RISE Against Fascism, RESIST Militarization, UNITE for Self-Determination!
#RISERESISTUNITE has been the rally cry for GABRIELA USA and adopted in various ways to connect local, national, and international issues of Filipino women and people in the time of the U.S. Trump-Duterte regime. We encourage GABRIELA USA chapters to adopt local calls to fit into the frame of RISE, RESIST, and UNITE.
#RISERESISTUNITE has been adopted by the One Billion Rising global movement and continues to inspire women and people around the globe. GABRIELA (Southeast Asia – Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos) is a global coordinator of One Billion Rising.
#BabaeAko
Babae Ako translates to “I Am Woman” a call that has united women against Macho-Fascism throughout the Philippines and across the globe. #BABAEAKO began as a video project of various well known Filipino women personalities making a statement to President Duterte and a pledge to fight against his macho-fascist regime, Lalaban Ako! It has since gone viral and turned into a global campaign of women’s united response to President Duterte’s Macho-Fascist statements.
In June 2018, Time Magazine named the women of #BabaeAko as one of the 25 Most Influential People On The Internet.
Justice for Trafficked Teachers
Justice for Trafficked Teachers campaign
Since 2003, batches of teachers from the Philippines have been illegally recruited and trafficked to the U.S. Case complaints have been reported to the Philippine Embassy officials in the past via the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), however, the response from the Philippine government has been inadequate and unsatisfactory.
The Justice for Filipino Trafficked Teachers campaign under GABRIELA USA was launched on March 17, 2014 on the death anniversary of Flor Contemplacion, Filipino domestic worker in Singapore who was accused of the supposed murder of her employer and then executed. Like Flor, thousands of Filipinos leave the Philippines in search for working opportunities to support themselves and their families. Due to the lack of genuine land reform, national industrialization, and underemployment, the socio-economic crisis in the home country leaves Filipinos no choice but to go abroad. As forced migration continues this cycle, the Philippine Government remains unresponsive and neglects to protect the rights and welfare of our overseas kababayan.
Since having launched the Filipino Trafficked Teachers campaign, GABRIELA USA mass organizations recognize trafficked teachers from other states in the U.S. have been coming forward in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. There are over one hundred teachers still in the Philippines who are victims by the same recruiter, Isidro Rodriguez, and have united together to form GURO, or “Grupo ng mga Gurong Umuusig kay Rodriguez,” with Migrante International to extend the campaign to the home country in order to seek justice for all victims.