Philippines

GABRIELA NETWORK
GABNet has launched educational campaigns on militarism and prostitution, labor export and the sex trade, and the "mail- order bride" industry. We work with GABRIELA Philippines, the country’s largest and most militant women’s alliance.

For More Information: gab@info.com.ph

End red-baiting and attacks against GABRIELA!

Denounce the Arroyo government’s militarist policies!

A GABRIELA member was stabbed and shot to death in front of her four children. Another member along with her husband and 8-year old daughter were massacred inside their own home while they were sleeping. Another one was summoned by the military to their detachment and photographed wearing a placard saying she was a supporter of the New People’s Army. One GABRIELA member and her husband were abducted early one morning and later found dead a few meters from her house.

On June 24, 2002 GABRIELA launched a weeklong Service Mission (medical, dental, and relief missions) which was supposed to be conducted in the three towns of Oriental Mindoro (an island province south of Manila) most affected by militarization: Naujan, Baco, and San Teodoro. The mission was cut short after the team was blatantly harassed and intimidated by the 204th Brigade of the Philippine Army under Col. Jovito Palparan.

All these human rights violations happened in highly militarized areas in the Philippines.
GABRIELA was not surprised to learn that the government has issued a "national policy against legitimate people’s organizations, like GABRIELA, who are branded and tagged as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. This same lie has been used and reused by previous governments in their attempts to downplay the achievements of GABRIELA and its member organizations that are militantly fighting for women’s rights and opposing the government’s anti-people policies.

This "policy" is being used by the military to justify the crimes and atrocities that have been committed against members of GABRIELA and its member organizations.
These human rights violations are not only perpetrated against women activists and other people’s organizations. GABRIELA has documented an alarming rise of human rights violations committed against women and children.

Reports of sexual harassment and molestation of children and even of pregnant women by military men have been documents and brought to the attention of the Arroyo government, all of which, she failed to act upon.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, must be held accountable for this attack on innocent, freedom & peaceloving people. Arroyo, herself a woman and mother, should be held responsible for the orphaned children whose mothers fell victims to her government’s which-hunting and red-baiting.

Let us put a stop to this imposition of a fascist rule upon us.

The militarization must stop!

Please support this campaign against militarization and red-baiting of legitimate women’s organizations in the Philippines. Write a letter of protest to:
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Office of the President
Malacañag Palace, Philippines
Corres@op.gov.ph

Secretary Angelo Reyes
Department of National Defense
Camp Aguinaldo
Quezon City, Philippines

General Roy Cimatu
Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines
Camp Aguinaldo
Quezon City, Philippines

Secretary Hernani Perez
Department of Justice
Padre Faura
Manila, Philippines

Chairperson Aurora Reciña
Commission on Human Rights
Don Mariano Marcos Highway
Quezon City, Philippines

Senate President
Senate
GSIS Compound
Roxas Blvd.
Manila, Philippines

Speaker of the House
House of Representatives
Batasan Complex
Quezon City, Philippines
 

Women's Issues in the Philippine Congress
It is necessary and significant that today women advocates and organizations are aware and are very pro-active in ensuring that legislation effectively translates the constitutional provision on the equality of women and men in all spheres of national life. Our webpage -- posted and maintained by Philippine NGO Beijing Score Board, Samahan ng Kababaihan sa Kongreso and Ugnayan ng Kababaihan sa Pulitika -- hopes to contribute to present efforts of Civil Society to urge Congress to formulate bills and pass laws that advance women's welfare and status in Philippine society, and to conduct legislative oversight that ensures the implementation or review of existing laws. For more information, click here.