Gerry Albert Corpuz presents

This is Gerry Albert Corpuz and this is my life and political journey to the world of class struggle and class emancipation

20 Pamalakaya activists to swim tomorrow in Mactan waters to rebuff Gonzales
DoJ Secretary Gonzales told: There are no sharks in Mactan Strait

Leftwing militants belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Monday said they are not afraid to be thrown to Mactan Strait and be fed to sharks because are no sharks in Mactan Strait.

“ In fact we are going to hold a fluvial protest and swim across the Mactan Channel during the 12th ASEAN Summit. Secretary Gonzales is a poor student of science and history. Sharks will not live in the highly polluted waters of the channel,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The militant leader said the only marine specie that could live and be found in the waters of Mactan Strait is galunggong or round scad, the favorite fish of the poor. To prove their point, tomorrow 20 Pamalakaya fisherfolk activists will swim from Talisay City to Malacañang of the South in Cebu City as part of the build up for major protests slated during the Asean meeting next month.

“ But there are crocodiles roaming around Mactan Channel. They wear uniforms, but we are not afraid of them too,” Hicap added referring to the combined elements of maritime police, navy and marines tasked to guard the Mactan Strait from alleged terrorists out to disrupt the international gathering of ASEAN chiefs of states.

Secretary Gonzales last week issued a life threatening statement against foreign and local activists that they would be feed to sharks if they proceed with their day-to-day protest activities against the holding of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from December 11-13 in Cebu City.

The controversial justice secretary said intelligence reports had indicated that domestic and foreign activist groups would attempt to disrupt ASEAN’s Summit of Leaders from Dec. 11-13, but expressed optimism that the 15,000 combined security forces would be able to prevent them from conducting their protests.

Pamalakaya and its local affiliate Panahugpong ng Gagmayng Mananagat sa Sugbo (Pamana-Sugbo) together with militant party list group Anakpawis, International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) will organize a fluvial protest simultaneously with the opening of the 12th ASEAN meet in Cebu next month.

Around 50 fishing boats will sail from Cebu City to Old Mactan Bridge in Lapu-Lapu City. The activity is dubbed as People’s Fluvial Protest Against US War of Terror and Plunder. The militant group said around 50 fisherfolk activists will jump off and cross the Mactan Channel once they reach the Old Mactan Bridge on Dec.12.

“ Secretary Gonzales, a dying, aging and has-been politician has further exposed the bankruptcy of his boss and the ruling syndicate in Malacañang with his incorrigible and mind-boggling threat to the international and domestic communities of activists and patriots,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

“ He is in the twilight years of his career as Jurassic politician in the country. But still he prefers to work for the devil rather than change and work for his redemption. History will not be kind to him and to his imperialist master and immediate lady boss in Malacañang,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:24 | link | comments |

Filipinos deserve public apology from Japan for experimenting on them during WW II, not JPEPA

Leftist activists belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday urged the Japanese government to state a public apology for treating Filipinos during World War II as objects of medical experiment and later killed them.

“ The victims of Japanese occupation forces deserve justice and public apology from Japan for their crimes against the Filipino people and definitely not the one-sided trade pact being peddled by Japanese-owned transnational giants,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“ The Japanese government should atone for its unforgettable crimes against the Filipino people by sending public apology coupled with justice and compensation for their victims and quit from pushing their millennium agenda like the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement which is as brutal as their war crimes against our countrymen,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya believed that the Japanese imperial army experimenting on biological warfare injected Filipino prisoners of war with typhus, cholera and other diseases, the same medical experiment they did in Harbin, China under the Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731.

A report from the Associated Press said that the Japanese navy conducted surgical training on Filipinos, including women and children, during the Second World War and then killed them, according to Akira Makino, a former navy medic deployed in Mindanao.

The Japanese medic revealed that about 30 Filipinos were operated as part of the medical training before strangled to death between December 1944 and February 1945. He said operations performed on the victims include severing legs and arms and abdominal surgery, and in some cases after their faces were covered with a cloth and sprayed either with ether.

Makino came out into the open to reveal the Japanese imperial crimes more than 60 years after World War II and the Japanese colonial rule in the Philippines. The Japanese medic now living in Japanese city of Hirakata said he came forward because of nightmares after keeping the secret for more than six decades.

“ Students of history and advocates of true blue patriotism should not forget these brutal and gruesome crimes perpetrated by the Japanese imperial army in the country. It is one of the major reasons why we should keep up the fight against Japan and the United States for making us the biggest casualty of unjust war between two imperialist countries,” Hicap said.

Pamalakaya argued that after using Filipinos as experiment for biological warfare during World War II, Japan will now convert the country into one of its biggest dumpsites of toxic wastes and surplus substandard food under JPEPA recently submitted by Malacañang for Senate deliberation and approval.

The militant group is expected to highlight their fight against JPEPA during their weeklong protest in Cebu from December 10-14 coinciding with the staging of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. Aside from JPEPA, Pamalakaya, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS) will also banner the issues regarding US war of terror and intervention the Philippines and the spate of political killings of leftwing activists and journalists across the country. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 08:00 | link | comments |

Leftist group says declares war against RP-US free trade pact
Pamalakaya: GMA did it for political survival

Denouncing the proposed RP-US free trade agreement as a recycled Bell Trade Act, the lopsided free trade agreement between the two countries in the post World War II era, the anti-US fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo offered a new trade pact in the name of her own political survival.

“ She did it for the sake of her own political survival. She’s courting the US support by offering the country’s remaining sovereign economic rights and patrimony to the altar of America’s occupational fetish for super profits, raw materials and cheap labor,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“ The Filipinos are outstanding students of history. They know their history with US colonizers and they will not put premium, but reject outrightly GMA’s latest offer to imperialist America,” Hicap asserted.

The militant leader said the RP-US trade pact initiated by President Arroyo was meant to strengthen the position of US multinational companies in vital controlled industries in the country like oil and energy, food products, manufacturing of commercial products and other profitable sections of the economy.

Hicap said the RP-US trade agreement would also allow US transnational groups to expand to other profitable ventures such as media, public utilities, and education and grant US companies the right to own agricultural lands and explore the country’s remaining forest and marine resources.

“ Mrs. Arroyo the grandmother of all political puppets and political prostitutes across the globe committed a super crime of treason. GMA’s declaration to forge a new trade agreement with imperialist America deserves wholesale condemnation,” Hicap added.

President Arroyo said US President George W. Bush agreed to her idea about the proposed RP-US trade pact during the 10-minute ‘ pull aside meeting’ of the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. The President had asked shipping magnate Doris Magsaysay to draft a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after Bush agreed to her idea.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Department of Trade and Industry is now working on a complete package to be submitted to the Trade Promotion Industry.

“ The Filipino people have no option but declare war for economic independence against this one-sided trade affair between an imperialist master and the puppet state and between the US-based mother companies and their transnational operators in the country,” Pamalakaya added.

The militant group said the issue of RP-US trade pact together with the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) will be treated as an election issue or a yardstick in selecting who among senatorial candidates who would run in May 2007 national elections should get the support and votes of the Filipino electorates.

“ Will ask the senatoriables in the May 2007 elections regarding their standpoint on Mrs. Arroyo’s proposed trade agreements with US and Japan. Their positions would heavily matter if we would campaign against them or not,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:58 | link | comments |

Fishers group asked 89 Miss Earth candidates
“ What will you do to stop industrialized countries from exporting toxic wastes to RP?”

“ What will you do to stop industrialized countries like Japan from exporting toxic wastes to the Philippines and other Third World countries?”

The activist fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Tuesday posed this question to the 89 candidates in this year’s edition of Miss Earth beauty pageant to be hosted by the Philippines on November 26.

“ If this is a real advocacy stint for the environment, more than the usual beauty pageant staples like best in national costumes, swimwear and long gown competitions, the international and local organizers of Miss Earth 2006 could adopt this concern for the benefit of the host country,” Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said in a press statement.

“ This question is an ultimate test regarding the true essence of an environmental advocate for environmental protection. We hope this year’s Miss Earth hopefuls would go miles away, rise above the occasion and make enviromental cause a real life advocacy,” Corpuz added.

The Philippines had been a regular host of six-year old Miss Earth beauty pageant, which was supposed to be held in Chile this year. But organizers in Chile failed to meet the requirements, prompting Carousel Productions to cancel it and bring it back to the country.

This year’s favorite to win the crown is Marianne Puglia from Venezuela, who is poised to secure a back-to-back win for her country. Last year’s Mss Earth is Miss Venezuela Alexandra Braun. Miss Catherine Untalan will represent the country.

Corpuz said Miss Earth candidates could be briefed on the enviromental implications of the controversial agreement trade agreement between Japan and the Philippines known as Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that allows Japan to export and dump toxic wastes and other hazardous materials to the Philippines.

“ The environment issue is an issue that needs to be addressed politically, so organizers must bring out the political animal among the 89 contestants and let them criticize and condemn the authors of JPEPA for the sake of the environment and the people,” Corpuz added.

The US-based Basel Action Network or BAN, an international monitoring group, first exposed the issue of Japan’s plan to export its toxic wastes to the Philippines. The BAN said the Macapagal-Arroyo government allowed the inclusion of wastes in the tariff reduction program of JPEPA.

Pamalakaya earlier said JPEPA will allow the entry of Japanese factory ships in the country that would explore the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to fish for the country’s tuna in Celebes Sea, Moro Gulf and other parts of the country known for rich tuna deposits.

The left-leaning fisherfolk group also said JPEPA would also allow Japanese transnational food corporations to allow entry of substandard food from Japan, including Mercury infested fish that killed more than 100 Japanese people over the last 30 years.

Pamalakaya’s Corpuz also said Japan is notoriously known for dumping its toxic wastes and other hazardous materials to China and other poor nations where the second largest economy has existing bilateral trade pacts in the tradition of JPEPA. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:57 | link | comments |

Pamalakaya calls GMA, JdV
“ has-been politicians” for pushing Chacha

Stepping up their anti-charter change offensive anew, leftwing militants belonging to the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday called President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and House Speaker Jose de Venecia has-been traditional politicians for pushing the revision of the 1987 Constitution through constituent assembly.

“ Has-been politicians who has no future in their political career are desperately seeking a free ride on Charter Change to perpetuate themselves to power. President Arroyo and House Speaker de Venecia are the leading political characters under this category,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap added: “ GMA and Speaker de Venecia must admit that their days as representatives of traditional, criminal and moribund politics in the country are over. The verdict of the Filipino people is clear, the Chacha show is over.”

Stressing that constitutional reform was the most important of all her undertakings, the President yesterday rallied her allies in the House of Representatives to amend the 18-year old charter through constituent assembly.

Mrs. Arroyo’s marching order to her allies in Congress promoted the technical working group on Chacha to convene on November 27 and finish their work on November 29.

Among the members of the group include Rep. Constantino Jaraula, Rep. Simeon Datumanong, Rep. Gilbert Teodoro, Rep. Prospero Pichay, Rep. Eric Singson and Rep. Lawrence Wacnang, Rep. Luis Villafuerte, Rep. Crispin Remulla, Gov. Erico Aumentado of Union of Local Authorities in the Philippines (Ulap), Raul Lambino of Sigaw ng Bayan and one senator still be named.

“Like Mrs. Arroyo and the speaker of the House, this group of pro-Chacha lawmakers and personalities will join their principals in the list of has-been politicians and in the dustbin of history,” Pamalakaya said.

Mrs. Arroyo hosted lunch in Malacañang for 70 congressmen representing Lakas-NUCD and allied political parties. It was the first of planned caucuses aimed at mapping out plans to convene the Lower House and the Senate into a constituent assembly.

“The political love team of GMA and JdV is bound for an embarrassing defeat in next year’s mid-term elections that is why the ring leaders of the ruling corrupt parties are taking the final push for Chacha to salvage their lackluster and detested political rule,” Hicap stressed.

The Pamalakaya leader said President Arroyo and Speaker de Venecia were afraid of the recent surveys showing a landslide victory for all opposition candidates in the senatorial and congressional elections next year.

“Mrs. Arroyo’s impeachment next year is now statistically probable with the victory of opposition congressmen and JdV will no longer get the House Speakership post because he will be replaced by the dominant opposition. This explains the current extreme political behavior of GMA and JdV on Chacha,” Hicap added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:55 | link | comments |

National security adviser conducting seminars among junior officers to turn against GMA foes
Leftist group wants Gonzales, ideological guru probed on demonization campaign vs. GMA critics

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday urged senators and congressmen to conduct a full-blown inquiry into allegations that National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Jesuit priest Fr. Romeo Intengan, acknowledged leaders of Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) were conducting seminars among junior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to demonize know political foes and critics of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

“ Lawmakers should cross party lines and investigate this extreme danger orchestrated by Gonzales-Intengan tandem, which is covertly and overtly done in the name of President Arroyo’s political survival,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap made the appeal to legislators; a day after Mrs. Arroyo’s staunch critic Pastor Boy Saycon revealed that some junior officers told him that an alleged “ indoctrination” took place at a seminar conducted in Davao City last month by the Center for Strategic Studies, an office under the National Security Adviser.

The seminar, conducted by Fr. Intengan, regarded by political analysts as “ideological guru” of Gonzales was all about the role of the AFP in changing society, where personalities critical of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration including Saycon of Council for Philippines Affairs (Copa) were allegedly demonized before the junior officers.

“ Gonzales, Intengan and the diabolical center they maintain must be investigated in the name of public interest. Taxpayers’ money is being used to persecute the opposition for the sake of the ruling clique in Malacañang. This is foul, immoral and life-threatening,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

Fr. Intengan confirmed that a series of seminars were conducted and were attended by junior officers, some colonels and selected enlisted personnel assigned to the civil-relations functions. The Ateneo-based Jesuit priest said President Arroyo approved the seminars and that Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye even asked copies of the materials to be distributed to the media.

Pamalakaya believed that Gonzales and Intengan maintained a master list of the president foes and critics and their names were mentioned as enemies of the Arroyo administration, the state and the military during the seminars.

“ The evil duo of Gonzales and Intengan by military standard has prepared a hit list containing the names of the opposition forces whom the AFP should treat not only as critics of Mrs. Arroyo but certified foes of the state and the military establishment. This is very, very alarming,” Pamalakaya stressed.

Aside from Saycon, among those initially identified as enemies of President Arroyo were William Esposo of Copa and nationalist economist Alejandro Lichauco. But Pamalakaya said the list would include personalities and organizations identified with left-leaning groups like party lists Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Anakpawis and vocal critics of the Arroyo administration in the Senate and House of Representatives.

“Gonzales and Intengan and their PDSP group publicly known as the counter-insurgency NGO of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States should be exposed to and opposed by the public,” Pamalakaya added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:44 | link | comments |

Leftists see GMA-Lakas falling out due to Kampi’s
raid of JdV party in Pampanga
House Speaker no option but to sever ties with Arroyo, says Pamalakaya

Rabid critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday urged House Speaker Jose de Venecia and other party members of the ruling Lakas-NUCD to sever their ties with the President and denounce Mrs. Arroyo’s political party for raiding the House of JdV like thieves in the night.

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the defection of 17 out of the 22 the pro-Lapid and pro 22 Lakas-NUCD mayors to the President’s political party Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi) was a strong indication of a falling out between President Arroyo and the de Venecia party Lakas-NUCD.

“President Arroyo’s Akyat Bahay politics should send a clear signal to Lakas-NUCD that the ruling presidency in Malacañang should not be trusted and must be dumped if Speaker de Venecia wants to salvage his aging political career and party itself,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“It is now high time for Speaker de Venecia and his Lakas boys to denounce Arroyo and her syndicate and disassociate with Kampi. The mass defection of 17 former Lakas mayors in Pampanga to Mrs. Arroyo’s Kampi is a product of political bribery and stemmed from the president’s eternal thirst for political power,” Hicap said in his unsolicited advice to Speaker de Venecia.

The militant leader said the “ revolt of Pampanga mayors” engineered by President Arroyo’s staunch allies was just a preview of what Kampi is going to do in the House of Representatives in the next few weeks.

“ Who knows, the previous plan of Kampi congressmen to replace Speaker de Venecia in the Lower House might be revived and pushed through before Congress takes a Christmas break. The unfolding events taking place in Mrs. Arroyo’s camp are leading us to that logical conclusion,” Hicap added.

Hicap said the trust of President Arroyo was to rid Pampanga of the political influence enjoyed by Senator Lito Lapid and son Pampanga Gov. Mark Lapid and other pro-Lakas and pro-Lapid politicians and have them replaced with mayors identified or supportive of President Arroyo and her Kampi party.

The 17 Pampanga mayors formerly allied with the Lapids and Lakas-NUCD defected to Kampi after Sen. Lapid and Gov. Lapid rejected all three proposals of the Pampanga Mayors League for the May 2007 elections.

The alliance with the Lapids broke after the governor ditched the proposal of the PML to take Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, son of alleged jueteng lord Bong Pineda as Gov. Lapid’s running mate in next year election, get-third termer mayors in the slate for board members and accept non-Lakas mayors into the party.

Those who were formally accepted into Kampi were mayors Jay Sagum of San Luis, Ricardo Rivera of Guagua, Rodrigo Canlas of San Simon, Lucas Arceo of Sto. Tomas, Francisco Gaddi of Sta. Ana, Edgardo Flores of Minalin, Arthur Salalila of Sta. Rita, Catalina Bagasina of Sasmuan, Jerry Pelayo of Candaba, Romeo Dungca of Bacolor, Darwin Manalastas of Floridablanca, Tirso Lacanilao of Apalit and Pastor Guiao of Magalang. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:39 | link | comments |

Leftists seek tactical alliance with local tuna producers
vs. Japan-RP trade pact

Leaders of the left-wing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) declared on Sunday that they are ready to forge a “ tactical alliance” with the country’s local tuna producers, who would be hardly hit by the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

“We are very much open with the local tuna producers for a working alliance to save the country’s P 18-B tuna industry from Japan’s sinister agenda to place the tuna sector in its mercy under JPEPA,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap in a press statement.

Hicap added: We are facing a common economic enemy here which is Japan that is engaged in wholesale collaboration and conspiracy with the ruling administration in Malacañang to kill the country’s tuna industry.”

The militant leader said JPEPA will affect 100,000 fish workers in SOCSKSARGEN and Davao regions and another 80,000 fish workers and residents in Sarangani province.

In particular, Pamalakaya called on the tuna groups’ South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos (SOCSKSARGEN) Federation of Fishing Associations and Allied Industries, a Mindanao wide group producers of local tuna composed of large-scale purse seiners, small-medium purse seiners, handline fishers, tuna canners and sashimi processors and the Tuna Confederation of the Philippines.

“There’s a pressing and paramount need to coalesce and work collectively as an opposing team against the JPEPA-bred plan of Japan to set up “ tuna factory ships” not only in Mindanao, but the entire exclusive economic zones of the Philippines to gobble up the country’s tuna,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

The militant group rebuked claims of economists that JPEPA will spur economic growth and reduce poverty in the country. Pamalakaya said Joseph T.Yap, Erlinda M.Medalla and Rafaelita M. Aldaba, all economists and fellow researchers of Philippine Institute for Development Studies were misleading the people in order to gain public support for the one-sided trade agreement.

“ How would JPEPA apologists explain this? Under Article 28, Chapter 3 of JPEPA governing rules of origin, the trade pact specifically allows factory ships to virtually fish limitless on the waters of the parties in JPEPA,” Pamalakaya said.

The militant group noted that the provision does not apply to the Philippines, since the country has no “ factory ships” and could not afford to have one, and Japan is fully aware of this disadvantage of the local tuna sector. “Japan will send its 8,000-ton and up industrial fishing fleets to eat up the country’s reserve of tunas not only in Celebes Sea and Moro Gulf, but practically everywhere where tuna is abundant,” Pamalakaya said.

The same JPEPA article, according to Gerry Albert Corpuz, Pamalakaya information officer underscored that tunas and other kinds of fish caught by Japanese fishing fleets in Philippine waters would be treated as if of Japan origin and therefore not subjected to any kind of taxation or tariff under the country’s laws.

On the other hand, Corpuz said the tunas caught by local producers and which would be exported to Japan will be subject to tariff rates and all mechanisms governing exports like quota and high food standards. “ Our local tuna producers and other players in the dying tuna industry must get their acts together, expose and oppose this economic monster known as JPEPA being peddled by second-rate imperialist master and the puppet government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Corpuz said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:38 | link | comments |

20 Pamalakaya activists to cross Mactan Channel
2 weeks before ASEAN meet

Twenty fisherfolk leaders of the Cebu-based activist fisherfolk group Panaghugpong sa Gagmayng Mananagat sa Sugbo (Pamana-Sugbo), an affiliate of the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) will cross the Mactan Channel on November 27, two weeks before the staging of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Visayas premiere capital.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said their local leaders tapped to cross Mactan Channel are now undergoing muscle-flexing exercises in preparations for the “ Swim Against US War of Terror and Intervention in the Philippines”.

“ We are not aiming to set a record in the Guinness Book of Records. What we want is the world stage to highlight US crimes against the Filipino people and its direct and indirect role in perpetrating the spate of political killings conducted by its no.1 girl Friday in Asia- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap was optimistic their fisherfolk leaders could negotiate the 3-kilometer Mactan Channel from Ouano Wharf in Mandaue City and the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge without any hassle because of the prevailing strong current.

“ But our protest bound fisherfolk leaders in Cebu are confident they could conquer the strong current in the name of the Filipino peoples’ defiance against US imperialism and the puppetry of President Arroyo,” the militant leader said. “ Five non-motorized bancas will escort the 20 Pamalakaya swimmers who will cross the Mactan Channel,” Hicap added.

People’s Fluvial Protest

Pamalakaya and Pamana-Sugbo in cooperation with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Anakpawis party list will spearhead the People’s Fluvial Protest on December 12 from Talisay City to the Old Mactan Bridge in Lapu-Lapu City.

Pamalakaya and Pamana-Sugbo, the lead organizers of the flotilla protest during the ASEAN summit said 20 motorized and 30 non-motorized fishing boats, which would carry not less than 100 activists, would highlight the series of protest action on that day.

Pamana-Sugbo chair Victor Lapaz said 50 fisherfolk leaders and mass members will jump off their fishing boats once they reach the Old Mactan Bridge. According to Lapaz, effigies of US President George W. Bush, President Arroyo and Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia would be burned together with 12 American flags during the fluvial protest.

“ We will literally and figuratively paint the town red during the 12th ASEAN meeting in Cebu,” Lapaz said.

Earlier, Lapaz said local leaders and members of Pamalakaya in Cordova fishing town in Mactan Island are being harassed by government troops belonging to 46th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

The government troops said Pamalakaya members and other leftwing activists in Cordova, Minglanilla and Talisay City were out to disrupt the 12th ASEAN meeting from December 11 to 14 based on intelligence report provided by the PNP Regional Command in Central Visayas. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:38 | link | comments |

Japan to dump Mercury infested fish in RP under JPEPA, warns Pamalakaya

Opponents of the controversial trade pact between Japan and the Philippines today warned the national government that the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement or JPEPA would allow the Japanese government to dump its’ Mercury infested fish in the country.

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), a staunch critic of the new trade agreement argued that JPEPA will further empower Japan to flood the local market with surplus fish products contaminated with Mercury and other toxic materials dangerous to public health.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said under JPEPA the Philippine government will further relax the requirements on the entry of Japanese fish products and other agricultural products, including quarantine of food imported from Japan.

“There is a high level of possibility that most of the fish products coming from Japan are infested with Mercury and other kinds of toxic substances,” the militant leader said citing previous incidences involving death and serious illnesses in Japan due to eating of Mercury contaminated fish.

Hicap said in the early 70s, over 100 Japanese either died or became very ill because of their exposure to methyl Mercury emanating from local industrial discharge that poisoned the nearby fishing grounds in Minimata, Japan.

Just recently, Hicap said, China had tightened the quarantine of food imported from Japan after Chinese authorities found out that 30 batches of imported food from Japan failed to meet China’s quality rules on imported products.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap said Chinese food authorities found excessive sorbic acid found in Japanese fish sausages, which was 17 times higher than the 1.3g/kg allowed by Chinese sanitation authorities. In East China’s Shandong province, some frozen octopus and fish imported from Japan were found to contain dangerous bacteria that may cause meningitis and blood poisoning.

Pamalakaya said in Guangdong, South China, potato powder imported from Japan contained excessive sulfur dioxide while the cadmium content of some frozen oysters was five times higher than the permissible upper limit.

“The Philippine government has been importing these Japanese products since the early phase of trade liberalization during the Structural Adjustment Program of the Marcos dictatorship in the early 80s up to the present,” the militant group said.

Pamalakaya said the government had been importing an average of 10,000 metric tons of various fish and marine products from Japan since the country signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and became an official member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

Beginning 2002, Japan slowed down the exportation of fish products to the Philippines reducing its total exports to 6,765 metric tons and concentrated more on importation of high value fish products from the country. In the same year, Japan imported 30,065 metric tons of high value fish crops from the Philippines on the condition that the Philippines would relax its policies on Japanese investments.

“JPEPA is a super disaster in the making. A total holocaust being engineered by an imperialist master in collaboration with a puppet-client state. We have no option but to declare war against JPEPA and the brains behind this national economic massacre of 86 million Filipinos,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:35 | link | comments |

War against Japan-RP trade pact to go oversea
RP activists to petition Japanese diet for JPEPA rejection

Leaders of the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday said they would petition the National Diet of Japan to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

“ The fight against JPEPA will be challenged not only here in the Philippines, but also in Japan, the imperialist master and the principal author of the one-sided agreement,” said Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz in a press statement.

The Japanese Diet, the lawmaking body in Japan is consist of the House of Representatives with 480 members since 1996 and House of Councilors with 242 members.

Corpuz revealed that a petition letter addressed to all members of the Japanese Diet is being drafted right now by the 30 national council members of Pamalakaya and would be sent to the presiding officer of the Japanese Diet on or before the end of this month.

He said they would furnish the Japanese Embassy in Manila, the Philippine Senate and the Japanese officials to the forthcoming Asean meeting on December 10-14 in Cebu City, copies of Pamalakaya’s petition urging Japan’s highest policy making body to junk JPEPA.

“ The war against JPEPA should be brought to the attention of the Japanese people in the name of their people and our people’s collective and national interest,” Corpuz added.

The group’s information officer said aside from dumping their toxic wastes and aggressive search for yellow fin and skipjack tunas in the Philippines, Japan is planning to dump their surplus cars equal to the units their local companies produced in the country.

Corpuz said Japan will most likely export to the Philippines 221, 450 units of passenger cars per year, 145,950 commercial vehicle cars per year and 462,100 units of motorcycles per year, once the tariff on imported cars is eliminated under JPEPA.

Corpuz said the Philippine motor vehicle industry dominated by Japanese automobile manufacturers will take an aggressive importation of Japanese spare parts for the local assemblies of Philippine-made Japanese cars to further flood the shrinking car market in the country.

“ This is the mother of all irony. The Philippine government will be preoccupied in selling Japanese cars in the country, instead of attending to the basic needs and welfare of the 86 million Filipino people,” he said.

Corpuz said Japanese car companies in the Philippines like Toyota Motors Phils. Inc., Honda Cars Phils. Inc., Mitsubishi Motors Phils Corp., Nissan Motors Phils. Inc., Isuzu Motors and Honda Phils. will take charge in mass flooding the country with Japanese cars all over the country.

Earlier, Pamalakaya said under JPEPA, the Japanese government will send its big commercial fishing vessels to the country’s most productive fishing grounds in search for yellowfin tuna and skip jack instead of importing it directly from the Philippines under the controversial trade pact between the two countries.

The group said JPEPA will allow Japanese transnational fishing companies to fish in Sulu, Moro Gulf and waters extending to Celebes Sea, the country’s marine waters, which are known rich in yellowfin tuna and skip jack tuna “deposits”.

“The Japanese monopolies in tuna industry know that 55 percent of the country’s yellowfin tuna and skipjack are found in the waters of Mindanao. They can send their 8,000-ton fishing fleets there to harvest our tuna under the banner of JPEPA. This is the implication of this one-sided agreement,” Pamalakaya said.

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:31 | link | comments (3) |

ASEAN security preparations turning Cebu into a garrison state, militant group says

The overkill security preparations inline with the staging of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit is turning the entire island province of Cebu into a garrison state.

“ Governor Gwendolyn Garcia is transforming Cebu into a police state to stop legitimate protests and cause-oriented meetings to please her boss in Malacañang and her foreign guests in what we called a bogus diplomatic affair set to accommodate the imperialist agenda of the United States, Japan and the European Union,” the leftist fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a press statement.

Pamalakaya added: “ Gov. Garcia is terrorizing the people of Cebu in covert and overt manners. This act of political stupidity and paranoia must be stopped.”

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said the idea imposing curfew across Metro Cebu during the 12th ASEAN Summit to keep people off the streets was a bizarre move to contain movements of the people, quell any form of protest and violate basic human rights and civil liberties.

“The idea of imposing curfew was Gov. Garcia’s response to Malacañang’s order to contain all kinds of protest during the ASEAN summit. The governor is acting like Malacañang’s Girl Friday in Cebu, nothing more, nothing less,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya also assailed the plan of the provincial government to sponsor basketball tournaments in Cebu City’s 28 mountain barangays to attract city residents and keep them away from city proper during the international summit to be held on Dec. 11-14.

“ Gov. Garcia is desperate to keep away the Cebuanos from discovering the evils, bad impact and sinister agenda behind the 12th ASEAN summit and from joining demonstrations of people’s organizations and patriotic groups. She will do practically anything, everything for a grand cover up,” the militant group said.

Pamalakaya urged all Cebu congressmen to conduct a congressional inquiry on the national and provincial government’s plan to militarize Cebu and impose a de facto Martial Law in connection with the 12th ASEAN Summit.

“ Cebu lawmakers, human rights activists, civil libertarians and decent-thinking people of Cebu must get their acts together and frustrate Gov. Garcia’s Rambo escapade in the province,” the group said.

Earlier, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chapter in Minglanilla town accused members of the Philippine Army belonging to the 46th Infantry Battalion, based in Catbalogan in Samar, and who are part of the 4,500 military troops deployed in Cebu to provide security for the 12th ASEAN summit, of harassing their leaders and mass members and discrediting their organization.

The KMP said government troops were conducting house-to-house campaign to demonize the group and discourage farmers from joining protest actions during the summit. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:29 | link | comments |

DEAL OR NO DEAL?
64 US dollar question for congressional candidates: Are you for the impeachment of GMA?

Candidates in the May 2007 elections in Southern Tagalog and other parts of the country will have to answer on a 64-US dollar question, leaders of the militant groups would ask if they would campaign in their organized areas or seek their political support for congressional seat. Are you for the impeachment of GMA?

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said they would invite during their assemblies congressional candidates in Southern Tagalog and other areas across the nation and would ask them on the spot if they would cast their vote for the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo once they are elected as congressmen.

“ We will put them on the spot, as if they are contestants to the militant version of Deal or No Deal,” Hicap said referring to the popular evening game show Deal or No Deal hosted by popular TV host-actress Kris Aquino.

Hicap added: “Malacañang’s banker will surely give premium prizes for congressional candidates who would support Mrs. Arroyo but mere association with ruling party and GMA is a kiss of death.”

Pamalakaya said aside from the impeachment issue, militant groups would also raise the issues of political killings, militarization and human rights abuses as rallying concerns for any congressional candidates to get the support or endorsement of progressive groups and militant organizations.

“The situation of the people in Southern Tagalog is life threatening because of the present state policy and pattern on political killings. All politicians running for the May 07 elections should consider this concern as a regional agenda that merits full attention and quick resolution,” the group said.

The militant leader said the national leadership of Pamalakaya has required its leaders and mass members in Southern Tagalog to immediately make an evaluation of all politicians running in the May 2007 national elections that include governors, congressmen, mayors, vice-mayors and councilors and assess their political position on the impeachment of Mrs. Arroyo, political killings, militarization and human rights.

Pamalakaya said the governors, mayors and congressmen in the region should make a clear position on the impeachment of Mrs. Arroyo next year, the unbridled political killings and rampant violations of civil liberties and basic human rights in Southern Tagalog if they want to get the trust, support and votes of the people in next year’s elections.

“President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her national security officials and loyal generals will not deliver the votes for them. It is them who would make or unmake them as the next elected officials in the region. If they refuse to go against the state policy on killings, they better say goodbye to their respective political careers,” the group added.

“ Something must be done to stop this endless campaign of the state on political killings of leftwing activists in the region. We will not take a no for an answer from them,” Pamalakaya said.

The group said their suggestion applies to other politicians in other regions, specially those regions where left-and-right killings are still taking place like Ilocos Region, Cordillera Region, Central Luzon, Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Negros Island, Western Visayas and Western Mindanao. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:28 | link | comments |

“ P 90-B infrastructure drive in Eastern Visayas to fight Reds,

a sham”------Pamalakaya

 

The national government plan to infuse more than P 90 billion to fight communist insurgency by means of building and rehabilitating Eastern Visayas infrastructure to spur economic growth in the region was a big sham and a window for bureaucratic corruption.

 

The leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) which is active in the region through its regional chapter Pamalakaya-Eastern Visayas downplayed the proposed infrastructure drive as nothing but a regional wide campaign to satisfy the corrupt officials of the region, including military officials allied with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

 

“The P 90 billion infra drive program of the national government in Samar island will only go the pockets of corrupt government officials in the national and regional levels. Some of the funds will be used to keep the militarists in the region busy in their anti-insurgency campaign,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap stressed.

 

Hicap said the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Service or Kalahi-CIDSS will serve as the conduit for the robbery of public funds in the guise of delivering social services, infrastructure development and anti-insurgency campaign.

 

“Kalahi-CIDSS will act an instrument of Malacañang, the corrupt government and military officials and the National Economic Development Authority to facilitate the plunder of tazpayers’ money amounting to 90 billion pesos,” Hicap asserted.

 

Pamalakaya said the national government will repair and build more roads in three depressed provinces of the island- Northern, Western and Eastern Samar to facilitate the entry of big time mining corporations, loggers and other transnational interests in Eastern Visayas.

 

“ The government is pursuing the speedy rehabilitation of infrastructures in Samar provinces to pave way for the grand entry and immediate takeover of the island’s rich and untapped resources,” the group said.

 

Pamalakaya belied claims by NEDA Region 8 Director Buenventura Gosoco Jr. that the rehabilitation of Samar infrastructures would lead to economic growth in the island, adding that the NEDA chief in the region was only fooling the people and making false promises to them.

 

The NEDA Chief in Region 8 said as an economic strategy against communist rebellion, the government will build or rehabilitate roads,  ports, airport, power transmission lines, tourism-related facilities and irrigation facilities in the region over the next four years.

 

“ The NEDA Chief in Region 8 is talking non-sense as far as the depressed people of Samar is concerned. He must stop from storytelling of something that never exists in the first place,” the group added.

 

In 2003, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said the poor in Western Samar numbered to 327,620 or 45.9 percent of the total population, while Eastern Samar had 159, 184 or 41.1 percent of the population. The NSCB also said Northern Samar had 215,859 poor residents or 40.8 percent of the population. #

 

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:26 | link | comments |

Militants rebuke Reyes pitch for biodiversity
DENR chief is ‘plastic’- Pamalakaya

The Philippine Army issued on Saturday, November 4, shoot-to-kill order on Maximo Ayunga, village council member in Barangay Culong, Guimba, Nueva Ecija and chairperson of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon-Nueva Ecija chapter (AMGL-NE or Alliance of Peasants in Central Luzon).

In a statement released to media, Pastora Betty Perido, secretary-general of Karapatan-NE (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights-Nueva Ecija chapter), said that the order was issued by 2nd Lt. Reynaldo Sabangan during a meeting with residents in the morning of November 4 at the village hall of Culong. Sabangan is the commanding officer of the army unit stationed in Barangay (village) Culong.

Aside from Maximo, Alfredo, his father, and Hilario, his brother, are also included in the shoot-to-kill order being in a list of 15 persons whom the military claims were involved in a plan to attack the barracks in the village.

Ayunga and members of his family as well as other residents of Barangay Culong have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere for fear of military attack, Karapatan-NE said.

Ayunga, 41, is active in protests against the extra-judicial killing of civilians and other gross human rights violations allegedly committed by the military in Nueva Ecija and the rest of Central Luzon, Karapatan-NE said

Last September, his house was set on fire allegedly by military agents. The military is blatantly using the counter-insurgency campaign as a pretext to harass and kill civilians, including elected government officials, “Perido said.

Without basis whatsoever, the military came out with a list of 15 persons and have now arrogated unto themselves absolute power over the lives of their supposed suspects who are legitimate residents,” Perido said.

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:25 | link | comments |

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