MIGRANT WATCH
New Bush War to Uproot 1.5-m Filipinos
President Arroyo condemned for constitutional violations

"Death looks at us in the face," the leader of a coalition of migrant families says. "As President George W. Bush is hell-bent in waging war against Iraq, not only will the lives of millions of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) be at stake but those of their families and loved ones back home as well."

BY BULATLAT.COM

Big Filipino migrant workers organizations warned over the weekend that if a war in Iraq breaks out some 1.5 million Filipino compatriots will be displaced belying government figures that only 114 will be affected.

But another group, the U.S. Troops Out Now (OUT NOW!) alliance, accused the Arroyo administration of violating the Constitution not just once but thrice by declaring its support for the imminent U.S. war against Baghdad.

The Iraqi charge d’affaires had earlier asked President Gloria  Macapagal-Arroyo to respect his country’s sovereignty by withdrawing her support for Bush’s war.

“What future awaits us, our loved ones and our families?,” was the question posed by the Kalipunan ng Migranteng Pilipino at Pamilya (KMPP), as the U.S. government together with its ally, Great Britain, is to set to crack its "terror whip" on Iraq.

A group of Filipino migrants and their families and an affiliate of Migrante International, KMPP denounced the U.S.-sponsored war on Iraq stating that from 1.5 million to 6 million Filipinos will be affected by it. Of the total number of Filipino migrant workers overseas, 1.5 million are in the Middle East. Five-hundred Filipinos work in Iraq not just 114 as claimed by Arroyo officials. Around 800,000 Filipino compatriots work in Saudi Arabia and another 200,000 in Israel.

"Death looks at us in the face," said KMPP chair Samuel Santiago. "As President George W. Bush is hell-bent in waging war against Iraq, not only will the lives of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) be at stake but those of their families and loved ones back home."

Santiago said other countries in the Middle East will be affected once the war breaks out. U.S.-backed Israel will launch its own independent offensives as it did during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he said. Other countries like Saudi Arabia, where most U.S. military facilities are based, will not be spared.

Arab warningSaudi officials have also warned Bush that the war would isolate the United States from Arab countries. Many Arab governments have expressed reservations on the war, insisting that the matter be taken up first with the United Nations before Washington takes any unilateral action. The new war on Iraq would aggravate the Palestine-Israel conflict and the entire region, some Arab leaders also warned.

"The U.S. government has completely no regard for human life,” Santiago said. “Without even substantiating its claims of Iraq as another terrorist country or 'rogue state,' U.S. flounders its military might as the prime superpower to gain absolute control over the oil-rich countries. This war is…unjust, oppressive and genocidal." 

KMPP likewise criticized the Arroyo government for its laid-back stance on the pressing issue. "As our loved ones there are faced with the grave threat of losing their jobs and their lives, the Arroyo government only has the chagrin to present miniscule contingency plans for them," Santiago said.

"This is a case of double jeopardy. We are forced to leave our country to find food for our families. Now, with the war brewing in the Middle East, we are displaced even further," Santiago said as he expressed fear and outrage over the government's ill response to repatriate the migrant workers.

He noted that past administrations have done little to protect the Filipino migrants during crisis situations. He cited the case of the Persian Gulf War where the International Organization of Migrants, instead of the Aquino government, stepped in to repatriate many of the Filipino Gulf War victims.

KMPP and its mother organization Migrante International will launch a massive campaign in the Philippines and abroad to denounce the intensifying U.S. war.

Constitutional violations. Meanwhile, in a statement the US Troops Out Now! (OUT NOW!) broad alliance accused the Arroyo government of violating the 1987 charter by offering the country’s air space for U.S. air operations against Iraq even before Bush defense officials could ask the Philippines for support.

Former Navy Capt. Dan Vizmanos, OUT NOW! spokesperson and former AFP inspector-general, said that in particular Arroyo’s declaration of support violated sections 2, 7 and 23 of Article II. Section 2 says that the country “renounces war as an instrument of national policy.” Under Sections 7 and 23, the country commits itself to pursue an independent foreign policy while Congress “by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses in joint session assembled, voting separately, shall have the sole power to declare the existence of a state of war.”

Arroyo and Foreign Secretary Blas Ople should be admonished for arrogating upon themselves the sole congressional power to declare war or a state of war, Vizmanos said.

"Arroyo and Ople cannot just violate the Constitution, open the Philippines to retaliatory attacks by enemies of the U.S., imperil the millions of Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East and allow a baseless war against the Iraqi people," the OUT NOW! spokesperson also said.

"Is she so desperate for America's military, political and financial backing, especially in the 2004 elections, so as to plunge our nation in a state of war not of our own making?" he said.

"Mrs. Arroyo's dancing to America's war drums is pathetic. Her puppetry is a disgrace to the Presidency and the Republic it represents. She has become America's pom-pom girl," Vizmanos lamented. Bulatlat.com

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