For Immediate Release
July 28, 2008

BAYAN USA Statement on Arroyo's State of the Nation Address '08

Reference: Berna Ellorin, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA, email: secgen@bayanusa. org

FILIPINO-AMERICANS STAND WITH THE PEOPLE'S SONA IN REJECTING GLORIA'S LIES AND DECEPTION
BAYAN USA Calls on U.S. Taxpayers to Demand the End U.S. Military and Political Aid to Arroyo's Regime

Today, in several cities across the US, Filipinos and solidarity allies will be convening in front of Philippine consulates and community centers to register their opposition to the rotten, corrupt, and morally bankrupt regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We do so on the same day Arroyo delivers her deceptive version of the so-called State of the Nation Address or SONA and the same day hundreds of thousands across the Philippines are taking to the streets to reject another year of lies, deception, and treason from a government that continues to fail them, and us. They will also be telling the true state of the nation through vibrant protest and struggle.

Today, the Arroyo government will boast of so-called economic growth and progress for the Filipino people, but the streets and countryside will tell a different story. The streets of Manila and other cities in the Philippines will tell the story of long lines to buy the basic staple food of rice from the National Food Authority, it will tell the story of long power outages and brownouts due to skyrocketing energy rates, it will tell the story of squatter children picking garbage to find food, and of families from the countryside moving into the cities because they can no longer afford to pay rent to their landlord, for whom they till the soil. It will also tell the story of long lines at the Overseas Worker Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for visa processing for those looking to find work abroad. Behind government corridors backhanded deals will be made, and corrupt politicians will count the money they have plundered from public funds. The countryside will tell stories of civil war, US and Philippine militarization, human rights violations, hunger and forced displacement. These sights, not the speech of President Arroyo, paint the true state of the Philippine nation.

For the over 4 million Filipinos in the United States, the largest Filipino population outside of the Philippines, much as not improved under the Arroyo administration. For the most part, migration to the US has increased considerably since neo-liberal policies imposed on the Philippine economy by Arroyo have eradicated the potential for industrialization and employment in the Philippines. Because of the need to survive deepening poverty in the Philippines, Filipinos in the US have no choice but to make ends meet for them and their families in the US by any means necessary, including living under the shadows as undocumented immigrants without any rights if need be. We are also subject to raids and deportations at the hands of the US Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), human rights violations that occur without any intervention from Philippine consular officers representing the Arroyo government in the US.

Filipino World War II Veterans, who have been fighting for their equity for over six decades now, have little to thank the Arroyo administration for, as the regime used the issue only as a token ruse to cover up its intention to beg for more US military aid as the main reason for it's recent trip to the United States. The Arroyo government has never advocated or intervened on behalf of the interests of the Filipino veterans, who continue to suffer from a historical wrongdoing of the US government, nor has the Arroyo government advocated or intervened on behalf of the interests of Filipino immigrants suffering from a broken and exploitative US immigration system.

The Arroyo clique, however, has wasted no time in collecting the billions of US dollar remittances from Filipino workers in the US to sustain the failing economy and contribute in giving a "semblance" of economic growth that Arroyo shamelessly takes the individual credit for. Now she is even taxing us for each dollar we remit! This is to produce another plunderable fund for election season and bribery fund to win loyalty from politicians.

Philippine consular officers in the US not only plunder public funds meant to go to programs for overseas Filipino workers via the OWWA, but they assist the forced migration of Filipinos to the US by implementing corrupt schemes of human trafficking under the radar. Such has been the case with the Sentosa 27 healthcare workers, teachers, and domestic helpers such as Marichu Baoanan.

The answer for Filipinos in the US is clear: the struggle to remove Arroyo, as the President of the Philippines by impeachment, resignation, or ouster is a just and necessary struggle, but we must hold no illusion that it is the only means to end the Filipino people's suffering. It is only the first step to pressuring for a new type of Philippine government-- one that is inclusive of the voices of workers, peasants and urban poor, one that is cognizant of the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants and not just interested in collecting our remittances, one that will industrialize the country for the creation of jobs so Filipinos don't have to look abroad, one that will redistribute Philippine lands to the hands that till them, and one that will kick all foreign troops out of the country and uphold patrimony. This will take a new and improved type of "People Power ". To save the Philippines from suffering the fate of the sunken MV Princess of the Stars, we must start first and foremost with unseating Arroyo from her seat of power.

OUST THE US-ARROYO REGIME!
END GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION!
ROLLBACK RICE & OIL PRICES; ABOLISH THE RICE CARTELS!
US TROOPS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!
END HUMAN TRAFFICKING!
SCRAP THE OVERSEAS REMITTANCE TAX!

Nationwide, international protests set on Arroyo SONA
News Release

July 26, 2008


Various cities in the Philippines and abroad are gearing up for protest actions to coincide with the annual State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.



Mass actions are expected in Baguio, Southern Tagalog region, the Bicol region, Cebu, Caraga, Davao City and Bacolod City



There will also be a regional transport strike affecting the Bicol provinces of Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon on Tuesday, just hours after Arroyo delivers her SONA.



In Cebu, protesters under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan are expected to gather at Fuente Osmena Circle before marching towards the Gaisano Mall. In Davao, Bayan forces will march towards Rizal Park and will a hold a protest action followed by a concert.



In Bacolod, protesters will be holding a caravan on Sunday before the main rally on Monday at the Bacolod Public Plaza where they expect around 2,000 participants. The groups will be mounting a Gloria effigy in the form of an octopus.



Across the world, various mass actions are also expected. In the United States, Bayan USA and its affiliates will stage protests at the Philippine consulates in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The protest in San Francisco will feature a sinking ship being submerged by a two-headed monster with the faces of Arroyo and US president George W. Bush, Jr.



In Hong Kong, Filipino migrant workers will also hold a protest in front of the Philippine consulate. Around 55 migrant organizations are expected to join the activity. Also expected to attend are Bangon Pilipinas and other church-based groups. The protest will also focus on the government's neglect of migrant workers.



Filipinos in Toronto, Canada will be holding a "People's Festival" on July 27 while the Vancouver-based Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights will hold a "Pagsambang Bayan". Actions are also expected in Montreal and Ottawa on July 28.



Filipino organizations in Sydney and Melbourne are also holding activities critical of the Arroyo SONA. In Okinawa, Japan, a gathering will be held on July 27 to discuss the current Philippine situation.

***Pulled from LFS Philippines website***

Why you should join the July walkouts (or every other mobilization after that)

by Karl Castro

Upon hearing the phrase "the July 10 walkout," your immediate reaction may be a wrinkling of the nose, or a doubtful frown. Perhaps you immediately think, Rali ng rali, wala namang nangyayari. Or even, There are other ways to settle the issue. There are other ways to participate.

But you're wrong. At the very least, you've been misled.

Mass demonstrations remain to be the strongest statement of solidarity among citizens. Yes, it is difficult to gather people, organize a program, and reach a broad unity for a particular stand on today's issues. Yes, it is tiring and seemingly impossible–but that is what makes mass actions all the more effective. Its difficulty is precisely the reason why it is the best means of registering dissent.

It is a fallacy to expect that a mass demonstration will bring about immediate and tangible change. If one holds that opinion, one is either heavily brainwashed (by parents/administrators/backward student political formations) or overly and wrongly utopian (read: ultra-left). As John Berger said in his brilliant essay The Nature of Mass Demonstrations (a must-read for the newbie rallyist), the value of a mass demonstration is symbolic. It is a demonstration of the power of the people, a "rehearsal of revolutionary awareness." It is for the participants, more than anyone else, for it heightens their sense of solidarity. As members of an oppressed class fighting for their basic rights, the demonstrators also "dramatize the the power they still lack."

Though largely symbolic in value, mass demonstrations are far from futile. Berger explains the state dilemma which a huge mobilization poses:

Either authority must abdicate and allow the crowd to do as it wishes: in which case the symbolic suddenly becomes real, and, even if the crowd's lack of organisation and preparedness prevents it from consolidating its victory, the event demonstrates the weakness of authority. Or else authority must constrain and disperse the crowd with violence: in which case the undemocratic character of such authority is publicly displayed. The imposed dilemma is between displayed weakness and displayed authoritarianism.

Why all the friction, then? one may ask. Isn't there a safer, more quiet means to achieve social change more concretely?

That depends on the kind of change you want to achieve. For example, hindi ba pwedeng mag-donate na lang sa charity ng pera or relief goods? Or magtayo ng mga bahay through Gawad Kalinga? Yes, that's helpful to some extent, but it in no way changes the unjust social relations which brought about the need for charity organizations in the first place. Though the feeling of "unselfish" hard work (in the form of old-school carpentry and other menial jobs generally alien to the bourgeoisie) must do wonders for one's heart and conscience, well, that's the problem. It's done to placate oneself, to make one feel less guilty of being "privileged" in society.

That is the problem with (oxymorons like) corporate social responsibility. In the 2008 World Economic Forum, obscenely-rich Microsoft person Bill Gates extols corporate responsibility (or what he likes to call "creative capitalism"):

The challenge here is to design a system where market incentives, including profits and recognition, drive those principles to do more for the poor. I like to call this idea creative capitalism, an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities.

[Insert collective smirks and giggles here.] Gates' speech is an example of the inherent problem of capitalism, namely, it needs inequality to survive. In spite of all the corporations' pseudo-activist rhetoric, one cannot eradicate poverty in a capitalist society simply because it is its lifeline. The mere concept of private property and drive for profit is enough to illustrate this. In fact, these corporate social responsibility spectacles are merely grand PR stunts which help give companies a more humane and acceptable image, an endeavor ultimately undertaken not to uplift people from poverty, but to increase profit.

Capitalist incursion into education, in particular, also banks on this humane face. Scholarships, donations, buildings and facilities bearing the companies'/donors' names–these are the marks of education in a capitalist society. These "acts of kindness" are a smokescreen for the blunt reality that education has been commercialized and is out of reach for the majority. At the very least, recipients of corporate kindness (both students and educational institutions) are compelled to feel indebted to the companies which support them. More often than not, scholars are drawn to work for them (like, say, SM scholars).

Fine, you say. Charity work may not be the best option. What about lobbying? Or table battles with the administration?

It is a false dilemma, the choice between mass demonstrations and table battles. This is a line pseudo-progressive political formations are wont to toe. In reality, however, one must do both. The outcome of table battles without accompanying mass demonstrations are insufficient. Take for example the 2003-04 fight against Senate Bill 2587 (which is pretty much the new UP Charter). Despite the massive lobbying efforts on the part of the students, the bill's main proponent, Senator Francis Pangilinan, still challenged them to show their numbers. They did, and thanks to simultaneous mobilizing and lobbying, the bill was not passed.

Table battles, even with mass demonstrations, are generally weak. Administration officials, after all, have the densest conscience. The 2006 passage of the 300 percent tuition hike in UP is a prime example, where the repeated assertion of dissent in various fora, consultations and even Board of Regents meetings led the administration to evade table battles altogether, just to pass the damn thing.

This is where we come in. This is where our current interventions, in the form of the July walkouts, are necessary. We were strong in the past, and we have only achieved moderate success. We need not be afraid nor reluctant to participate in mass demonstrations; the current national crisis, especially in education, cannot be any more concrete and compelling. History tells us that we need to be stronger, and mass actions give us that.

John Berger
The Nature of Mass Demonstrations



From International Socialism (1st series), No.34, Autumn 1968, pp.11-12.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O'Callaghan for ETOL.



This article originally appeared in New Society, 23 May 1968. We think it important enough to deserve reconsideration. It is reprinted with the kind permission of New Society's editor.

Seventy years ago (on 6 May 1898) there was a massive demonstration of workers, men and women, in the centre of Milan. The events which led up to it involve too long a history to treat with here. The demonstration was attacked and broken up by the army under the command of General Beccaris. At noon the cavalry charged the crowd: the unarmed workers tried to make barricades: martial law was declared and for three days the army fought against the unarmed.

The official casualty figures were 100 workers killed and 450 wounded. One policeman was killed accidentally by a soldier. There were no army casualties. (Two years later Umberto I was assassinated because after the massacre he publicly congratulated General Beccaris, the 'butcher of Milan.')

I have been trying to understand certain aspects of the demonstration in the Corso Venezia on 6 May because of a story I am writing. In the process I came to a few conclusions about demonstrations which may perhaps be more widely applicable.

Mass demonstrations should be distinguished from riots or revolutionary uprisings although, under certain (now rare) circumstances, they may develop into either of the latter. The aims of a riot are usually immediate (the immediacy matching the desperation they express): the seizing of food, the release of prisoners, the destruction of property. The aims of a revolutionary uprising are long-term and comprehensive: they culminate in the taking over of State power. The aims of a demonstration, however, are symbolic: it demonstrates a force that is scarcely used.

A large number of people assemble together in an obvious and already announced public place. They are more or less unarmed. (On 6 May 1898, entirely unarmed.) They present themselves as a target to the forces of repression serving the State authority against whose policies they are protesting.

Theoretically demonstrations are meant to reveal the strength of popular opinion or feeling: theoretically they are an appeal to the democratic conscience of the State. But this presupposes a conscience which is very unlikely to exist.

If the State authority is open to democratic influence, the demonstration will hardly be necessary; if it is not, it is unlikely to be influenced by an empty show of force containing no real threat. (A demonstration in support of an already established alternative State authority – as when Garibaldi entered Naples in 1860 – is a special case and may be immediately effective.)

Demonstrations took place before the principle of democracy was even nominally admitted. The massive early Chartist demonstrations were part of the struggle to obtain such an admission. The crowds who gathered to present their petition to the Tsar in St Petersburg in 1905 were appealing – and presenting themselves as a target – to the ruthless power of an absolute monarchy. In the event – as on so many hundreds of other occasions all over Europe – they were shot down.

It would seem that the true function of demonstrations is not to convince the existing State authority to any significant degree. Such an aim is only a convenient rationalisation.

The truth is that mass demonstrations are rehearsals for revolution: not strategic or even tactical ones, but rehearsals of revolutionary awareness. The delay between the rehearsals and the real performance may be very long: their quality – the intensity of rehearsed awareness – may, on different occasions, vary considerably: but any demonstration which lacks this element of rehearsal is better described as an officially encouraged public spectacle.

A demonstration, however much spontaneity it may contain, is a created event which arbitrarily separates itself from ordinary life. Its value is the result of its artificiality, for therein lies its prophetic, rehearsing possibilities.

A mass demonstration distinguishes itself from other mass crowds because it congregates in public to create its function, instead of forming in response to one: in this, it differs from any assembly of workers within their place of work – even when strike action is involved – or from any crowd of spectators. It is an assembly which challenges what is given by the mere fact of its coming together.

State authorities usually lie about the number of demonstrators involved. The lie, however, makes little difference. (It would only make a significant difference if demonstrations really were an appeal to the democratic conscience of the State.) The importance of the numbers involved is to be found in the direct experience of those taking part in or sympathetically witnessing the demonstration. For them the numbers cease to be numbers and become the evidence of their senses, the conclusions of their imagination. The larger the demonstration, the more powerful and immediate (visible, audible, tangible) a metaphor it becomes for their total collective strength.

I say metaphor because the strength thus grasped transcends the potential strength of those present, and certainly their actual strength as deployed in a demonstration. The more people there are there, the more forcibly they represent to each other and to themselves those who are absent. In this way a mass demonstration simultaneously extends and gives body to an abstraction. Those who take part become more positively aware of how they belong to a class. Belonging to that class ceases to imply a common fate, and implies a common opportunity. They begin to recognise that the function of their class need no longer be limited: that it, too, like the demonstrations itself, can create its own function.

Revolutionary awareness is rehearsed in another way by the choice and effect of location. Demonstrations are essentially urban in character, and they are usually planned to take place as near as possible to some symbolic centre, either civic or national. Their 'targets' are seldom the strategic ones – railway stations, barracks, radio stations, airports. A mass demonstration can be interpreted as the symbolic capturing of a city or capital. Again, the symbolism or metaphor is for the benefit of the participants.

The demonstration, an irregular event created by the demonstrators, nevertheless takes place near the city centre, intended for very different uses. The demonstrators interrupt the regular life of the streets they march through or of the open spaces they fill. They 'cut off these areas, and, not yet having the power to occupy them permanently, they transform them into a temporary stage on which they dramatise the power they still lack.

The demonstrators' view of the city surrounding their stage also changes. By demonstrating, they manifest a greater freedom and independence – a greater creativity, even although the product is only symbolic – than they can ever achieve individually or collectively when pursuing their regular lives. In their regular pursuits they only modify circumstances; by demonstrating they symbolically oppose their very existence to circumstances.

This creativity may be desperate in origin, and the price to be paid for it high, but it temporarily changes their outlook. They become corporately aware that it is they or those whom they represent who have built the city and who maintain it. They see it through different eyes. They see it as their product, confirming their potential instead of reducing it.

Finally, there is another way in which revolutionary awareness is rehearsed. The demonstrators present themselves as a target to the so-called forces of law and order. Yet the larger the target they present, the stronger they feel. This cannot be explained by the banal principle of 'strength in numbers,' any more than by vulgar theories of crowd psychology. The contradiction between their actual vulnerability and their sense of invincibility corresponds to the dilemma which they force upon the State authority.

Either authority must abdicate and allow the crowd to do as it wishes: in which case the symbolic suddenly becomes real, and, even if the crowd's lack of organisation and preparedness prevents it from consolidating its victory, the event demonstrates the weakness of authority. Or else authority must constrain and disperse the crowd with violence: in which case the undemocratic character of such authority is publicly displayed. The imposed dilemma is between displayed weakness and displayed authoritarianism. (The officially approved and controlled demonstration does not impose the same dilemma: its symbolism is censored: which is why I term it a mere public spectacle.) Almost invariably, authority chooses to use force. The extent of its violence depends upon many factors, but scarcely ever upon the scale of the physical threat offered by the demonstrators. This threat is essentially symbolic. But by attacking the demonstration authority ensures that the symbolic event becomes an historical one: an event to be remembered, to be learnt from, to be avenged.

It is in the nature of a demonstration to provoke violence upon itself. Its provocation may also be violent. But in the end it is bound to suffer more than it inflicts. This is a tactical truth and an historical one. The historical role of demonstrations is to show the injustice, cruelty, irrationality of the existing State authority. Demonstrations are protests of innocence.

But the innocence is of two kinds, which can only be treated as though they were one at a symbolic level. For the purposes of political analysis and the planning of revolutionary action, they must be separated. There is an innocence to be defended and an innocence which must finally be lost: an innocence which derives from justice, and an innocence which is the consequence of a lack of experience.

Demonstrations express political ambitions before the political means necessary to realise them have been created. Demonstrations predict the realisation of their own ambitions and thus may contribute to that realisation, but they cannot themselves achieve them.

The question which revolutionaries must decide in any given historical situation is whether or not further symbolic rehearsals are necessary. The next stage is training in tactics and strategy for the performance itself.

***Thanks LFS-PH

US Gov't Should Follow Suit From Mandela by Removing Sison, CPP, NPA Off Terrorist List As Wel
l
July 3rd, 2008

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, a national alliance of Filipino organizations in the United States expresses heartfelt congratulations to South African freedom-fighter Nelson Mandela over his recent dropping from the a dated US immigration watchlist of possible terrorists. The US State Department has also dropped Mandela's organization, the African National Congress (ANC) from the same list after more than decades of being tagged. This precedes the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list developed by the US State Department after September 11, 2001. BAYAN USA also calls on the US government to follow suit with this momentous victory by dropping Professor Jose Maria Sison, another freedom-fighter and political refugee in the Netherlands, as well as his former organizations the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), off the FTO listing as well.



Effective last Tuesday, President George W. Bush signed off on a bill that would allow Mandela to travel to the United States without having to get certification from the US Secretary of State that he's not a terrorist. "Today the United States finally has removed from its legal code a vestige of that time of collective insults against human dignity," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, one of the bill's supporters.



"Categorizing someone as admired as Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists is an indication that US government labels are ridiculous and not indicative of the truth. Nelson Mandela was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his activism while the US government listed him as a terrorist. Meanwhile, Jose Maria Sison is still demonized by the US and Philippine governments and European Union, and is still in exile. The reality is that what Sison symbolizes to the marginalized and impoverished Filipino majority and others around the world is also deserving of worldwide admiration, not condemnation," states BAYAN USA Chair Chito Quijano.



As for the CPP-NPA listing, the alliance stood firm that although they themselves do no endorse or engage in armed struggle, they assert the listing of these organizations as terrorists are unfounded and unjust.



"Just like the US State Department retracted its listing of the ANC as a terrorist organization, they should also retract such labels on the CPP-NPA. If we are to qualify terrorist organizations as those who inflict unnecessary harm and sow fear among the people, the Philippine military under the command of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime is more of the real terrorist, not the CPP-NPA. They are waging a principled struggle in the countryside based on legitimate demands of the majority of the Filipino people who are fed up with a rotten and abusive system. We may have no link to them, but we do recognize the legitimacy of their fight as a popular one, " Quijano added.



"If Mandela and the ANC can be hastily labeled as terrorists by the US government then be dropped decades later out of acknowledged error in judgement, surely we can deduce that the US government was just as hasty and erroneous when they labeled Sison, the CPP, and the NPA as terrorist organizations as well. We hope the US government will also acknowledge their error as they did with Mandela and the ANC," Quijano ended.



The FTO labels on the CPP-NPA were a strong contributing factor to declaring the Philippines as the so-called Second Front to the War on Terror by the Bush administration in 2002. This led to the massive deployment of US troops to the Philippines to conduct joint military exercises under the auspices of anti-terrorism.



Professor Jose Maria Sison has been the target of several assassination attempts, including an illegal arrest and raid last year in Utrecht. Although a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands, Sison's democratic right to travel and to work were stripped due to the FTO listings of the US government and EU. His office in Utrecht remains a popular hangout for peace and anti-war advocates visiting the Netherlands.

More on the Rice Crisis: Profiteering and Poverty

If there is no shortage, locally and internationally, and no compelling reason for the increases in rice prices and yet it is happening then somebody is making a hefty profit out of it at the expense of the majority of the Filipino people.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
ANALYSIS
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 12, April 27 - May 3, 2008

As I have written in my previous analysis of the rice crisis, there is no shortage and yet prices are increasing. In fact, a trader quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), in a four-part special report by Fernando del Mundo, "Most Filipinos ignored warnings of a 'perfect storm'", claimed that if one has a bag of money, s/he could buy as much rice as s/he wants. A news report of ABS-CBN last week reported that rice grains in Nueva Ecija are rotting because traders do not want to buy rice for fear of being charged with hoarding rice. But rice prices are increasing.

Why?

Isn't it that the law of supply and demand - the god of classical, neoliberal economics - dictates that when supply is abundant, the price is low?

The Arroyo government is accusing the rice cartel of hoarding stocks to profit from price spikes. President Arroyo, herself, has directed the National Bureau of Investigation to focus on running after rice hoarders, not smugglers.

Traders, on the other hand, are blaming "unscrupulous elements in the state-owned NFA" of trying to make money by making it appear that there is a shortage. On the other hand, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr pointed out that the Arroyo government is profiting from the supposed shortage as increased rice imports means more money lining the pockets of government officials to the tune of $50 per ton or $105 million dollars for the 2.1 million metric tons to be imported.

International production, consumption, and prices

The same PDI special report also quoted a warning by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a March 12 article in the Washington Post that the world was "facing a perfect storm of new challenges," pointing out that prices of wheat, corn and rice increased by as much as 50 percent or more in the past six months and cereal stocks dropped to record lows. In explaining the spikes in food prices, the Asian Development Bank reportedly said that population growth in 2007 was higher than the growth in rice production for the same year.

Statistics released by the FAO, however, showed that world production of rice and wheat have consistently increased. Rice production increased from 161,183,000 metric tons in 1948-50 to 472,687,000 metric tons in 1985. By the beginning of the 1990s, according to UNCTAD, rice production was at approximately 350 million metric tons. It was 410 million metric tons by the end of the century. It approximated 387 million tons of milled rice in 2002 and 395 million tons in 2003. By 2007, according to data from the International Rice Research Institute, it has reached 645 million metric tons.

World rice consumption, according to the UNCTAD report, increased 40 percent in the last 30 years from 61.5 kg per capita to 85.9 kg per capita. But this is more than compensated by the increase in rice production by 73 percent from 1977 at 372,261,000 tons to 2007, which is at 645 million tons.

So there is really no urgent reason for rice prices to increase in the world market. The rice price spikes seem to stem from speculation. In the U.S., according to a report by GMANews.TV, the price of rice, at commodity futures markets, in contracts for delivery in July, jumped by 62 cents "as investors bet that surging world demand will continue to pressure already dwindling stockpiles" (italics mine).

It is worth noting that only 5 to 6 percent of world rice production is traded internationally. More than 95 percent of the rice produced is consumed by the producing countries themselves. The implication is that prices of rice in the international market could not and should not impact significantly on local prices because it constituted a very small percentage of local consumption.

Another point worth pondering is that: why did the Philippines, an agricultural and rice producing country, become one of the top importers of rice? The Philippines is planning to import 2.1 million metric tons this year surpassed only by the 2.3 metric tons average rice imports of Indonesia - the 4th most populous country in the world- from 1998-2002. The Philippines was not even listed by UNCTAD as among the main importers of rice from 1998-2002.

Has production gone that bad or is someone making money out of rice imports? In both situations, the Arroyo government is to blame: either it let local rice production deteriorate so badly or it is making money out of imports as former Speaker Jose de Venecia has revealed.

Disgusting

If there is no shortage, locally and internationally, and no compelling reason for the increases in rice prices and yet it is happening then somebody is making a hefty profit out of it at the expense of the majority of the Filipino people.

For how can the 65 million Filipinos who, according to IBON Foundation, live on P96 ($2.28 at an exchange rate of $1=P42.04) or less per day, afford rice now costing more than P40 ($0.95) per kilo? Moreso, how can the poorest 5.2 million households whose incomes are chronically insufficient for their spending afford the increases in rice prices?

That is why more and more people line up under the scorching sun to be able to buy rice at the subsidized price of P18.25 ($0.43) per kilo. And this is not even enough as subsidized rice being sold by NFA outlets is very limited. Most are forced to either buy commercial rice, which they cannot afford, or cut down their consumption of rice, the staple of Filipinos.

Profiteering amid widespread hunger and poverty is terribly disgusting and we should not allow this to continue. Better still, we should not let this government, which is responsible for the worsening poverty and for making it possible for unscrupulous elements, local and foreign, from within and outside the government to profit from the people's desperate situation, to continue. Bulatlat

FILIPINOS CALL FOR AN END TO RAIDS, DISPLACEMENT, AND DEPORTATIONS! LEGALIZATION FOR ALL!

Statement on International Workers Day, May 1, 2008


On May 1st, 2008, the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), Northern California and Anakbayan East Bay joins thousands in the Bay Area and millions across the country to demand "Legalization for All" immigrants. With over 4 million Filipinos total in the U.S. and approximately 1 million undocumented or "TNT" ("tago ng tago" = always hiding) community members, we reject the current enforcement- heavy framework that focuses on immigration as the domestic front for the Bush Administration' s War on Terror.


The Philippines is the third largest immigrant sending country to the United States because of the historical and current neo-colonial relationship between the Philippines and the U.S. , and we demand true independence and self-determination for the Philippines , instead of being treated as a dumping ground for US goods and a source of cheap labor and natural resources. The discredited Gloria Magcapagal-Arroyo administration in the Philippines has time and again demonstrated her subservience to Bush's US War on Terror in the Philippines and her complete disregard for the most basic needs of the Filipino people.


Today, we are part of the 3,400 Filipino overseas workers leaving the Philippines every day in search of economic opportunities and a better life for ourselves and our families. The Sentosa 27++ Nurses, previously contracted to work in New York , represent the growing Filipino contract labor population in the U.S. , who are subject to the worst forms of exploitation, abuse, and discrimination. They are currently winning their struggle against their employers so that their most basic worker and human rights be respected, despite the efforts of US and Philippine government officials who intervened on behalf of the employers. We demand Justice for the Sentosa 27++ Nurses, their lawyer, and all immigrant workers, and we reject the expansion of guest worker programs in the U.S. and the Labor Export Program of the Philippines.


We are an under-resourced and underserved community in the United States , and we demand an end to the U.S. Wars in Iraq , Afghanistan , and the Philippines under the Bush Administration' s War on Terror. We demand that the funding going to this endless war be channeled to expand culturally competent resources and services for low-income immigrant working families such as affordable housing, healthcare, education, living wage jobs and other safety net services.


We are Filipino students who suffer from unequal access to higher education, and we demand access to education for ALL youth, regardless of their status or income level. We support the California and Federal DREAM Acts which would give students both financial aid and access to college education instead of driving them prematurely into the workforce of a languishing US economy, or worse yet into underground economies.


We are families struggling to live and work TOGETHER instead of suffering from an inhumane 25-year backlog for family reunification petitions. We demand that the US government "Unclog the Backlog", reunite families, and provide "Legalization for All."


Our families have suffered enough political repression, deep and pervasive corruption, and displacement due to landgrabbing in our home country, all additional reasons for the massive outmigration of Filipinos from the Philippines . We also demand an end to the Immigration, Customs, & Enforcement (ICE) raids, detentions, and deportations that terrorize and tear apart our families even further, and we will educate, organize and mobilize our kababayan to defend ourselves against these direct political attacks on our communities.


We are an ever-growing immigrant community in the U.S. that has suffered from racist violence, worker exploitation, and forced displacement throughout our history of migration to this country. The current instances of police brutality and harassment of the Custodio family in San Jose and against Southeast Asian Youth in Alameda County are the continuation of the long history of racism against Filipinos and other low-income people of color and immigrant workers. We demand an end to racial profiling and state violence against our community, Justice for the Custodio Family and for all immigrants and low-income people of color.


Today, we join allies from the International League of Peoples Struggles; and in San Francisco, with Deporten a La Migra Coalition and the May 1st Alliance; and in Oakland, with the the Oakland Sin Fronteras coalition, to march together to call for an end to displacement and deportation of our African, African American, Arab, Latino, Chinese, and all people of color, immigrant and working class communities in the U.S. as we mobilize Filipino contingents in Bay Area from San Francisco to Oakland to San Jose. Our contingents in the May Day rallies represent the diversity and strength of our united peoples struggles for genuine immigrant, worker, and human rights.


Today, NAFCON-Northern California and Anakbayan East Bay stand in solidarity with millions around the country and continue the struggle for the preservation and reunification of families, respect for immigrant and worker rights, and the promotion of the welfare of immigrant, working class, and people of color communities throughout the U.S. We also look forward to the building of the International Migrants Alliance and its Founding Assembly on June 14-17, 2008 in Hong Kong . This will be an important step to further advance the struggle for the rights and welfare of all migrants, displaced persons, and refugees around the world.


LEGALIZATION FOR ALL!

NO TO POLITICAL REPRESSION HERE AND ABROAD!

STOP ICE RAIDS, DISPLACEMENT, AND DEPORTATIONS!

JUST, HUMANE, ACCESSIBLE AND COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW!

...they up to no good...It's up to us to keep them accountable... STP!!

Military Men Hovering Around Ka Satur's Home

BY BULATLAT
April 20, 2008 - 10:50 a.m.

Six military-looking men in civilian clothes are currently moving around the house of Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo. Bayan Muna is wondering why military men are hovering within the vicinity of Ka Satur's house when there is no pending warrant of arrest against the legislator. Rep. Ocampo was last arrested March 16, 2007 on multiple murder charges filed against him and other members of progressive party-list groups in Leyte but was ordered released on bail by the Supreme Court. As far as Bayan Muna knows, there is another case filed against Ka Satur by the Department of Justice at the Regional Trial Court in Nueva Ecija, which they labeled as a "trumped up" charge meant to harass the legislator. But no warrant of arrest has been issued for that case. Bulatlat

Worst is yet to come for the Arroyo regime

Press statement
13 March 2008
Reference: Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Chairperson

Contrary to the statement of national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, the worst is yet to come for the embattled Arroyo regime. The worsening economic hardship, intensifying repression, and persistent corruption allegations will continue to feed social unrest and fan political instability.

Gonzales declared Wednesday that the "worst of the political crisis is over" and Mrs. Gloria Arroyo has survived the $329-million broadband corruption scandal.

Gonzales ignored the impact of deteriorating poverty on the hold to power of Arroyo. The latest official poverty incidence report disclosed that between 2003 and 2006, more than one million Filipinos are added every year to the number of poor or three million for three years. This further undermines the ability of Arroyo to govern as an increasing number of people feel that the government is not addressing their economic concerns. This will enhance the isolation of the Arroyo regime from the people.

Trends indicate that the worsening economic hardship will persist in the coming months. Unprecedented oil price increases, almost simultaneous hikes in the prices of basic food items and in water and power rates will continue to erode wages and income. Ordinary families could barely afford even half of the cost of living while more than 10.8 million people are either jobless or underemployed. At the global level, the looming US recession has yet to take its full impact on the local economy. But once it does, expect a serious production slowdown that could mean higher unemployment and poverty.

There are also no signs that Arroyo will depart from her current pro-market and anti-people economic policies. She could not afford, for example, to let go of the regressive value added tax (VAT). While the VAT contributes to high prices of basic goods and services, it is also the most reliable source of revenues for the bankrupt regime.

On the other hand, the repression of the Arroyo regime of legitimate protests for economic and political reforms is becoming more vicious. The brutal dispersal of protesting workers in front of the Labor department on March 6 shows the readiness of the regime to use more violence to preserve itself. But this only fuels the people’s outrage and determination to fight for justice and reforms.

Meanwhile, the public perception that corruption under the Arroyo regime is chronic remains pervasive and will continue to hound Arroyo. A Pulse Asia survey in October 2007 shows that Arroyo is perceived by most Filipinos to be the most corrupt president. This has been confirmed by a recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) that ranked the Philippines as the most corrupt country in Asia.

The combination of worsening poverty, increasing repression, and continuing efforts to cover up corruption provides the condition for the lingering unrest and more protests.

The people will not remain passive amid the current political turmoil. They will take action once they realize that their plight is being aggravated by the wrong economic policies, repression, and corruption of the Arroyo regime. This will further strengthen the growing movement calling for a change in the national leadership and for meaningful political and economic reforms.

Gonzales and the entire Arroyo clique should not take comfort in the coming long holiday break. It could be the proverbial "calm before the storm". (END)

AB Sec Gen Katie Joaquin