Category: OFW News

MALAYA: Jonas ma gets support of Obama, McCain

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
March 10, 2008

THE mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos has obtained expressions of support from the offices of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is leading the Democratic presidential nomination and Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“The offices that we have visited showed a great concern on the human rights situation in the Philippines,” said Edita Burgos, who is in the US on a seven-city speaking tour to drum up support in her quest to find her son.

The offices of Senator Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), both senior members of the Senate foreign relations committee, also opened their doors to Burgos.

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MALAYA: Jonas’ ma on US tour to denounce rights abuses

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
March 3, 3008

TEN months after the abduction of her son Jonas, Edith Burgos began a seven-city speaking tour in the US on Saturday to bring to Americans and Filipino-Americans her plight and those of other victims of human rights abuses under the Arroyo administration.

Burgos, widow of Malaya founding publisher and press freedom icon Joe Burgos, started her speaking tour in New York Saturday night (Sunday afternoon in Manila) in a benefit dinner sponsored by the NY Committee on Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP).

While in New York, Mrs. Burgos is also set to hold a private meeting with UN special rapporteur Philip Alston whose report on his 2007 visit to the Philippines tagged the Armed Forces as perpetrator of most of the extrajudicial executions alleged by human rights watchdogs.

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MALAYA: Obama pays tribute to Edsa 1, backs equity bill for veterans

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
February 29, 2008

ILLINOIS Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the 2008 Democratic presidential race, on Monday paid tribute to the 22nd anniversary of the 1986 People Power uprising and batted for the passage of the long-delayed “equity bill” for Filipino veterans.

In a statement, Obama said that “twenty-two years after the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, we remember and commemorate the Filipino people who used the democratic, non-violent method of ‘people power’ to overthrow the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and end the martial law regime that ruled the Philippines for fourteen years.”

“Today, let us join Filipinos in America to honor the sacrifices and determination of the Filipino people in the tireless fight for democracy and freedom,” Obama added.

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MALAYA: Mike can run but he can’t hide, say OFWs in Hong Kong

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
February 26, 2008

THE Gabriela Women’s Party in Hong Kong (GWP-HK) group on Sunday distributed “WANTED” posters to compel Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo to return to the Philippines and face corruption charges over the $329-million NBN-ZTE broadband deal.

The group distributed the posters at an interfaith rally held by OFW groups along Chater Road.

“However he may try to hide, protests will hound Mike Arroyo until he is made accountable for his crimes,” said GWP-HK chair Cynthia Abdon-Tellez.

Abdon-Tellez said OFWs are “not amused” that President Arroyo’s husband went to Hong Kong “to dodge protests and the Senate investigation.”

Going to Hong Kong “reeks of guilt,” she said.

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Overseas Filipinos also spearheading anti-Arroyo protests

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Unpublished
February 25, 2008

Filipinos abroad are also all set to hold rallies “for truth and accountability” starting Sunday in Hong Kong and later in the week in key US, Canada and Middle East cities.

At Hong Kong’s Chater Road, the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM-HK) said “several thousands” of Filipino domestic helpers and professionals turned out for an interfaith rally expressing support for witness Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada.

Joining the rally-cum-protest were the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL), Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP-HK), Abra Tinguian Ilocano Society (ATIS), Cordillera Alliance (CORALL), United Pangasinan in Hong Kong (UPHK) and the Filipino Migrant Workers Union (FMWU), said GSM-HK spokesperson Dolores Balladares.

The Hong Kong protest offered no reprieve for First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who went there purportedly “for acupuncture”.

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Filipino-American group NAFCON speaks out on Arroyo crisis

I am reprinting in full an “open letter” by the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) on the raging crisis of the Arroyo presidency.

NAFCON recently figured as the prime mover of protests against the racist slur on Filipinos in an episode of popular soap Desperate Housewives. It describes itself as “a national multi-issue alliance of Filipino organizations and individuals in the US serving to protect the rights and welfare of Filipinos by fighting for social, economic, and racial justice and equality”.

After the Desperate Housewives, NAFCON directs its guns on the Desperate Household of the Arroyos.

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