[News] Philippines Martial Law Declared - Rally Today SF, NY, LA

[Anti-Imperialist News]

On the 20th anniversary of People Power and the 
ouster of Marcos, a State of Emergency/Martial 
Law has been declared in the Philippines.  All 
rallies are banned.  email and texting 
curtailed.  Massive rallies are happening anyway 
under threat of violent dispersal.

         EMERGENCY RALLY AGAINST STATE OF EMERGENCY
         WHEN:  FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 4 PM
         WHERE:  POWELL AND MARKET - 4
                 PHILIPPINE CONSULATE - 5 (Sutter at Powell)

         In addition, people will be at the consulate all day, join us!

         more information call 415.216.7266 or 650-714-9151

NEW YORK
Join Filipino New Yorkers in condemning the fascist Arroyo regime!
5 pm - Friday February 24, 2006
Philippine Consulate in NY

LOS ANGELES
Condemn State of Emergency and Oust GMA
12 pm Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles

To all community allies and supporters of the Filipino people:

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan USA Chapter declares 
overall failure and disgrace of the Arroyo 
government as the Real State of National 
Emergency which cannot stop third People Power ouster!

 From across the ocean and within the borders of 
the U.S., BAYAN-USA proudly stands with with 
thousands of Filpinos in the streets of Ayala and 
EDSA yesterday on the 20th Anniversary of the 
first People Power ouster of Dictator Ferdinand 
Marcos.  We condemn in fullest terms Gloria 
Arroyo's Proclomation 1017 of a National State of 
Emergency which is short of declaring martial law 
and the first step towards authorizing 
warrantless arrests, media takeover, dispersal of 
people's assemblies and systematic suppression of 
the Filipino people's right to participate in 
collective actions that go against Arroyo's wish to stay in power.

The Filipino peoople know that the real State of 
National Emergency started when GMA took office 
from the ousted Joseph Estrada in 2001.  This 
latest crisis development reveals more than she 
can hide about her crisis-ridden and crumbling 
adminstration.  GMA's desperate measures come 
after a preventable mudslide which killed more 
than 1500 in Leyte last week.  She is responsible 
for Human Rights Violations worse than the 
declared years of Martial Law under Marcos.  She 
has orchestrated a full blown economic crisis 
burying the country in billions of dollars of 
foreign debt.  Worst of all, she continues to 
cling to power, holding on to a presidency 
discredited with election fraud while escaping democratic impeachment.

Since she assumed the presidency, BAYAN-USA has 
participated in international actions called by 
the growing People Power 3 movement in the 
Philippines.  Yesterday's People Power 
anniversary and OUST actions are the result of 
escalating outrage from under poverty level 
wages, joblessness, homelessness, high gas 
prices, the burden of value added taxes on basic 
commodities and the failure to bring justice for 
the gang rape of a Filipina woman by U.S 
Marines.  There is nothing spontaneous or 
surprising from the people's louder voices of 
dissent which represent a courageous anti-fascist 
stand.  We recognize the most powerful way to 
honor the People Power Anniversary is to continue 
the struggle against fascism in the brutal form 
of the Bush loyal GMA regime.

There will be no denying People Power 
3!  Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR), state 
sponsored terrorism and political killings in the 
Philippines, undeclared martial law and even arms 
and training by U.S. troops in the Philippines 
will never quell the people's resistance and will 
for national liberation and democracy and a just 
and lasting peace.  We call on the U.S and 
governments around the world to withdraw support 
to the Arroyo government which proved to be best 
in stealing, lying and cheating rather than 
governing the nation towards genuine progress and
democracy.

OUST THE BRUTAL, FASCIST ARROYO REGIME
ARROYO IS STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY IN THE PHILIPPINES!
ESTABLISH THE TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL NOW!
NO U.S. TAX DOLLARS TO FUND UNDECLARED MARTIAL LAW AND POLITICAL REPRESSION!
PEOPLE POWER 3 LIVES!

For more information, contact Kawal Ulanday at 510-914-4461

GABRIELA Network Opposes De Facto Martial Law!
THE MOST ONEROUS EMERGENCY IN THE PHILIPPINES IS ITS DE FACTO PRESIDENT
In an act of collective punishment, Gloria 
Macapagal Arroyo, still claiming the title and 
position of president of the Republic of the 
Philippines despite the general perception that 
she cheated at the elections, declared a “State 
of National Emergency through out the 
archipelago.  The so-called state of national 
emergency bans all rallies and 
demonstrations;  allows warrantless 
arrests;  seizure of private property including 
media outlets; and the usurpation of civil 
authority by the Armed Forces of the Philippines 
on the say-so of the alleged president.

Even though the justification given was nebulous 
reports of an impending coup by some military 
officers, Macapagal-Arroyo chose to afflict all 
of the people of the 7,100 islands of the 
Philippines, murdering in one fell swoop their 
guarantees of civil liberties, freedoms and human 
rights.  Proclamation 1017 on the state of 
national emergency called on the Armed Forces of 
the Philippines “to quell all lawlessness,” 
including a so-called conspiracy of the extreme Right and the Left.

By any other name, it is martial law.  No 
Philippine president would, of course, dare 
undertake such a drastic grab for power without 
the approval of its colonial master.  It is no 
coincidence that this comes while 5,500 US troops 
are in the Philippines, distributed in strategic 
areas from north to south of the archipelago. It 
is the largest number of US troops to be in the 
country in a decade.  A meeting of perversities 
can thus be found in this proclamation: Gloria 
Macapagal Arroyo’s obscene desire to cling to 
power and the office of the presidency, in the 
face of the Filipino people’s repeated and 
sustained calls for her ouster; the desire of 
certain senior military officers to wield 
political power and thus be able to enrich 
themselves; and the US intent to open new bases 
in a territory close to the region’s vast oil and 
natural gas reserves.  These desires require 
constitutional changes so vast that, among 
others, they effectively remove such guarantees 
as freedom of the press.  This meeting of 
political perversities can only mean a war of terror on the Filipino people.
GABRIELA Network condemns this pathetic and 
imitative ploy of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her 
ilk to set themselves up as the new Philippine 
dictatorship.  We note how the shadow play that 
forms the backdrop of this so-called state of 
emergency -- a shadow play of explosions that 
injure no one;  of alleged conspiracies of such 
disparate elements as the left and the right; of 
coup attempts by military officers never 
court-martialed for their actions – all are 
redolent of the stink of the dictatorship of the 
late Ferdinand E. Marcos.  No wonder 
Macapagal-Arroyo was buzzing cheek-to-cheek with 
Imelda Marcos at a recent public event.

GABRIELA Network calls on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo 
to be mindful of the Filipino people’s long and 
historic struggle for genuine democracy and 
liberation; of the sacrifice that has sustained 
the national democratic movement for forty years; 
of the increasing overt truth that the 
socio-economic structure in the Philippines is 
not viable; and of the Filipino people’s repeated 
and sustained calls for her ouster.   The fervor 
with which her ouster has been sought by the 
people should convince Macapagal-Arroyo that, as 
of now, the most grievous disaster to afflict the 
Philippines is her own self.   She should step 
down and bring political relief to this much-beleaguered country.

GABRIELA Network condemns this handover of 
political power to the Armed Forces of the 
Philippines, elements of which have fed at the 
trough of US military aid for decades.  GABRIELA 
Network calls on all men and women who believe in 
true democracy and liberation to join us in 
opposing this de facto president’s declaration of de facto martial law.
Join us in mass actions against the Gloria 
Macapagal-Arroyo regime and against the schemes 
of multinational corporations to use US foreign 
policy to loot the resources of poor and underdeveloped nations.




Arroyo declares state of emergency
Feb 24, 2006
Updated 11:24am (Mla time)
Gil Cabacungan Lira Dalangin-Fernandez 
<http://by101fd.bay101.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=A062DC93-37F5-469F-B224-91156F081A64&start=0&len=16961&src=&type=x&to=ldalangin@inq7.net&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=dbdcc55fcf3adb769b67b2a00935e9c9ffd3a715d8c2ab50c8ea35427d7318dc>ldalangin at inq7.net 

INQ7.net
(2nd UPDATE) PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo 
declared a state of emergency Friday to quell a 
military uprising that sought to overthrow her 
administration. Arroyo's declaration is contained 
in Proclamation 1017, which she signed after a 
lengthy meeting with Cabinet members and police 
and military officials in Malacañang, Press Secertary Ignacio Bunye said.
In the declaration released to media at 11:20 
a.m., Arroyo invoked Section 18, Article 7 of the 
Constitution that allowed the President to call 
on the armed forces to prevent or suppress rebellion.

The proclamation will also pave the way for 
warrantless arrests, government takeover of 
utilities, including media, and a ban on rallies, 
Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor said.

Arroyo said that over the past months, "elements 
in the political opposition had conspired with 
authoritarians of the extreme Left represented by 
the [National Democratic Front-Communist Party of 
the Philippines-New People's Army] and the 
extreme Right, represented by military 
adventurists -- the historic enemies of the 
democratic Philippine State -- who are now in a 
tactical alliance and engaged in a concerted and 
systematic conspiracy, over a broad front, to 
bring down the duly constituted government elected in May 2004."

She also noted that "the claims of these elements 
had been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media."
She said these series of actions were hurting the 
country "by obstructing governance, including 
hindering the growth of the economy and 
sabotaging the people's confidence in government."
Arroyo said the situation was under control.

Earlier on Friday, Defensor said authorities were 
hunting down 8 to 10 civilians and military 
officers allegedly linked to the coup plot, including their financiers.

Reporters covered the President's declaration 
from the Arlegui guesthouse, a few meters away from the Palace.



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