Julie and I wish to convey our most heartfelt condolences to the daughters and entire family of Comrade Gregorio Rosal, Ka Roger, and to all cadres and members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, all the Red commanders and fighters of the New People?s Army, all adherents of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the broad masses of the Filipino people.
Peasant offensives in Southern Tagalog Despite AFP Militarization (tags)
The Pesante NEWS based in Los Angeles reported today that the peasant movement in Southern Tagalog is gaining ground despite AFP militaization in that region. The PESANTE NEWS also learned that the impoverished masses in the Southern Tagalog (ST) countryside are now organized under a peasant movement with a strong regional center. Provincial chapters have begun to rise anew from the surviving 54 chapters in various levels found in areas with existing cases of agrarian disputes and where the peasant masses are being threatened with eviction. Chapters continue to expand and new ones built on varying levels.
PESANTE CONDEMNS SOUTHERN TAGALOG ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA condemns in the strongest terms what the Southern Tagalog peasant activist crackdown and witch hunt under the US-Arroyo fascist regime. This is how Pesante-USA, a human rights, Filipino peasant advocacy and environmental organization in Los Angeles and Southern Tagalog activists described what would come next after farmer leader Rogelio Galit was arrested Monday evening at Barangay Kaong, Silang, Cavite on murder charges filed at the regional trial court in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. Pesante-USA learned through media sources that around 15 armed men in civilian clothes arrested Galit, an officer of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan and spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid sa Kabite, said his wife Patricia who witnessed the arrest at their house.
Another labor leader killed in S. Tagalog (tags)
A LABOR leader was shot dead on Monday while two others were wounded in an ambush near a Japanese firm’s office in Imus, Cavite. The victim was Jose Servida, 36, a worker-leader of the EMI Yasaki factory in Imus. He was declared dead on arrival at the University Medical Center from a lone gunshot wound in the chest.
ANOTHER UNIONIST MURDERED IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
Another unionist was killed today in Southern Tagalog region. Nemesio Aquino, a worker of JAM Transit (formerly Tritran Bus Company), was shot dead by unidentified men when he just came out from the Bureau of Labor Relations office in Barangay Parian, Calamba City, Laguna at around 2:00 PM. The militant Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU) or Solidarity of Workers in Southern Tagalog expressed condemnation and alarming concern over the recent killing of a unionist.
The Filipino American Community Problems on the Pilipino Language (tags)
August is usually the National Language Week ( Linggo ng Wika) in the Philippines. Pesante-USA presented this paper this week for Filipinos in the Philippines and America to ponder. Its an irony while the Philippine government ( US-Arroyo regime) is reverting to the colonial mendicancy of propagating English to compete in the international market for labor exports, Filipinos abroad and Filipino Americans in the U.S are advancing the propagation of Pilipino in the United States. This is an important development we should monitor and work on. The more than 3 million Filipinos in the United States might be away from their homeland but their patriotism is afire and will never forget their roots.
Protest caravan from Southern Tagalog (tags)
Protests from the urban poor in Southern Tagalog geared towards Monday's State of the Nation Address (SONA) began as early as Wednesday and are now on the third day of a six-day caravan dubbed "Lakbay-Riles ng Maralita laban sa kagutuman, dislokasyon at karahasan ." The caravan took-off from Gumaca, Quezon around 8AM today and is set to reach San Pablo City at around 3PM, but protesters fear that they may be blocked again amid NCRPO chief Vidal Querol's statement that a special operations group of the New People's Army from Mindoro would try to sneak into the capital.