Alliance Philippines

June 12,2010

Commemorate the 112th Independence Day, Continue on the People's Struggle for Systemic Change

Los Angeles--As we commemorate the 112th anniversary of the proclamation of the Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898 , we will witness a new era. That is the assumption to power of a new president coming from an old political dynasty and the exit of a despised leader who still cast a giant shadow on the new dispensation.

We celebrate this short lived independence with bittersweet pride and with the unwavering aspirations of the Filipino people for real change and genuine independence.

The Phillippines was the first bourgeois republic in Asia and the first Asian country to free itself from the stranglehold of colonialism.We were also the first colony of US Imperialism in this part of the world.

We must remember that US Imperialism snatch our independence and crush the young republic. We suffered more than two millions lives in more than 18 years of armed struggle from 1899 to 1916.

With this culmination of the centuries-old struggle of the Filipino people,we pay tribute to Filipino heroines and heroes who fought for our national independence. We today in the United States continue to stand in unyielding unity with those who continue to fight for fundamental change in the Philippines, the US and the 196 different countries where Overseas Filipino Workers are.

We must continue the struggle for genuine change and independence.Our homeland remains a neo colony. With the continuing puppetry of the Philippine government to the US and other global corporate interests, our country remains desperately poor. The vast majority, 70% of Filipinos are farmers and 7 out of ten farmers are still without land to till– a testimony to the utter failure of the Philippine Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The president, Benigno Aquino III faces herculean challenges with resuscitating the domestic economy to provide jobs to the millions of unemployed and give land to the landless farmers.He will decide where to put P.70 of every peso that the government collects– to servicing the country’s foreign debt estimated to be Php 5 trillion , or to the people’s livelihood and well being through building local industries, modernizing the agriculture and providing adequate affordable basic services such as water, power, hospitals, schools, etc.

But the question remains. Will he be the president for the vast majority of poor Filipinos or for the few elite and his imperialists masters?

The Alliance Philippines believes that the recent elections did not solve the problems of the Filipinos. The struggle for genuine social change continues. We will continue to organize to defend and promote the rights, dignity and justice for our community and our compatriots in the homeland and overseas for genuine change and independence.



Continue the struggle for genuine independence of the Philippines!

Jobs, dignity and justice for Filipinos everywhere!

Full rights and legalization for all immigrants!