End redbaiting and attacks against GABRIELA!

From GABRIELA, 12 July 2002

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 stating that they were supporters of the New People's Army. One 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 week long 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 , who are branded 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 governments anti-people policies.

This policy is being used by the military to justify the crimes and atrocities that have been committed against GABRIELA.

These human rights violations are not only perpetrated against women activists and members of 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 documented 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&peace loving people. Arroyo, herself a woman and a mother, should be held responsible for the orphaned children whose mothers fell victims to her governments witch-hunting and red-baiting.

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

The militarization must stop now!

Please support the campaign against militarization and redbaiting of legitimate women's organizations in the Philippines. Write a letter of protest to:

PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO Office of the President, Malacañang Palace, J.P. Laurel St., San Miguel, Manila, Philippines

E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph, pgma@compass.com.ph or opnet@ops.gov.ph

Hon. Jose De Venecia, Jr.Speaker of the House House of Representatives Batasan Complex, Constitution Hill, Quezon City, PhilippinesFax No. +6329315556

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