocked unconscious. No action was taken against these six Marines.

Only in January did the Philippine government issue a request to transfer them from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Embassy. They have been protected by an immunity clause in the visiting forces agreement, which has allowed the reentry of U.S. troops in at least 20 ports all over the archipelago. Not a single U.S. troop has ever been arrested or convicted for any of their numerous sexual violations in the Philippines, which has historically been used by the Pentagon as a gateway to the Asian continent and a launching pad, refueling location and rest and recreation area for U.S. wars of aggression overseas. Cara vans of women and children are sent to areas where there are U.S. troops to pleasure and service them.

That is one of the reasons we are with you in the call to bring the U.S. troops home

We also want the U.S. government and the puppet government of Macapagal-Arroyo to bring justice to all the victims of sexual violations by U.S. troops, to arrest and convict all those who have committed them.

The current regime is completely subservient to U.S. dictates. It has proposed certain changes to the Philippine constitution, many of which were authored by the U.S. itself, that have to do with selling the country’s patrimony, its natural resources, public utilities and mass media. All could be 100 percent foreign-owned.

On March 18 we’ll call for the scrapping of these charter changes and will be marching with you in Times Square.

Currently, five congress members from Bayan are being held inside the lower house of parliament. The military are waiting for them outside and they can’t leave for threat of being arrested. One is Lisa Masa, a woman who has committed her whole life to advancing Filipina women.

Many U.S. puppets have come and gone. The people’s democratic movement has ousted two of them; we believe we can oust this one. No amount of state terror can stop what the people started a century ago.

As a member of Bayan in New York, it is an honor to be declared an enemy of this regime. No amount of labeling can suppress the voice of dissent that is growing in the streets.

Long live the anti-imperialist women’s movement! Long live international solidarity!