FREE OUR SISTERS, FREE OURSELVES! END VAW BY FIGHTING AGAINST THE US-MARCOS II REGIME!
GABRIELA USA slams Marcos Jr.’s ridiculous statement claiming that he is concerned about the crisis of VAW that plagues Filipino women both in the Philippines and the US. While he says he wants to build a “Bagong Pilipinas where every woman is seen, heard, lives free from fear and empowered to thrive in society,” the reality is that conditions for women have only worsened under this administration. More efforts have been put towards militarizing the Philippines rather than providing genuine social services. It is none other than the US-Marcos II regime that is the number one cause of violence against Filipino women today, the number one human rights violator.
While Marcos Jr. pays lip service to the fact that women suffer under gender-based violence, he glosses over the reality that his own policies and armed forces play in continuing the “cycle of violence” he claims he wants to break. Between severely low wages and lack of regular work that keep Filipino women impoverished, the prioritization of US militarization over funding basic social services, and the use of VAW by the PNP and AFP as tools to intimidate, harass, surveil and attack Filipino women activists, it is clear that the US-Marcos II regime not only ignores the issue of VAW but directly benefits from it.
In the Philippines, there are 757 political prisoners, with at least 156 of them being women. These are people who were brave enough to speak out against injustice, and now many have been imprisoned for multiple years with no sight of release. Some women are young, like Fatima Banjawan (20) and Frenchie Mae Cumpio (25), and other women are elderly like Cleofe Lagtapon (71) and Atel Hijos (81). These women fight for a range of issues, such as anti-trafficking campaigns, peasants’ rights, labor rights and of course women’s rights. Many were arrested on false or trumped-up charges and face inhumane conditions in the prisons, like Alexa Pacalda who experienced psychological torture, food and sleep deprivation and being forced to sign “voluntary surrender” documents.
There are even more heinous practices from the US-Marcos II regime outside of the prison cells, where VAW is used as a tool to break up the militant women’s movement, especially in rural areas and among peasant communities. For decades now, rural and peasant women are subject to the desperate attempts to crush the revolutionary movement, and the despicable moves of the reactionary state pay no mind to the casualties caused along the way. Kyllene Casao was only 9 years old when the 59th Infantry Battalion shot her dead on July 18, 2022, just one month into Marcos Jr.’s presidency. Red-tagging women activists, a practice meant to crush growing dissent in the Philippines, usually also comes with threats of sexual violence and rape.
Despite these human rights violations and crimes against the Filipino people, it is the US that continues to fund and arm the Philippine military and police. State officials like US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claim an “ironclad commitment” to the Philippines yet their actions show their true intention is to maintain a militarized presence in the country and dominate the Asia Pacific. They have no interest in releasing the hundreds of political prisoners who are concretely fighting for the rights and welfare of the people, fighting against VAW and against the systems that continue to oppress the nation. As Filipinos abroad we have a direct role in uplifting this struggle and waging our collective fight for a better, pro-people Philippines – free from foreign control.
GABRIELA across the globe remains steadfast in carrying out the genuine solution to organize. It is through our collective action that we can realize a just society that upholds the basic rights of women, children and the LGBTQ community.! We call on the Filipino people to join us in the waging of the following campaigns:
Clemency for Mary Jane Veloso! She is an OFW detained for 14 years in Indonesia, and is only able to return back to the Philippines because of the tireless organizing efforts of Migrante, GABRIELA and other people’s organizations.
End VAW! Justice for Melissa Jubane! GABRIELA members in Seattle and Portland have been side-by-side to achieve justice for Melissa Jubane, a Filipina nurse who was murdered in Oregon and has an entire community behind her fighting for true accountability to be achieved.
End wage theft! GABRIELA chapters in Northern and Southern California have been supporting workers in caregiving facilities and hotels fighting for their earned wages. Exploitative employers must not only pay out what the workers have rightfully earned, but also be held accountable for their bad faith practices.
Defend Migrant Women! Free Ligaya and Justice for Alma Bowman, two Filipino women who have been subjected to the violent and hazardous conditions in for-profit ICE detention centers in the US. GABRIELA is calling for their genuine freedom and an end to carceral systems that threaten the lives of migrant women.
Safe and affordable housing and livelihood for migrant Filipinos! GABRIELA members in Southern California work with Filipino migrants to fight for access to decent and affordable living in the midst of a cost of living crisis. Our people, especially those of the working class who sacrifice so much to migrate and contribute to this society, should not be subject to greedy landlords, evictions and neoliberal housing projects that don’t solve the problem.
End violence against women and children by fighting for national democracy! Let’s fight for and build a system that will genuinely look after our people’s needs and safety!