CALL FOR GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
AGAINST EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES
ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2006
By Professor JOSE MARIA SISON
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
August 22, 2006
On September 21, 2006, the Filipino people will remember the imposition
of martial law and a fascist dictatorship on them by Marcos upon the
instigation of the US in 1972. They will commemorate their suffering and
sacrifices and honor the revolutionary martyrs and heroes. They will
celebrate the victory ultimately won in the struggle against the
US-directed fascist regime.
At the same time, they will renew their resolve to continue the struggle
for national liberation and democracy against the persistent and
worsened dominance of foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism
and bureaucrat capitalism. These evil forces have once more given rise
to a new repressive regime, that of Gloria M. Arroyo, since 2001. State
terrorism in the Philippines is today the bitter fruit of such US
imperialist policies as the “neoliberal globalization” and “global war
on terror”.
The Filipino people are confronting and resisting the Arroyo regime, and
its violent instruments, such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines,
the Philippine National Police and their death squads - the perpetrators
of massacres, assassinations and other grave violations of the human
rights of the people in both the urban and rural communities. Under the
US-instigated Oplan Bantay Laya, patterned after Phoenix Program in the
Vietnam in the 1960s, not only the forces of the armed revolutionary
movement are being attacked in a barbaric manner but also the unarmed
leaders and activists of progressive legal forces.
The Arroyo terrorist regime has already murdered 730 and abducted more
than 180 legal activists, including party list local leaders, workers,
peasants, women, youth, students, teachers, lawyers, church people,
human rights workers and media people. The murders and abductions have
been perpetrated with impunity at an accelerating rate since 2001. The
annual rate at which these crimes have been committed during the 5-year
rule of Arroyo has surpassed that in the 14-year fascist dictatorship of
Marcos.
Amnesty International, Asian Human Rights Watch and other international
human rights organizations, religious institutions and organizations,
trade unions, political parties, lawyers groups, media organizations and
many people abroad have condemned the rampant human rights violations in
the Philippines and have manifested solidarity and support for the
Filipino people in the struggle for justice against the Arroyo regime
and its instruments of repression and state terrorism.
The victims, their families, friends and colleagues and the broad masses
of the Filipino people are crying out for justice and retribution. The
Arroyo regime, the military, police and death squads must be made to
stand trial for their crimes against the Filipino people, and against
humanity. Otherwise, these vicious violations of the democratic and
human rights of the people will continue.
We are calling on all justice-loving people and forces of the world to
join the international mobilization against the Arroyo regime and its US
imperialist master. We demand an immediate stop to the extrajudicial
killings and open the way to all possible measures for the attainment of
justice. With the solidarity and support of the people of the world, the
Filipino people can bring closer the day of reckoning for the entire
Arroyo regime.
Join us in declaring September 21 as the global day of action against
the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Let us hold indignation
rallies and protest actions in front of the embassies and consulates of
the Philippines in your country. Let us light a candle for the more than
730 martyrs killed by the Arroyo regime. Let us call on our host
governments to end their support of the Arroyo regime and hold it
responsible for its crimes against humanity. ###
NEVER AGAIN TO FASCIST DICTATORSHIP!
STOP THE TERRORIST KILLINGS BY THE ARROYO REGIME!
FIGHT STATE REPRESSION AND STATE TERRORISM!
JUSTICE TO THE VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!
UPHOLD DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES!