Filipino Americans Protest Aquino Visit To LA

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• published: 20 Feb 2016
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Los Angeles, CA - On February 17th, 2016, BAYAN USA, an alliance of progressive Filipino youth, students, women, and community groups protested the awarding of President Benigno Aquino III as an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree at Loyola Marymount University. According to the Loyola Marymount University, the honorary degree was “in recognition of his dedication to his country, his integrity, and his embodiment of a Jesuit education.” The protesters countered by picketing outside of LMU and Hilton LAX, where Aquino was hosting a community dinner with prominent Filipinos. They gave speeches and “mock awards” to Aquino that highlighted the human rights violations in his six years of presidency, including 294 extrajudicial killings of activists and civilians, 87 indigenous schools attacked by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and paramilitary groups, and 63,824 indigenous people displaced due to landgrabbing and militarization of their ancestral land. “The actions of the government, under the leadership of Benigno Aquino III are incompatible with the way of justice and love demonstrated and incarnated by Jesus Christ. To suggest that this regime and leader exemplify the best of Jesuit values is appalling,” said Deaconess Jean Roe Smith, UMC from the California Pacific UMC Task Force Philippines. “We invite the President of LMU to take a closer look at President Aquino’s track record of corruption and human rights abuses against women, children, and indigenous communities.” said Joy Prim, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, a global network of organizations committed to the campaign for just and lasting peace in the Philippines. Pro-U.S., Anti-People During his business trip, Aquino also participated in the summit earlier this week organized by US President Barack Obama with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at Sunnylands, California. “In the past 6 years, Aquino has only cared about U.S. dictates above protecting the rights and welfare of the Filipino people. Most recently, Aquino even vetoed the SSS P2000 Pension Bill that was supposed to benefit our lolos and lolas that have worked tirelessly most of their lives and are struggling to get by,” Nikole Cababa of BAYAN USA stated. “Aquino’s visit to California is just another attempt to promote more policies that tramp on Philippine sovereignty, such as EDCA” Cababa added. EDCA, or the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement will allow the US to use the country as its own military base. “We fear that it will lead to more militarization and rights violations, such as what happened to Jennifer Laude, who was murdered by US Marine Scott Pemberton last year,” Cababa said. They also denounced his neglect of migrants’ issues. “The Aquino administration refuses to create jobs or raise the minimum wage. Instead, Filipina women like Mary Jane Veloso are forced to find jobs abroad and become vulnerable to trafficking schemes” said Terrie Cervas, Gabriela Los Angeles, a grassroots Filipino organization addressing the rights and welfare of Filipino women and children. BAYAN USA also called Aquino an anti-youth president. “Aquino kills the dreams of the youth. The President is closing down indigenous schools in order to allow mining corporations to come in. He also implemented the K-12 program, without sufficient resources for teachers and students. Only 14% of youth are able to go to college, pushing a K-12 program is unaffordable for most students.” “We will stand in the sun and in the rain to make it known that President Aquino is the number one human rights violator in the Philippines. His attempts to privatize education and send workers abroad offers no promising future for Filipino youth. We have no choice but to organize and resist this horrible president,” Pempeña added. ### BAYAN-USA is an alliance of 20 progressive Filipino organizations in the U.S. representing students, scholars, women, workers, artists, and youth. As the first and largest international chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Philippines), BAYAN-USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement of the Philippines and as a center for educating, organizing, and mobilizing anti-imperialist and progressive Filipinos in the U.S. For more information, visit www.bayanusa.org.