TORONTO,
CA — Over 500 advocates from organizations across
the world marched to confront the US Consulate in Toronto on
Friday, September 26 to kick off Kapit Bisig (“Linking Arms”
in Tagalog), the largest ever global conference opposing
US-led war and plunder in the Philippines. Activists and
human rights defenders visiting from the Philippines,
alongside solidarity allies from 12 countries, came together
to expose the US-led human rights abuses in the Philippines,
as well as to resist the impacts US aggression and
imperialism around the world.
Prominent Filipino
leaders like Mong Palatino, the president of progressive
political party Makabayan and journalist; Danilo “Ka Daning”
Ramos, chairman of the national farmers’ union Kilusang
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas; and other Filipino activists,
labour leaders, and church leaders spoke outside the
consulate about the brutal conditions of peasants, workers,
and victims of human rights violations in the Philippines
under intensifying military and economic intervention by
foreign states, such as Canada and especially the US.
Solidarity allies and advocates from across Canada, Europe,
Asia, Oceania, and the US attended, answering the urgent
call to strengthen international support for the Filipino
people’s struggle for liberation.
“This is why your
solidarity to us is so important,” said Mong Palatino. “It
sends the message that the Filipino people are not alone in
their struggle.”
US-led war and plunder accelerating
under Pax Silica
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Activists called to shut down Pax
Silica — a US-led initiative to secure the global supply
chain for AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology
independent from China, in order to further US interests in
war and profit-making. Just this August, Philippine
president Marcos Jr has committed 1,600 hectares of land in
Central Luzon for foreign mining projects and developing AI
data centers as a part of Pax Silica.
Marcos Jr
spreads blatant lies claiming Pax Silica would create new
jobs and develop industry in the Philippines, but speakers
shared experiences from the peasants and workers that show
clearly how Pax Silica leads to increased suffering of the
Philippine’s most vulnerable farming, Indigenous, and urban
poor communities, causing mass displacement, destruction of
the environment and sacred ancestral lands, and increased
exploitation, militarization, and human rights violations.
Local organizations, farmers, and the Aeta Indigenous
community in Central Luzon joined by people from all across
the Philippines are enraged by this attack on their
sovereignty and have been protesting in the thousands to
“Shut the Pax Down!”
American and Filipino civilians
killed by Philippine military in April
Activists
highlighted one of many instances of heightened US-backed
attacks and militarization of peasant communities and
demanded justice for the Negros 19. On April 19th of this
year, in Toboso, Negros Occidental, US-backed Armed Forces
of the Philippines massacred 19 people, including 2 minors
and 7 other cilivians, in an indiscriminate military assault
on peasant communities. Among those killed was Lyle
Prijoles, a Filipino American and member of the US chapter
of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines (ICHRP).
“They took Lyle from us. They
took Kai from us. They took 17 others. But here we will not
be deterred,” said United Methodist Pastor Sadie
Stone.
Stone is also a member of the US chapter of
ICHRP, and was prevented from entering the Philippines
earlier this year. She is one of many human rights activists
who have been blacklisted by the Marcos Jr regime, revealing
his fear of being exposed for his crimes against the
Filipino people and tangible impact of the growing
international support for the National Democratic movement
of the Philippines which aims to end US domination of the
Philippines.
“If they don’t let us in to the country,
we will organize everywhere else!” continued Stone. “In
every city, every church, every union hall, every campus.
They can ban our bodies from their country, but they cannot
ban the truth, and they cannot ban international
solidarity.”
Kapit Bisig Global
Conference
Friday’s rally and march was led by the
Toronto chapter of the International League of Peoples’
Struggle, a global alliance of anti-imperialist
organizations. March attendees brought the main theme
highlighted by global conference into concrete action
against the US consulate – Kapit Bisig: Linking Arms
Across the World Against the US War of Suppression on the
Filipino People.
The Kapit Bisig conference
brought together over 500 attendees from around the world
and was organized by ICHRP (International Coalition
for Human Rights in the Philippines), FFPS (Friends of
Filipino People’s Struggle) and the IADL (International
Association of Democratic Lawyers). Guest speakers from the
Philippines shared about the human rights situation in the
Philippines and discussed with the conference attendees
concrete ways the international community can support the
Filipino people including – campaigning to Stop the US-led
War of Suppression against the Filipino People and to Free
All Political Prisoners; going on solidarity and
fact-finding missions to the Philippines; and bringing in
more people to understand and support the Filipino people’s
struggle for just and lasting peace.
The
International Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines is a global network of organizations,
concerned about the human rights situation in the
Philippines, and committed to campaign for just and lasting
peace in the country. It aims to inform the international
community about the grave human rights situation in the
Philippines today. ICHRP operates in 15 countries around the
world. More than 50 member organizations include churches,
trade unions, environmental advocacy groups, and grassroots
Philippine solidarity groups, among others. Friends
of Filipino People’s Struggle is a global alliance
in support of the revolutionary movement for national and
social liberation in the Philippines. The
International Association of Democratic
Lawyers is a Non-Governmental Organization
accredited to ECOSOC and UNESCO, that aims to restore,
defend and develop democratic rights and liberties in
legislation and in
practice.
