Has the Visiting Forces Agreement served its avowed purpose? Or has it only reinforced the unequal alliance between the Philippines and the United States, a relationship so tilted in the Americans’ favor that to call the VFA an agreement — with all the word’s connotation of equal rights, benefits and privileges — would be a travesty?
MANILA — In 2007, Melissa Roxas moved to the Philippines to pursue what a colleague of hers described as “human-rights advocacy full-time.” Prior to Roxas’s move, she had been active as a founding member of the cultural organization Habi-Arts in Los Angeles. She was also a founding representative in Southern California for Bayan-USA. Two years…
Update: Melissa Roxas Moved to Philippines to Pursue Human-Rights Advocacy
Melissa Roxas, from Los Angeles, California, has been reunited with her family. The fate of her two companions — Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc – is unknown.
At least eight fully armed and hooded men believed to be members of the military abducted the three health workers at gunpoint and herded them into a van that had no license plates. This is the first time that a Filipino-American has fallen victim to what looks like another case of enforced disappearance.
UPDATE: Melissa Roxas “was surfaced” at 6:30 a.m. Monday, according to Bayan’s Renato Reyes Jr. She has been reunited with her family after five days in the hands of her captors, believed to be soldiers. Her two companions remain missing, missing.
Bayan said that under the VFA, US commanders are not required to have their visiting troops subjected to thermal scans, health surveillance and other standard operating procedures that are usually undertaken by host governments in civilian ports of entry. “All the US forces need to present is a declaration of health,” it said.“Even in matters of public health, Philippine sovereignty is undermined by the VFA.”
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Press on With Fight Against VFA: Bayan
BY BULATLAT Leaders of two progressive organizations went to Geneva, Switzerland to raise ‘Philippine government’s violations to human rights and economic, social and cultural rights’ before the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is the body of independent experts that monitors…
Twenty-seven leaders and members of people’s organizations in Southern Tagalog, including a labor lawyer, were charged with arson, destruction of property and conspiracy to commit rebellion. The activists said this is but part of the ‘legal offensive’ of Malacañang, which is meant to derail the people’s movement in the region. BY RONALYN V. OLEA HUMAN…
BY BULATLAT The umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-New Patriotic Alliance) slammed Mrs.Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and U.S. President George W. Bush for ‘passing the burden to the people in times of crisis.’ Renato Reyes Jr., Bayan secretary general said it was no surprise why Arroyo supports the $700 billion bailout plan of the Bush administration for…