DONATE
Home Blog Page 87

Hand over Pemberton! No special treatment! — Anakbayan-USA

yonie
-
0
Hand over Pemberton! No special treatment! — Anakbayan-USA
“Hand over Pemberton! No special treatment!” This is the clear message of Anakbayan-USA, a national Filipino youth and student organization, in response to the reports of U.S. authorities refusing to turn over U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton to Philippine custody after being convicted of homicide.

Pemberton was found guilty of homicide, considered a lesser offense than murder, sentenced to serve 6-12 years in prison and ordered to pay the Laude family $95,000 by the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court. Despite his conviction, the U.S. government is colluding with the Philippine government to undermine the decision that Pemberton be detained in Philippine prison.

“We demand the President Obama respect the national sovereignty of the Philippines and immediately order U.S. authorities to hand over convicted killer Joseph Scott Pemberton to the Philippine authorities to serve his sentence,” said Yves Nibungco, national chairperson of Anakbayan-USA.

The youth activists also called on the abrogation of “unequal” agreements between the Philippines and the United States such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

“In light of this injustice, we renew our call for the junking of both the VFA and the EDCA. On top of being a violation of Philippine sovereignty, these agreements condone and protect murderers like Pemberton and further endanger the Philippines and the Filipino people,” Nibungco continued.

Anakbayan-USA also blasts the “special treatment” being provided to the convicted U.S. serviceman. “The Department of Defense recently confirmed that they are constructing a special detention facility for Pemberton. What’s next? Wireless internet access, gourmet meals and a personal gym?” Nibungco retorted. “This is another shameless subservient act by the Philippine government under its imperialist master,” Nibungco added.

Anakbayan-USA is comprised of 11 chapters and is the U.S. chapter of Anakbayan Philippines a national democratic mass organization of Filipino youth working to educate, organize and mobilize the community to address important issues that affect Filipinos in the US and the Philippines.

Reference:
Yves Nibungco
National Chairperson, Anakbayan-USA

 

AFP-backed paramilitaries kill 94 civilians under the BS Aquino regime

yonie
-
0
AFP-backed paramilitaries kill 94 civilians under the BS Aquino regime

Int’l Human Rights Day countdown: “Tuwid na Daan” wakasan!

“We call on the Aquino regime to enforce the warrant of arrest against the members of the Magahat-Bagani paramilitary groups involved in the September 1 massacre of Alcadev executive director Emerito Samarca and Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Juvello Sinzo. It has been three months since the massacre yet, these AFP-backed paramilitary members and the AFP units responsible for the massacre remain scot-free and continue to sow terror in the Lumad communities,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

Those with standing warrants of arrest are brothers Bobby and Loloy Tejero and Margarito Layno, all members of the Magahat-Bagani group attached to the 36th Infantry Battalion/4th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army.

The Magahat-Bagani group is one of the 24 documented paramilitary groups in the country. The Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) is spread throughout the country while groups such as the Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary (SCAA), ITDF (Inter-Territorial Defense Force), Alamara, Bagani-Magahat, Dela Mance, Sanmatrida, and New Indigenous People’s Army Reform (NIPAR) groups are found in Mindanao. They come in so many different names, but are essentially AFP surrogates in their terror attacks against communities.

As of November 30, 2015, the AFP-trained and supported paramilitary groups were involved in the killing of 94 out of the 304 documented victims of extrajudicial killings under the BS Aquino regime. They were also involved in five out of 15 incidents of massacre.

The latest victim killed by the paramilitary group, particularly the De la Mance group, was Lumad activist Mankombite Mariano, who was shot then hacked last October 27. Mariano, 48, of the Talaandig tribe in the town of Cabanglasan, Bukidnon, was on his way to pick some durian fruit along with 16 others, 12 of them are children. Mariano was hit in the left chest and left hip when the Dela Mance group fired at them. Mariano’s grandson Ryan Olimbayan, 10, was hit in the left leg but was able to run away and hide. However, he saw how Manlumakad Bocalas of the Dela Mance group approached and hacked his grandfather in the head, left shoulder, and left thigh. Ryan survived the attack.

“The regime’s monstrosity, that even children are not spared, speaks of the evil tactics of the counterinsurgency program of BS Aquino, Oplan Bayanihan. The attempt to pit the people in the community against each other ‘through winning the hearts and minds’ is simply sugar-coating its ‘divide and rule’ tactic. In truth, the AFP provides arms to those who can be used against its perceived enemies,” Palabay said.

“By providing guns and some cash, the AFP attempts to control civilians, even if they have to kill their own kind. Such is the case of Loreto Mayor Dario Otaza,” Palabay said. Mayor Otaza, whose death was owned up by the New People’s Army, “Our documentation showed Otaza’s Bagani Lubog Force was responsible for the killing of three persons in his area,” said Palabay. The group, which is attached to the 2th IB, was involved in the killing of peasants Manhiloy Mantog, 35, Benjamin Planos, 28, and Gabriel Alindao, 60, in 2013.

Palabay explained there are a number of reports of human rights violations committed by Otaza and the Bagani Lubog Force, but human rights workers could not come close to the areas of incident in Loreto, Agusan del Sur due to heavy military and paramilitary presence.

Karapatan reiterates its call to disband all paramilitary groups and punish the perpetrators of human rights violations among its rank. “There’s no use for the government to keep denying that the paramilitary groups are its creation because these groups obviously perform tasks along the regime’s counterinsurgency program.”

http://www.karapatan.org/AFP-backed+paramilitaries+killed+94+civilians+under+the+BS+Aquino+regime

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

BS Aquino’s Paris Climate Change speech is height of hypocrisy

yonie
-
0
BS Aquino’s Paris Climate Change speech is height of hypocrisy

Coal mining violates indigenous peoples’ rights in Surigao del Sur

Amidst the spate of killings and forcible evacuation of Lumad and peasant communities because of intense military operations in Surigao del Sur over areas sold through Coal Operating Contracts (COC) by the Department of Energy, Noynoy Aquino’s 3-minute speech in Paris on the occasion of the 2015 Conference of Parties (COP) 21 on Climate Change is a big insult to the Lumad people, to genuine human rights and gender activists.

Abacus Coal Exploration and Mining Corporation has already brought their machinery to begin coal production operations in the Andap Valley Complex while the communities resisting it are in evacuation.  Benguet Corporation is also raring to operate, as are Great Wall Mining and Power Corporation, PNOC Exploration and ASK Mining and Exploration Corporation. By the simple tactic of displacing communities through counter-insurgency operations, the Aquino Administration through the military, whether by coincidence or design, is paving the way for the unhampered operation of these companies who have long waited for this chance to make use of their “expensive” COC.

Noynoy Aquino as the PH poster boy of COP 21 is his spin doctors’ take on this administration’s superficial regard for the environment and seeming concern for indigenous peoples’ so-called climate vulnerability.  It conceals the fact that it is the very policy of his government of promoting and protecting large-scale mining investments through the military as  “investment defense forces” that destroys the ecological balance in  ancestral lands that have been protected and defended by generations of these indigenous peoples that is making them increasingly vulnerable.  They are made doubly vulnerable to natural and manmade calamities, as illustrated by the Lumad forcible evacuation crisis in Surigao del Sur today as a result of massive military deployment and operations in the province.

His bedrock principle lies on a foundation of imperialist greed, not on the human rights of the Filipino people, as his alternate reality designers proclaim.  His administration is among the most brutal violators of human rights of indigenous peoples, just ask Michelle Campos and Karlgen Samarca  whose fathers, Dionel Campos and Emerito Samarca, were killed by the paramilitary forces that this administration is using in its war for imperialist plunder disguised as counter-insurgency operations.  Just ask the 3,000 Manobo victims of forcible evacuation from 23 communities that are still suffering amidst the intensified military operations in their mountain communities to pave the way for coal mining operations.  Just ask more than 25 women who have given birth in the evacuation centers because of these military operations, who are nourishing and nurturing their children the best they can in the only sanctuary available to them to ensure their families’ safety from attacks.  Just ask the family of farmer Orlando Rabuca who was killed as he continued to lead his community’s peasant organization in its campaign against mining despite threats to his life. That military and paramilitary units continue to commit  grave violations against the right to life with impunity as they protect the biggest destroyers of the environment renders Aquno’s bedrock principles as insubstantial as air.

For human rights and environment activists in the Caraga region, Noynoy Aquino certainly does not represent our interests and our advocacies.  The rapid degradation of the mountains of Claver, Surigao del Norte that is irreversibly affecting the marine, coastal, mangrove, riparian and forest ecosystems because of large-scale open-pit nickel mining is evidence of his hypocrisy.  How can he talk of protecting us from climate vulnerability when his regime allows the wholesale destruction of natural shelters against climate disasters?  After typhoons Sendong, Pablo and Yolanda that have spared Caraga from utter devastation, it is only a matter of time before we are hit by another catastrophic weather phenomenon.

By a hail of bullets or precipitation, the Aquino Administration is exacting the people’s blood by its total indifference to the concrete demands of the Lumad in Surigao del Sur for justice for their martyrs Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo; justice that remains elusive as the perpetrators of their killings remain at large.  The communities can only be peaceful if the armed paramilitary men, including the private security forces in the payroll of mining corporations, that are committing these crimes, are disarmed and disbanded.  Erring commanding officers and units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, especially the 75th IBatt and 402nd IBde must be held accountable as soldiers must be pulled out from the communities and temporary cessation of military operations must be done to allow the safe and unconditional return of the Lumad evacuees to their communities.

These calls are just. Noynoy Aquino must heed these calls lest the people call him a liar and a hypocrite in the persona that he is showing the world.  He is also set to meet Pope Francis; we can only pray that he approach the Holy Father with the cleansing grace of granting more than 3,000 Manobo and peasant evacuees a blessed Christmas in the comfort and peace of their homes and communities.

Reference:
Jovy Alamban
+63 9093933247
CARAGA Watch

Global Weeks of Action for Mindanao kicks off today in London

yonie
-
0
Global Weeks of Action for Mindanao kicks off today in London

Following the International Peoples’ Tribunal  (IPT) verdict last July on the Philippine and US governments’ gross violations of the rights of its citizens, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has called for global weeks of action for Mindanao.

Starting on November 21, a series of events will be held in succession in different countries in Europe, in the weeks leading up to International Human Rights Day on 10 December. The opening event will be on the 21st in the form of a Public Meeting at the UNISON Centre in London. The meeting is organized by the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines – UK, in coordination with the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and the UNISON-Filipino Activists Network.

The guest speakers will be two indigenous peoples’ rights advocate from Northern Mindanao, Sr. Ma. Famita Somogod, MSM, the regional coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines – Northern Mindanao Region (RMP-NMR), and Prof. Arnold Alamon, the executive director of the Mindanao Interfaith Institute on Lumad Studies.

“Barely a month after the IPT found the Philippine government guilty of the systematic violation of the Filipino people’s civil, political, economic, socio-cultural rights, there has been an escalation of state and state-sponsored brutality in the indigenous peoples’ communities in Mindanao, the southern part of the Philippines,” said Sister Somogod.

On August 18 this year, five members of the Manobo community in Pangantucan, Bukidnon were massacred by state forces. This was the second massacre this year in Northern Mindanao region alone after the military killed four members of the Higaonon community on March 29. Karapatan, the largest human rights alliance in the Philippines records a total of 15 massacres under the watch of Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

“The outrage of the communities at the lack of government action and in fact their authored attacks on the Lumad has spread nationwide and attracted international concerns as well when not a month later, the executive director of an alternative learning school primarily catering Lumad students was killed by a state-backed paramilitary group,” the nun furthered.

The main objectives of the Global Weeks of Action for Mindanao are to publicise and gain even wider international support for the struggles of the peoples of Mindanao against their systematic repression and exploitation by their own government.

“We encourage awareness, far and wide, of the continuing abuse of human rights in the Philippines, especially, at this time on the island of Mindanao. These abuses take place in the context of a culture of impunity, enjoyed by those who are responsible for them and of a callous disregard of their plight by their own government,” said Rev. Barry Naylor, chair of the global council of the ICHRP.

“We are pleased that we can hear, at first hand, from human rights activists who have travelled from Mindanao to share their first hand experiences of abuses and terror,” emphasized Reverend Naylor. “It is vital that we let people know what is happening to the people and the land of Mindanao and that we respond in ways that assure people there that they do not stand alone. We wish to affirm that people throughout the world are standing in solidarity with the peoples of Mindanao, that we are listening to them and responding in ways that are both supportive to them and challenging to those responsible for committing and tolerating the abuses they endure.”

In addition to the activities in London, film showings and public meetings will also be organized in Austria and Poland which will be attended by other delegates from Mindanao. Other actions have been planned for Italy, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. These activities include awareness raising among Filipino compatriots and human rights advocates, to include international human rights organizations such as the Amnesty International, Frontline Defenders, the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation –Union of International Superior Generals, and the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace of the Vatican. Meeting and lobbying with representatives of the European Union’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development and the European External Action Services are also included in the itinerary. The delegation also hopes to meet Pope Francis.

The Global Weeks of Action in Europe is organized by RMP-NMR, Kalumaran, Panalipdan Mindanao and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.

For reference:
Sr. Ma. Famita Somogod, MSM
Coordinator, RMP-NMR
E: coordinator@rmp-nmr.org

Dr. Angie Gonzales
Coordinator, ICHRP
E: icchrp@gmail.com

Rafael Joseph Maramag
Secretary, CHRP-UK
E: info@chrp.org.uk

RURAL MISSIONARIES OF THE PHILIPPINES
Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR), Inc.
Room 01, Kalinaw Lanao Center for Interfaith Resources
0016 Bougainvilla Puti, Villaverde
9200 Iligan City, Philippines
T/F: +63 (63) 223 5179
E: info@rmp-nmr.org
S: rural.missionaries
W: www.rmp-nmr.org

An Open Letter to President Benigno Aquino from Concerned Canadians

yonie
-
0
An Open Letter to President Benigno Aquino from Concerned Canadians

Stop the Systematic Attacks on Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao

Dear President Aquino,

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations in Canada, are writing to express our urgent concerns regarding the violent attacks on Indigenous Peoples (Lumad) in Mindanao allegedly perpetrated by members of the Philippine Armed Forces and by paramilitary groups that are reportedly created and armed by the military and operating under its command. Human Rights Watch reports that “these forces are committing killings, torture, forced displacement and harassment of residents, students and educators with impunity.”

We are deeply alarmed by the systematic escalation of the campaign of attack on Lumads in recent months. Of the 58 victims of Lumad killings since 2010, 14 of the victims including Lumad children were killed from March–September 2015. Eleven of the victims were killed in 3 gruesome massacres.

  • On June 14, 2015, three Lumad leaders in Paquibato, Davao were reportedly killed when military troops strafed the residence of the leader of a local farmers’ association.
  • On August 18th 2015, five members of the Manobo tribe, including a 70-year-old blind farmer and 2 children were massacred in Pangantucan, Bukidnon by the 3rd Company of the 1st Special Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
  • On September 1, 2015, members of a paramilitary group called Magahat allegedly killed Emerito Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Development, Inc.(ALCADEV) and two Lumads, and threatened to massacre the entire community causing the people to flee their community.

We strongly condemn the use of local paramilitary groups to sow terror among their own people resulting in mass displacement and evacuation of approximately 40,000 Lumad.

The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and the Sisters Association of Mindanao maintain that the attack on ALCADEV was not an isolated incident. Since April of 2014, 25 Lumad schools have been forced to halt operations due to military harassment and on the orders of the Department of Education. At least 84 separate attacks on 57 schools have displaced and disrupted the education of over 3,000 Lumad children. We strongly condemn this grave violation of children’s right to education.

As Canadians, we are concerned by reports that the Philippine government is sanctioning these military operations under its counter-insurgency program, Operation Plan Bayanihan, in order to suppress the resistance of Indigenous communities and clear the way for the entry of mining and other resource extraction companies. We are deeply troubled to learn that Canadian companies are among those having mining exploration or applications in these Lumad villages now under severe military and paramilitary attacks.

We support the rights of Lumad Peoples to struggle for social justice and self-determination within their ancestral territories, as embodied in the UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We support their struggle to defend their ancestral lands. We call on the Philippine government to respect the Lumad’s right to determine their own path to prosperity and to resist development plans on their land they believe will not benefit their communities.

We support the call of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao for the termination of the counter-insurgency program that justifies the systematic attacks on Indigenous Peoples.

We call on you as the President to order the immediate pull out of military troops from Lumad territories, to dismantle the paramilitary groups, to end the militarization of Lumad schools, to prosecute and convict the perpetrators of the killings as well as those in the chain of command, and to indemnify the victims of these atrocities.

Furthermore, we support the call of the Filipino people for the resumption of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in order to bring peace to these communities.

Signed:

  • Perry Bellegarde, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations
  • Phil Fontaine, former National Chief, Assembly of First Nations & Officer of the Order of Canada
  • Matthew Coon Come, Grand Chief, Grand Council of the Crees and former National Chief Assembly of First Nations
  • Hon. Florfina Marcelino, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
  • Hon. Mable Elmore, Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
  • The Very Rev. the Honourable Lois M Wilson, Senator (retired) Companion of Order of Canada
  • The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, National Indigenous Anglican Bishop
  • The Right Rev. Jordan Cantwell, Moderator, The United Church of Canada
  • Paul Moist, National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees
  • Mike Palecek, National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
  • Emmanuelle Tremblay, National President, Canadian Association of Professional Employees
  • James Clancy, National President, National Union of Public and General Employees
  • Paul Meinema, National President, United Food and Commercial Workers Union
  • Robyn Benson, National President, Public Service Alliance of Canada
  • Very Rev. Terry Brown, Bishop-in-charge, Church of the Ascension, Hamilton, Ont.
  • Thomas Saras, President and CEO, National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada
  • Jim Manly, Member of Parliament (1980-1988)
  • Dr. Catherine Coumans, Asia Coordinator, Mining Watch
  • Monia Mazigh, Director, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
  • Jennifer Henry, Executive Director, KAIROS, Canadian Churches Ecumenical Justice Initiative
  • Alan Quinn, Director of Intl. Programs, Leger Foundation
  • Jess Agustin, Asia program officer, Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
  • Mary Boyd, Director, MacKillop Centre for Social Justice
  • Meeka Otway, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
  • Atty. Tim Louis, Co-Chair, Coalition of Progressive Electors
  • Atty. Michael Leitold, Steering Committee, Law Union of Ontario
  • Dr. Philip Kelly, Director, York Centre of Asian Studies, York University
  • Dr. Geraldine Pratt, Associate Dean, Dept. of Sociology, University of British Columbia
  • Dr. Dominique Caouette, Centre d’études de l’Asie de l’Est, Université de Montréal
  • Dr. Jill Hanley, Graduate Program Director, Dept. of Social Work, McGill University
  • Dr. Chin Banerjee, Coordinator, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
  • Rev. Jonathan Schmidt, Director, Canadian Churches Forum for Global Ministries
  • Kelly Moist, 2nd National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees
  • Dave Bleakney, 2nd National Vice-President Canadian Union of Postal Workers
  • Zenee May Maceda, National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union
  • Atty. Charlotte Kates, Coordinator, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network
  • Aiyanas Ormond, Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle in Canada
  • Bern Jagunos, Coordinator, International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines Canada
  • Teresa Agustin, Chair, Migrante Canada
  • Rhea Gamana, General Secretary, Anakbayan Canada
  • Dr. Chandu Claver, Chair, BAYAN Canada
  • Pura Velasco, Chair, Caregivers Action Centre
  • Hermie Garcia and Mila Astorga-Garcia, Publishers & co-editors, The Philippine Reporter
  • Edwin Mercurio, President, Negrense Asociacion
  • Jessie W. Tuldague- President, Ifugao Association of Canada
  • Ben Corpuz, Vice President, Philippine Independence Day Council
  • Petronila Cleto, Chair, GABRIELA Ontario
  • Ace Montevirgen, President, CaSaMa-Zambales association
  • Hanna Kawas, Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
  • Bert Monterona – International muralist
  • Irene Landry, Education consultant
  • Dr. Ravi Pendakur, Professor, Graduate School of Public and Intèl.Affairs, University of Ottawa
  • Dr. Rebecca Schein, Academic Supervisor Human Rights at Carleton University
  • Dr. Denise L. Spitzer, Professor, Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, Université d’Ottawa
  • Camilla Gibb, Professor in Social Justice, Victoria College, University of Toronto
  • Dr. Stephen Collis – Poet and Professor,, Simon Fraser University
  • Dr. Valerie Raoul – Professor Emerita, Women’s Studies, University of British Columbia
  • Dr. Leonora Angeles – Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies University of British Columbia
  • Dr. Rupa Banerjee, GATES Research Team, Ryerson University
  • Dr. Suzan Ilcan, Department Of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Dr. Daniel O’Connor, Department Of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Dr. Robert Diaz, Associate Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design University
  • Dr. Brian McDougall – Instructor, Carleton University
  • Bill Skidmore, Academic Advisor Human Rights Program, Carleton University
  • Dr. Jorge Frozzini, Professeur,Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
  • Dr. Aziz Choudry, Associate Professor, Dep’t Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University
  • Dr. Mélanie Dufour-Poirier, Professeure adjointe, Université de Montréal
  • Dr. Donald Swartz, Carleton School of Public Policy and Administration (Retired)
  • Rev. Shaun Fryday, Coordinator – Beaconsfield Initiative, United Church of Canada
  • Rev. Keith Simmonds, President, British Columbia Conference United Church of Canada
  • Rev. Rosemary Lambie, General Secretary, Montreal Ottawa Conference, United Church of Canada
  • Alden Habacon, Director, Intercultural Understanding, Equity and Inclusion, Univ. of British Columbia
  • Rev. Patricia Lissom, Director, St. Columba House
  • Rev. Desmond Jagger-Parsons, Head of delegation, 2014 Canadian Churches Philippine Learning Tour
  • Janet Gray -Regional Coordinator, KAIROS (BC-Yukon)
  • Janet McIntosh, Coordinator, KAIROS Metro Vancouver
  • Charles Boylan, Chair, International Solidarity Committee Local 21, Fed. of Post- Secondary Educators
  • Kate Murray, Moderator, Mining Justice Alliance, Vancouver
  • Martha Roberts, RM- Chairperson, Alliance for People’s Health
  • Santiago Escobar, Chair, Hugo Chavez Peoples’ Defense Front
  • Ysabel Tuason, Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Peterborough, ON
  • Parvin Ashfari, Coordinator, Iranian Centre for Peace, Freedom and Justice
  • Gloria Pavez, Coordinator, Cafe Rebelde Collective
  • Suzanne Baustad, Founding member, Grassroots Women
  • Paco Tejero, Founding member, Canada Philippines Solidarity Committee
  • Catherine Hooper, C.M, OLPH Church Social Justice Committee, Chateauguay
  • Paulina Corpuz, President , Philippine Advancement Through Arts and Culture
  • Nicole Cajucom, Executive Director, Kapisanan Philippine Centre
  • Rev. Dante Coloma, Philippine Independent Church- Mission of Holy Child-Greater Toronto Area
  • Honorio Guerrero, Director, Kathara Indigenous Pilipino Arts Collective Society
  • Dr. Alexandra Law, Board Member, Immigrant Workers Centre
  • Dr. Eric Shragge, Principal (retired), Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University
  • Dr. Martin Gallié, Professor of Law, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Cora Santiago Aberin, President, Filipino Association of Montreal and Suburbs (FAMAS)
  • Fiel Salazar, Chairperson, PINAY – Filipino Women’s Organization of Quebec
  • Attorney Me Walter Chiyan Tom, Pinay Legal information Clinic
  • Kat Estacio, Coordinator, Pantayo Collective
  • Fr. Expedito Farinas – Rector, St. Mary (Anglican) Church Hill
  • Jojo Geronimo, member, ACLA (Asian Canadian Labour Alliance)
  • Sahar Golshan, member, Canadian Roots Exchange
  • Jennifer Noonan, Cree-Irish, Portland, OR
  • Rev. Irene Ty and Lee Holland
  • Attorney May Chiu
1...868788...242Page 87 of 242