ACTIVIST CONTINUE PROTESTS THROUGHOUT CHRISTMAS

EPCC News
Dec. 27, 2008

Activists continue protests throughout Christmas


By Pasckie Pascua

LOS ANGELES— Activists here continue their unrelenting advocacy in support of various causes and in protest of other issues even as the community savors Christmas and the advent of a new year.

The Filipino Veterans Support Bill, or SB 3689, remains as the foremost concern of the Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV). Despite failing energy, living FilVets stay active on the road, making their presence felt in mass actions and community gatherings, and taking the opportunity to speak their minds.

On December 8, JFAV announced the formation of a partner organization, the Association of Widows, Advocates and Relatives for Equality (Aware) at a meeting held at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC) here.

In San Francisco, FilVets Gomer Bondad and Reggie Nacua, with activists Ago Pedalizo and Violy Reyes, discussed the seemingly unresolved impasse on the lump sum clause of SB 36879, now pending in the US Congress, at a community meeting held at the ABS-CBN studio in Redwood City last December 10.

“The JFAV does not endorse SB 3689. We criticize the fact that it has no recognition for Filvets, it comes with a quit claim clause, and there’s no provision for widows of the veterans. We will pursue a different strategy and tactics on the veterans’ equity struggle,” says a JFAV statement furnished Philippine News.

On December 11, JFAV veteran leaders Faustino Baclig and Jack Vergara were present at a rally staged by the United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) union local at the Radisson Hotel here against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Trouble has been dogging SEIU’s California locals. Last summer, some 6,000 UHW union members staged a rally in Manhattan Beach to oppose a plan by SEIU for “centralize bargaining” and other issues. Local leaders charged that Andrew Stern, SEIU president, wants to divide and weaken their local union—by pressuring 65,000 of their members to transfer to “his favored local”—and punish them for demanding their own voice. Filipinos comprise more than 30 percent of the total healthcare workforce in California.

Free Randal Echanis

Meanwhile, a group of “First Quarter Stormers” here, collectively known as Kilusang Dekada 70, issued a statement to local media calling for the release by the Philippine government of peasant rights advocate Randall Echanis, a known First Quarter Storm activist.

The First Quarter Storm was a period of unrest in the Philippines, composed of a series of heavy demonstrations, protests and marches against the government from January to March 1970, two years before the country was placed under Martial Law.

Kilusang Dekada 70 questions the administration of president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo why Jocelyn Bolante, a former Cabinet person who was accused of diverting the 780 million pesos of fertilizer fund for his ex-boss’s 2004 presidential campaign, should be freed and not Echanis.

“What is the difference between Bolante and Echanis? Is it because Bolante served Arroyo, that is why he is treated royally, and Echanis isn’t—and should rot like a common criminal?” queries KD70 spokesperson Bonifacio Inkana.

Echanis, deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Farmers Movement of the Philippines), was arrested in January this year by police agents as he prepared to attend a conference of agricultural workers in Bago City, Negros Occidental. Located in the western Visayas region of the Philippines, south of Manila, Negros Occidental is the second largest province in the country. Most of its people are sugarcane workers and farmers.