PHILIPPINES: Martial Law is Not the Answer! (tags)
Statements on the imposition of martial law in Mindanao
Philippines: Erap Estrada endorses leftist leader Neri Colmenares for senator (tags)
MANILA, Philippines – Former President now Manila Mayor Joseph "Erap" Estrada on Wednesday, September 30, endorsed leftist congressman Neri Colmenares for Philippine senator in the 2016 elections.
Philippines: Declare a humanitarian ceasefire in Zamboanga City now! (tags)
A Petition Campaign in Support for Dialogue, Humanitarian Action and Ceasefire
PHILIPPINES: On the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (tags)
The Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) joins the Filipino people, especially the Bangsamoros in Mindanao, in welcoming, although guardedly, the historic signing today of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
AQUINO III, MURAD OF MILF HELD TALKS IN TOKYO FOR TWO HOURS (tags)
The Alliance News (AN) learned today through media reports from Manila that President Benigno Aquino III left the country unannounced on Thursday night to hold unprecedented talks with a Muslim rebel leader in Japan. According to AN, Mr. Aquino met for two hours with Murad Ebrahim, chair of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in a hotel near the Narita airport in Tokyo on Thursday evening, the first time a Philippine president has met face-to-face with a leader of the rebel group since on-and-off peace talks started 14 years ago. The MILF called Mr. Aquino?s effort a ?grand gesture? that gave ?a tremendous boost to the peace process.? Ghadzali Jaafar, the MILF political affairs chief, said it was ?a fruitful meeting.?
Will Peace Break out in the Philippines? (tags)
Will peace break out at last? Much hope has been sparked by the coming resumption of peace talks between the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Aquino government. Undoubtedly, this optimism stems from the widespread public perception that President Benigno Aquino III is genuinely interested in ending the four-decade-long war between the NDF and the Philippine government.
AFP Launches the biggest military offensive in the Philippines (tags)
"When they (the reactionaries) speak of peace, they wage war." The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) based in the United States expressed its utmost concern about the intention of the newly installed US-Aquino Regime as the AFP launched its biggest general offensive in Mindanao. The AJLPP learned that Jorge Madlos of the NDF-Mindanao said; " All the four divisions under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) based in Mindanao are currently conducting massive and widespread military operations against the revolutionary forces in all the five NPA regions in the whole island, particularly more intense in the Southern Mindanao Region."
THE MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
A commentary on the Nov 23 slaughter of 57 civilians in Maguindanao, Philipppines, sketching the historical parameters of the event and the converging political and social forces involved, with a focus on the U.S. role in establishing the groundwork for the evils of the prevailing Arroyo state terrorism.
Peace now, Resume the Peace Talks, Now! (tags)
The Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) with the five million strong Filipino American community in the United States wrote to you in the interest of true justice and lasting peace in the Philippines. The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) expresses its alarm and consternation on the recent developments on the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). We are greatly troubled that the Philippines have never known a period of relative peace since 1972 when the US-Marcos dictatorship waged war against the New People’s Army (NPA and the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Moro people represented by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) until it surrendered in 1996 and then by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Up to now Mindanao is a battle ground with more 2.6 million people affected by the war and more or less 750,000 war refugees in Central Mindanao and elsewhere.
Very few people know that the US military is directly involved in the fierce fighting going on in the Philippines between the Moro insurgents and the corrupt and brutal Arroyo regime supported by the Bush neocons and the warmongering Pentagon planners. Will you continue to allow US tax dollars to be wasted in this barbaric genocidal war against indigenous peoples? Over a thousand extrajudicial killings and "forced disappearances" under Arroyo's tenure, plus a few hundred Muslims dead as "collateral damage," may be the signs of US "benevolent hegemony" (Robert Kagan) and US "magnanimous imperial power" (Dinesh D'Souza). McKinley's "Benevolent Assimilation" lives on!
Philippine Government Launches New War on Muslim Groups (tags)
War officially came to southern Philippines again as the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unilaterally put an end to eleven years of negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) September 3. A month early the government abruptly broke off talks with the MILF on the eve of signing an autonomy pact. There are numerous reports of U.S. Special Forces accompanying Philippines Army units on their deadly sweeps in the Bangsamoro (land of the Moro people) region. More than 100 people have been killed so far and half a million refugees have fled from the fighting. Bourgeois liberals and the petty-bourgeois left lamely call on the government to resume the “peace process,” which in any case was only intended to wear down the insurgents. Revolutionaries instead seek to mobilize Philippine workers to drive out all U.S. forces, whatever their legal status; to force the withdrawal of the AFP from the contested southern areas; and to defend the Bangsamoro people and their right to self-determination.
US-Arroyo Regime Policy of "All Out Peace" Means "All Out War". (tags)
With profound sadness and most serious concern, the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP through its West Coast Coordinator Arturo P. Garcia expresses dismay over the fate of the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine Government. The AJLPP views President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recent orders of a "thorough review" of all government peace initiatives after dissolving the panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as bad faith, lacking in political will and a traditional display of political opportunism The AJLPP is alarmed by the growing number of people affected by the conflict. AJLPP sources have confirmed that more than 487,000 people have been dislocated by the ongoing military offensives in Northern and Central Mindanao. More than 200 soldiers and MILF fighters as well as civilians have been killed in the month old conflict.
On the 110th Independence Day of the Philippines, June 12, 2008 (tags)
As Filipinos and Filipino Americans, the Alliance Philippines (AJLPP) with pride and passion, we commemorate the 110th anniversary of the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898 and the victory of the Philippine revolution of 1896 against 333 years of Spanish colonialism and oppression. On this momentous occasion let us pay tribute to all our heroes who fought for our freedom. On this auspicious day, we remember that the Philippine flag was first displayed, the national hymn was played and the independence from Spain was proclaimed in the balcony of the home of general Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite. At that time almost all of Luzon was liberated and under the control, of the revolutionary forces except for Manila and some Spanish outpost in the Visayas and in Mindanao was still holding out. The formation of the first bourgeois democratic republic in Asia on January 23, 1899 followed. But just to be destroyed by a new colonial power- the Imperialist United States of America. By waging an imperialist war of aggression against the young republic and its people from 1899 to 1913 in a “war of pacification” against the Filipinos, the United States occupied the Philippines for 48 years. The Filipinos lost almost 2 million people during the Filipino=-American War.
OPERASYONG MILITAR SA MINDANAO, LUMALALA (tags)
iulat ng Pesante-USA ang napabalitang malawakang operasyong militar sa Sulu at Davao, malawakang pagpapalikas pambubugbog at iligal na pang-aaresto ang tampok sa mga paglabag sa karapatang-tao noong buwan ng Abril.
Malawakang Operasyong Militar sa Mindanao, Abusong Militar Iniulat (tags)
Iniulat ng Pesante-USA ang napabalitang malawakang operasyong militar sa Sulu at Davao, malawakang pagpapalikas pambubugbog at iligal na pang-aaresto ang tampok sa mga paglabag sa karapatang-tao noong huling linggo ng Abril.
MILF doubts gov't can keep vow to UN rights body (tags)
An official of the Muslim secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has expressed doubts that the government would be able to keep its promise to a United Nations body to put a stop to the string of killings of local journalists and activists as well as to protect the rights of all Filipinos, even those who express dissent against the state. Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, doubted the government vow, saying the head of the Philippine delegation to the recent conference by United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, �has blood in his hands� with the deaths of a number of members of activist groups in the Philippines. Musa hinted that Ermita may not be serious in making the vow as he has been a key government official during the country�s most darkest periods for those who spoke against the state. He noted that Ermita not only is one of the most influential officials in the present administration, being President Arroyo�s alter-ego, but also had held various key roles during the martial law times under the leadership of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
On the Stalled MILF-GRP Peace Talks (tags)
The Alliance for Just and lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) through its National Coordinator Mario Santos expressed dismay over the break-off of peace talks between the Moro Islamic Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GRP ) last December 16,2007. The AJLPP’s Santos saidthat the news is bad for the cause of peace, learned through media sources that the scheduled exploratory talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday did not push through after the MILF backed out of the meeting due to a dispute over a draft agreement on territorial boundaries. The MILF rejected the inclusion by government negotiators of the phrase “constitutional process” in the proposed draft Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain as the mode for implementation of the agreement.
DUTCH FASCISM & BUSH-ARROYO STATE TERRORISM ATTACK FILIPINO REFUGEES (tags)
Colluding with U.S. & Filipino reactionaries, Dutch fascist authorities arrested Jose Maria Sison, a Filipino political refugee, and raided the National Democratic Front International Information Office in Holland. This is a clear example of State Terrorism working on behalf of predatory imperialist capital. All progressives and democrats everywhere should protest this outrage and support the Filipino people's struggle for justice, equality, and true independence.
Ermita, 2 Cabinet men ‘spoilers’ of talks — MILF (tags)
he Moro Islamic Libe-ration Front (MILF) has accused the Arroyo administration of being a “spoiler” of the peace negotiations, noting that three Cabinet officials are “steering the talks to an unknown direction,” saying like before the MILF is being tricked. MILF secretariat chair-man Muhammad Ameen, in a statement posted on the group’s Web site, yesterday also doubted President Arroyo’s sincerity in signing a peace agreement before she steps down in 2010. “There are many spoilers of the peace process espe-cially in Mindanao, but all those are secondary, and the main or worst spoilers are those in the govern-ment itself,” he noted.
MORE WARS FOR GMA TO FIGHT (tags)
Communist leader Jose Maria Sison’s arrest by the Dutch police for two murders committed in the Philippines is yet one more example of the Philippines, a sovereign country, giving up its sovereignty to a foreign power by acknowledging The Netherlands’ jurisdiction over a case, or cases committed on Philippine soil. It would have been understandable, and even correct, for the Dutch authorities to order the arrest of Sison and whoever else among the self-exiles in the communist movement, if he and anyone of them broke Dutch law for a crime committed in Dutch territory. But to arrest Sison on charges of two murders committed in the Philippines years ago?
ARROYO REVS UP SULU OFFENSIVE (tags)
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday remained steadfast to her administration’s all-out war against the Abu Sayyaf group and other rogue elements accused of beheading 10 of the 14 Marines who died in a July 10 firefight in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan. Mrs Arroyo said the war in Mindanao, which so far claimed the lives of 25 soldiers and wounded 10 others, is not an act of vengeance but a strategy to win peace," against those who spread “mayhem" and “bloodsport" in the South. “We cannot allow terrorists to hold the South hostage to their agenda of mayhem and bloodsport," she said.
Philippine Govt rejects OIC on MNLF camps (tags)
The Philippines has rejected the request of the powerful Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)—the United Nations of Muslim majority countries, whose official observer for the Philippines is the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)—to give back to the MNLF’s Ustadz Habier Malik the two camps that government troops wrested from Malik on April 15. The OIC is helping all parties in the Mindanao conflicts keep the peace. Its richer members are pouring development aid into Mindanao and have pledged to invest billions to make Mindanao and the Filipino Muslims enjoy prosperity and modernization. Malik had issued a declaration of jihad (holy war) against the government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines after government troops overran his MNLF camps in retaliation for his group’s attack, using mortars, on a Marine base. Malik’s attack killed two Marines.
TOOLKIT FOR DISMANTLING THE ARROYO KILLING MACHINE IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
On this May 14 election week, the brutal Arroyo regime in the Philippines backed by the Bush administration is facing the people's judgment for "crimes against humanity." This essay reflects on themes and issues surrounding the crisis of the neocolonial polity in the context of Bush's war of terror and barbaric, predatory globalized capital's assault on the peoples of the world.
Talks with MILF to resume after elections (tags)
Stalled peace talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are to resume after the May 14 elections. Both sides have agreed to work toward a resumption of the talks, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement Thursday. ---BACKED by howitzer and mortar fire, elite Army troops on Thursday seized a makeshift camp of the Moro National Liberation Front in Sulu where nearly 100 Abu Sayyaf extremists were believed to be hiding.
MILF-GRP Peace Talks Update ; MILF wants entire Kudarat- GRP (tags)
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is demanding the inclusion of the entire Sultan Kudarat province as part of a new autonomous region in Mindanao as a condition for a final peace agreement with the government, a ranking Malacañang official revealed yesterday.
War in Mindanao :Palace, AFP reject OIC call for ceasefire in Sulu (tags)
Manila-- Malacañang is giving full support to the military offensive against renegade Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) forces in Sulu, which entered its fourth day of fierce fighting yesterday. While the government acknowledges the appeal of the 47-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to disengage forces, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said there must be an assurance against further attacks from the renegade forces. Nearly 8,500 families ( 40,000 people)have fled the fighting and thousands crammed into schools and gymnasiums in downtown Jolo, relying on food rations from disaster agencies. The mass evacuations are a bitter development for conflict-scarred residents, who had hoped Jolo was becoming a more stable place after a long-running military campaign to rid the island of scores of Islamic militants.
8,000 families displaced in Sulu fighting; OIC steps in (tags)
More than 8,000 families ( 40,000 people)have fled their homes as Marines and Army troops hunted down renegade Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander Habier Malik and his men, who have killed 12 people in Sulu. For three days now, thousands of troops have been sent to Sulu to run after Malik’s band after he escaped when the military captured his sprawling hilltop encampment in Panamao, Sulu on Sunday. Reports said several MNLF commanders, along with an undetermined number of fighters from the towns of Pata, Daungdong and Capual in Sulu, are now fighting alongside Malik.
MILF: Raps vs Murad imperil peace talks (tags)
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) protested yesterday the inclusion of its chieftain, Al Haj Murad, in a criminal complaint filed in connection with the recent bomb attack in Makilala, North Cotabato, warning it could endanger the already stalled peace talks. Police filed a murder complaint the other day against Murad and several suspected MILF commanders with the Kidapawan City prosecutor’s office for allegedly plotting the Oct. 10 bombing that killed six people and wounded 29 in Makilala town, government prosecutor Al Calica said.
On Terrorism and Mass Media (tags)
Reply to questions by Ms. Roselyn Beltran, BA Journalism student at the University of the Philippines (UP), for a paper on "Terrorism and Mass Media"
MILF: WE ARE FOR NEW WAR (tags)
Media sources reported that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said yesterday that it was prepared to return to war should negotiations on territory, the thorniest of issues in ongoing peace talks with the government, lead to results not to its liking. Negotiations on territory, which documents on the peace talks describe as issues of ancestral domain, bogged down in Kuala Lumpur. More than 50,000 people died at the height of the Mindanao War just after Marcos declared martial law in 1972. In 2000, more than a million people were displaced when then President Joseph Estrada declared an “all-out war” policy aimed at dismantling MILF camps in Mindanao.
Arroyo regime has a malicious view of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations (tags)
The highest officials of the Arroyo regime, especially executive secretary Eduardo Ermita, chief of staff Mike Defensor and presidential adviser Jesus Dureza, have repeatedly declared that there is no need to resume the formal talks between the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels but that the office of the presidential adviser on the process will coordinate with local units of the GRP to stage localized negotiations with elements that they hope to attract from the local forces of the revolutionary movement.
FREE THE TAGAYTAY 5! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ARROYO'S JAILS! (tags)
The massive human rights violations in the Philippines by the Arroyo regime have been universally condemned by Amnesty International, the United Nations, National Lawyers Guild, Reporters Without Borders, and other international bodies. We call on U.S. citizens to demand the cut-off of U.S. military and other assistance to the corrupt and illegitimate Arroyo regime as a gesture of solidarity to millions of Filipinos victimized by the tyrannical, militarist Arroyo regime.
US-RP Military dared to show proof of JI operations in Sulu (tags)
MILITARY authorities should justify their offensive in Sulu by presenting credible proof that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives from Indonesia are operating there, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said in a statement Saturday.
Sulu air, ground offensive continues (tags)
The Navy captured four suspected Abu Sayyaf supporters yesterday as they tried to breach a naval blockade of Jolo, Sulu to flee the military’s artillery bombardment and air strikes, which continued for the third day yesterday. The offensive is targeting Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants Umar Patek and Dulmatin who are wanted for the Bali bombings in Indonesia in October 2002.
MNLF officials belie GMA (tags)
Top Muslim leaders and Moro National Liberation Front officials in Central Mindanao on Wednesday belied President Arroyo’s claims that government has met “80 percent” of its peace deal with the MNLF, as contained in the 1976 Tripoli agreement.
Atrocities creep into Maguindanao fighting (tags)
Pesante-USA/AJLPP prints new reports of atrocities that have begun to surface in Maguindanao as fighting between militia and rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continued to escalate. A lone gunman killed the wife of a senior MILF leader implicated in a failed attempt to kill the provincial governor, the military said Thursday.
Killing season in the Philippines (tags)
The escalating repression taking place now in the Philippines is no coincidence. Twenty years since the end of the dictatorship and three "people's power" uprisings later, Philippine society is hugely polarized.
The anniversary of the death of the Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal this Dec. 30 affords us the occasion to reassess his work, particularly in the context of ongoing fierce class war in the Philippines between the oppressed, impoverished majority and the few privileged landlords and politicians bought by global capital. This is taking place at a time when the Philippines is being re-colonized by the U.S. as the world's imperialist hegemon. Would Rizal want the country partitioned to greedy transnational corporations and their national elites in the current terrorist war against peoples of color in particular? These reflections hope to provoke a re-thinking of what it means to be a Filipino with the Philippines in permanent crisis, using Rizal as a point of departure, especially in the light of its citizens becoming an embattled diaspora--more than ten million OFWs as exploited domestics and contract workers around the planet, while the country's rich natural resources, cultures and traditions are wasted by foreign profiteers of globalizing capital supported by local comprador parasites currently headed by the corrupt Arroyo regime. "O where is the hope of the motherland...."?
Philippines 2003: how 300 troops mutiny unmasked "war on terror" (tags)
[As you may notice, I’ve cut this part of the article because the question of peace talks between the left party RPMP-RPA-ABB and the Government has obviously nothing to do with the gangsters of GUAC. It's better to avoid any confusion. – Felix Zorba, October 7, 2003]
CIA - Faked Terror Machine. (tags)
CIA AGENT MICHAEL MEIRING BLEW HIS OWN LEGS OFF WHILE PLANTING A TERRORIST BOMB American Treasure Hunter Michael Meiring is nearly killed in a fiery explosion in his hotel room in the Philippines! Arrest warrents have been issued for him and California based partners after his escape to USA.
Philippines: 300 troops mutiny unmasks "war on terror" (tags)
A group of 296 soldiers - 70 junior officers and 226 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)- staged on July 27 a siege of the Oakwood Premier luxury hotel at the Ayala Center in Makati.
did CIA fake terror bombings i philippines? (tags)
remember lavon affair in 1954? Has US done something similar here?
Red Targets in the ''War on Terrorism'' (tags)
Think about that. Hundreds of al-Qaeda, demanding principally that the U.S. get its troops out of Saudi Arabia. Tens of thousands of communist-led guerrillas---and many millions who identify with the legacy of the historical left---demanding an end to exploitation and inequality on the planet.