Philippines - Ranking Red exec named party-list third nominee (tags)
The Anakpawis party-list announced on Monday that it was adding the name of Randall Echanis, a political consultant of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), as its third nominee, a move which observers say could hasten the integration of the extreme left into the political mainstream.
NDF-GRP Panels Held Preliminary Talks in Norway:Talks to Resume in February (tags)
The ALLIANCE NEWS, the news service of the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) based in the United States reported today that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panels held preliminary talks last 14-18 January 2011 in Oslo, Norway and agreed to resume formal peace talks. Formal talks could not be held for six years during the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because of the latter’s conspiracy with the US to put the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison on the US terrorist list and its refusal to resolve the socio-economic roots of the armed conflict.
Filipino farmers’ nation-wide march for Land Reform to kick off Jan. 10 (tags)
A nationwide protest march to highlight President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s alleged string of heinous crimes against farmers will kick off in Mindanao on January 10 and end in Manila on January 22, in time for the 23rd anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre, a partylist lawmaker said on Saturday. PESANTE NEWS learned today that Anakpawis partylist Representative Rafael Mariano said the nationwide farmers’ caravan was only an “opening salvo of sustained mass actions for this year leading to the end of the anti-peasant, corrupt, and fascist Arroyo administration.” Nationwide March for Land Reform “The nationwide march and caravan of farmers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao will highlight Ms Arroyo’s string of heinous crimes against farmers, from wide-scale land-grabbing, brazen human rights violations, and unabashed plunder of agricultural funds, among others,” Mariano said in a statement.
STOP THE POLITICAL PERSECUTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES! (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA demands that the US-Arroyo regime free al political prisoners and quash all made up charges against activist in the Philippines! Although the Supreme Court ordered the release Randall Echanis, detained NDFP consultant and KMP deputy secretary general and a FQS activist, the US-Arroyo regime has failed to quash its made-up charges against those with warrants of arrest. More than 20 NDF consultants and peace advocates and at least 200 activists has been languishing in jail since the breakdown of the peace talks four years ago. More than 80 people are in the regime’s “wanted list".
FREE RANDALL ECHANIS, IMPLEMENT THE JASIG TO RESUME PEACE TALKS NOW! (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA again raise the demand for the US-Arroyo regime to free Randall Echanis. Until now the GRP has failed to release Randall Echanis ,detained NDFP consultant and KMP depurty secretary general and a FQS activist. The US-Arryo regime has failed to quash its made-up charges against those with warrants of arrest. Echanis has been languishing in jail together with other NDF consultants since the breakdown of the peace talks four years ago. For Pesante-USA, this is a major obstacle to the resumption to the peace talks between te NDFP and the GRP. This is a major indication that the GRP wants to scuttle the Oslo meeting. This is blatant and obvious attempt of the GRP and the US-Arroyo regime and the militarist in the AFP to freeze in the Supreme Court the question of releasing Randall Echanis and to make difficult or impossible the release of other detained NDFP consultants.
NDFP-GRP RESUMES PEACE TALKS IN OSLO, NORWAY (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) greets the resumption of exploratory talks towards the resumption of peace negotiation between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) this coming weeks with guarded optimism We express elation whenever the peace process moves forward after almost five years of being stalled due to the intransigence and lack of good faith on the part of the US-Arroyo regime.
NDFP-GRP RESUMES PEACE TALKS IN OSLO, NORWAY (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) greets the resumption of exploratory talks towards the resumption of peace negotiation between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) this coming weeks with guarded optimism We express elation whenever the peace process moves forward after almost five years of being stalled due to the intransigence and lack of good faith on the part of the US-Arroyo regime.
NDF CONDEMNS PITAO MURDER IN MINDANAO (tags)
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines condemns in the strongest terms the abduction and brutal murder of 20-year-old Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of Lencio Pitao, Commander of the New People's Army. We hold Mrs. Gloria Arroyo and Executive Secretary, General Eduardo Ermita responsible for this dastardly violation of Rebelyn Pitao's right to life. It is likewise a blatant violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
FQS 39th Anniversary, Jan 30-31, 1970 (tags)
We the activist from the Kilusang Dekada 70 (KD70) remembers that thirty-nine years ago, on January 30-31, 1970, from the night of January 30 to the early morning of January 31, 1970 fought the Philippine police and army forces who attacked the progressive forces in what is now known in history as the Battle of Mendiola. Four activist were killed and more than 150 were wounded by gunfire and at least 600 others were arrested and jailed in the Camp Crame. Manila became a virtual military camp but the activist were not cowed and the series of mass actions were launched now collectively known as the First Quarter Storm of 1970.
PESANTE SUPPORT ECHANIS FAST (tags)
Filipino Peasant advoccy group based in LA, Pesante-USA fully and militantly support peasant leader Randall Echanis who is holding a protest fast inside the Manila City Jail on Wednesday to mark the first year of what he said was his "very unjust" detention. "Pesante-USA is one and in solidarity with all activist organizations, relatives and sympathizers who also went on a fast and camped out in front of the Supreme Court along Padre Faura Street in Manila to call for the release of 60-year-old Echanis and denounce the Arroyo administration's "fascist stance" against activists." said, Arturo P. Garcia Pesante-USA coordinator
PESANTE SUPPORT ECHANIS FAST (tags)
Filipino Peasant advoccy group based in LA, Pesante-USA fully and militantly support peasant leader Randall Echanis who is holding a protest fast inside the Manila City Jail on Wednesday to mark the first year of what he said was his "very unjust" detention. "Pesante-USA is one and in solidarity with all activist organizations, relatives and sympathizers who also went on a fast and camped out in front of the Supreme Court along Padre Faura Street in Manila to call for the release of 60-year-old Echanis and denounce the Arroyo administration's "fascist stance" against activists." said, Arturo P. Garcia Pesante-USA coordinator
ACTIVIST CONTINUE PROTESTS THROUGHOUT CHRISTMAS (tags)
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
KD70 SUPPPRTS ECHANIS PETITION (tags)
The Kilusang Dekada 70 (KD70) based in the United States supports Randal Echanis motion in the the Supreme Court to dismiss the murder case filed against him in Leyte. The activist group composed of the veterans from the Firtst Quarter Storm (FQS) of the 1970’s supports the 50-page petition for certiorari of Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general for external affairs of the progressive peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines, KMP) that asked the high court to order his unconditional release to any humanitarian or religious institution.
PAHAYAG NG PESANTE-USA SA PLANONG PAGPAPALAYA KAY ROLITO GO (tags)
Saksakan ng kawalang walang budhi at sadyang maiitim ang buto. Kung mailalarawan lamang ng mga salitang ito ang mga kagagawan ng rehimeng Arroyo, marahil sasapat na sabihin kung gaano kasama ang ginagawa ng rehimen sa mga mamamayan nito. Baka parang asin na natunaw na sila kung sila ay may kahihiyan. Sukdulan na ang pagiging walanghiya ang rehimen. Matapos bigyan ng patawad ang mga nagkasalang kriminal tulad nina Manero, Martinez , Claudio Teehanke Jr. na walang awang pumatay ng dalawang kabataan noong 1991. At ngayon naman plano diumano ng rehimeng Arroyo na palayain si Rolito Go.
We, Filipino Americans in the United States are aghast at the height of callousness of the Department of Justice as it issues statements that shows its impartiality towards a former government official who is going to be deported by the US government while it wields a heavy hand on a peace consultant of the NDF in the Philippines. We, in the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) vehemently condemn the defiance of DOJ and the PNP in its insistence on not transferring Randall Echanis from the Manila City Jail to Camp Crame. This recycled policy of treating political dissidents like common criminals is a worn-out Marcosian tactics being used now by the US-Arroyo regime.
OCAMPO HITS DOJ, PNP FOR EFYING COURT ORDER ON ECHANIS TRANSFER (tags)
Manila--Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo yesterday denounced the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Philippine National Police for defying a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) order transferring peasant leader Randall Echanis back to the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame. Last Monday, Col. Cesar Magsino, chief custodial group, PNP, a certain Col. Degracia, HQ service and support group, PNP, defied the Manila RTC Branch 32 order by not taking custody of Echanis pursuant to DoJ advice through higher headquarters.
AJLPP CONDEMNS US INTERVENTION IN MINDANAO (tags)
“We want peace now, stop the Philippine military offensives in Mindanao.” The Alliance-Philippines strongly demanded that the US-Arroyo regime stop all military offensives in Mindanao and return to negotiations. The AJLPP also condemned the US armed intervention in Mindanao. This as the number of war refugees swelled up to 300,000 from 210,000 in two weeks as the conflict escalates. The AJLPP also supports the stand of Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo that “arming civilians would not help the government’s efforts to restore peace in southern Philippines. He said, “We are against it, because violence can never be a solution. It will not solve the problem,”
AJLPP Protests The Arrest of Randall Echanis, KMP Leader and a member of NDFP Peace Panel (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) vehemently condemns the unjust transfer and detention of Kilusan ng Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) deputy secretary-general Randall Echanis to the Manila City Jail (MCJ). The AJLPP comments that Echanis, who has been suffering from hypertension, should not be detained at the MCJ due to his health. ” It is a smack of political persecution and a pattern of repression by the US-Arroyo regime against known NDFP peace consultants It has been the SOP of the US regimes since Dictator Marcos during martial law to lump political detainees with common criminals. The US-Arroyo regime precisely doing this maneuvers. ” said the AJLPP.
Free Filipino Political Prisoner Randall Echanis Now (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) and all its allied organizations in North America expresses deep and serious concern over the continued detention of a ranking officer of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)or the Peasant Movement of the Philippines- Randall Echanis and demand his immediate release. On Tuesday, KMP Deputy Secretary for internal affairs Randall Echanis was transferred from the Palo Provincial Jail in Leyte to the Camp Crame Detention Center. An AJLLP coordinator commented that “members are happy that at least he was transferred to Camp Crame in Manila from Hilongos Leyte.” Updates were received that at around 7 a.m., some 30 supporters of Echanis, peasant activists including his wife Erlinda, son Ramill and daughter Amanda, and other relatives and friends, trooped to the EDSA gate of Camp Crame to greet his arrival.” The AJLPP seriously believes that Echanis, was falsely charged for murder in connection with mass graves discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. Like other NDF peace consultants who are languishing in jail, they are being unjustly targeted by the US-Arroyo regime. AJLPP fully supports position of the KMP chair Paeng Mariano and the Echanis family that the imprisonment of Echanis, was meant to “preserve the illegitimate, immoral and evil reign of President Arroyo.”
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) and all its allied organizations in North America expresses deep and serious concern over the continued detention of a ranking officer of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)or the Peasant Movement of the Philippines- Randall Echanis and demand his immediate release. On Tuesday, KMP Deputy Secretary for internal affairs Randall Echanis was transferred from the Palo Provincial Jail in Leyte to the Camp Crame Detention Center. An AJLLP coordinator commented that “members are happy that at least he was transferred to Camp Crame in Manila from Hilongos Leyte.” Updates were received that at around 7 a.m., some 30 supporters of Echanis, peasant activists including his wife Erlinda, son Ramill and daughter Amanda, and other relatives and friends, trooped to the EDSA gate of Camp Crame to greet his arrival.” The AJLPP seriously believes that Echanis, was falsely charged for murder in connection with mass graves discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. Like other NDF peace consultants who are languishing in jail, they are being unjustly targeted by the US-Arroyo regime. AJLPP fully supports position of the KMP chair Paeng Mariano and the Echanis family that the imprisonment of Echanis, was meant to “preserve the illegitimate, immoral and evil reign of President Arroyo.”
Behind Bars: The Travails of a Political Prisoner, Randall Echanis, KMP (tags)
Randall Echanis, of the militant peasant organization the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, is not the only political prisoner of the Arroyo regime. There are currently 240 prisoners in detention by the count of Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), an organization dedicated to helping political prisoners.
Samar court summons top CPP leaders and party-list rep (tags)
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) here has ordered the clerk of court to issue anew summonses to 37 respondents to a petition of writ of amparo filed by the family of a missing barangay official. During the hearing on March 24, RTC Branch 30 Judge Jovito Abarquez also issued an order of protection for Dennis Gutierrez, son of Elizabeth Gutierrez who was allegedly abducted by New People’s Army (NPA) members on Oct. 24 last year.
Karahasang Militar Lumalala: Lider ng KMP, inaresto; pastor, pinatay ng militar (tags)
Kabilang sa mga karumal-dumal na krimen ng rehimeng Arroyo nitong nakaraang mga linggo ang pagpaslang sa isang pastor ng UCCP sa Leyte at pagpatay sa isang aktibista sa Bohol. Sa kanayunan ng Tagum, nagpapatuloy ang sapilitang paglikas ng mga residente dahil sa matitinding operasyong sa kanilang mga lugar. Sa Maynila, mahigit 80,000 residente ang mawawalan ng tirahan dahil sa proyektong riles. Sa Negros, inaresto ang isang lider ng KMP, at sa Palawan, dalawang pinaghihinalaang myembro ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan (BHB) ang dinukot ng militar. Isa ring lider-masa sa Cebu ang dinukotat dalawang araw na itinago ng militar bago siya makatakas.
Free the Cuba Five Billboard in LA Unveiled, February 1, 2008 (tags)
The Free The Cuban Five Billboard along the busy Hollywood Blvd. and Bronson St. was unveiled with a press conference attended by scores of solidarity activists last February 1, 2008. Speakers at the press conference includes Jim Lafferty, Executive Director of the National Lawyers League-Los Angeles Chapter; Blasé Bonpane, Executive Director, Office of the Americas; Gloria La Riva, National Coordinator of Free the Cuba Five; Sheila Esguerra of ANSWER –LA and Arturo P.Garcia of the Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP). Ian Thompson of ANSWER-LA acted as the emcee. For more information about the Free the Cuban Five see www.freethefive.org
AJLPP Protests The Arrest of Randall Echanis, KMP Leader and a member of NDFP Peace Panel (tags)
The AJLPP through its national coordinator Mario Santos today strongly condemns the illegal arrest of Mr. Randall Echanis, KMP deputy secretary general and a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee (RWC) on Social and Economic Reforms (SER), by the Arroyo regime’s police agents yesterday at Bago City, Negros Occidental. The AJLPP considered the arrest of Echanis a big blow against the cause of peace. Mr. Echanis was arrested by the PNP in Bago City while he was to attend a conference of agricultural workers in preparation for a KMP national rural congress. Negros is one the KMP’s strongest base where the National Federation Sugar Workers (NFSW) is based. He was flown by the PNP with haste to Hilongos , Leyte where he was detained.
FQSN-USA Statement on the 38th Anniversary of The First Quarter Storm (FQS) “Battle of Men (tags)
We the activist from the First Quarter Storm Network-USA remembers that thirty-eight years ago, on January 30-31, 1970 fought the Philippine police and army forces who attacked the progressive forces in what is now known in history as the Battle of Mendiola. Two years after, on September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial in the Philippines and plunged the country into 14 years of dictatorship and blatant fascism. Today, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal –Arroyo is trying to institute another kind of martial law, an undeclared martial law in the guise of fighting the “US war Against Terror”. FQS activist like Randall Echanis, Elizabeth Principe, Philip Limjoco, Leo Velasco and others were arrested without charges and held in jail. Militant activist who are serving the people are being thrown in jail and incarcerated.
RELEASE KMP LEADER RANDALL ECHANIS- Pesante-USA (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA. a Filipino peasant., human rights and environmental advocacy network in the United States and a member organization of the AJLPP, strongly condemns the arrest and detention of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) deputy secretary general Randall Echanis, 60 years old in the island of Negros last Monday, January 28,2008 in the Philippines. Pesante Coordinator Arturo Garcia said : “the arrest of Echanis, is a strong warning to legal activist to stop organizing the Filipino peasantry. It is also a strong arm tactic of the AFP and the PNP to implicate legal mass leaders to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA as a part of their legal offensive.” “With the extension of Esperon as AFP Chief of Staff, the US-Arroyo regime will try to make out KMP and other legal mass organizations as “communist organizations” in order to present them as war trophies.
SC junks rebellion raps vs Beltran, ‘Batasan 5’ (tags)
Rebellion charges against six legislators identified with leftist groups were thrown out by the Supreme Court yesterday in what the opposition described as a defeat for President Arroyo’s administration. The court ruled that state prosecutors did not have probable cause to file charges against Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran and the group dubbed as the “Batasan 5,” who were accused of plotting a coup against Mrs. Arroyo last year along with military rebels and opposition politicians.