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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/20/stop-the-2-billion-arms-sale-to-the-philippines/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/20/stop-the-2-billion-arms-sale-to-the-philippines/</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Stop the $2 Billion Arms Sale to the Philippines</h1>
<span class="gmail-post_author_intro">by</span> <span class="gmail-post_author"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/7hapatebathu/" rel="nofollow">Amee Chew</a></span> - May 20, 2020<br></div>
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<p>On April 30, the U.S. State Department announced two pending <a title="arms" href="https://dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/philippines-ah-1z-attack-helicopters-and-related-equipment-and-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">arms</a> <a title="sales" href="https://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/philippines-apache-ah-64e-attack-helicopters-and-related-equipment-and-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sales</a>
to the Philippines totaling nearly $2 billion. Boeing, Lockheed Martin,
Bell Helicopter, and General Electric are the main weapons
manufacturers contracted to profit from the deal.</p>
<p>Following this announcement, a 30-day window for Congress to review
and voice opposition to the sale commenced. It is imperative that we
stop this <a title="avalanche" href="http://securityassistance.org/fact_sheet/arms-sales-and-security-aid-time-duterte" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">avalanche</a> of military aid for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s regime.</p>
<p>Duterte’s human rights record is atrocious. If the arms sale goes
through, it will escalate a worsening crackdown on human rights
defenders and on dissent — while fomenting an ongoing bloodbath. Duterte
is infamous for launching a “War on Drugs” that, since 2016, has
claimed the lives of as many as <a title="27,000" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/12/05/18/chr-chief-drug-war-deaths-could-be-as-high-as-27000" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">27,000</a> souls, mostly low-income people summarily executed by police and vigilantes.</p>
<p>In Duterte’s first three years of office, <a title="nearly" href="https://fpif.org/its-time-to-end-u-s-military-aid-to-the-philippines/">nearly</a> <a title="300" href="https://www.karapatan.org/2019-karapatan-year-end-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">300</a>
journalists, human rights lawyers, environmentalists, peasant leaders,
trade unionists, and human rights defenders were assassinated. The
Philippines has been ranked the <a title="deadliest country for environmentalists" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/25/18/under-duterte-philippines-ranked-asias-most-dangerous-country-for-environment-defenders" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deadliest country for environmentalists</a> in the world, after Brazil. <a title="Many" href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/martial-law-in-mindanao-takes-deadly-toll-on-land-environmental-defenders/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Many</a> of these slayings are linked to <a title="military" href="https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">military</a> <a title="personnel" href="https://www.karapatan.org/2019-karapatan-year-end-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personnel</a>.</p>
<p>Now, Duterte is using COVID-19 as a pretext for further
militarization and repression, despite the dire consequences for public
health.</p>
<p>Around the world, and particularly for the U.S., the COVID-19
pandemic has brought to the fore the contradiction between military
capacity and human well-being. This arms deal is yet another example of
the U.S. government’s gross misallocation of resources towards war
profiteering and militarization, rather than health services and human
needs. The Pentagon’s bloated budget of trillions <a title="has done nothing" href="https://inkstickmedia.com/first-in-military-spending-last-in-our-covid-19-response/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has done nothing</a> to protect us from a public health catastrophe, and has failed to create true security.</p>
<p>Only a complete realignment of federal priorities away from
militarization, here and abroad, and towards strengthening
infrastructures of care will.</p>
<p><b>Duterte’s Militarized Response to COVID-19</b></p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a pretext for Duterte to impose
military checkpoints, mass arrests, and de facto martial law throughout
the Philippines.</p>
<p>As of late April, <a title="over 120,000" href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/police-abuse-prison-deaths-draw-concern-as-philippines-tightens-lockdown-measures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 120,000</a> people have been cited for quarantine violations, and <a title="over 30,000" href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/police-abuse-prison-deaths-draw-concern-as-philippines-tightens-lockdown-measures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 30,000</a> arrested — despite the severe overcrowding in Philippine jails, already <a title="exacerbated" href="https://theaseanpost.com/article/packed-prisons-philippines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exacerbated</a>
by the drug war. “Stay at home” orders are ruthlessly enforced by the
police, even as in many urban poor communities, people live
hand-to-mouth.</p>
<p>Without daily earnings, millions are desperate for food. By late April, a majority of indigent households had <a title="still not received" href="https://www.ibon.org/on-7th-week-of-lockdown-10m-workers-and-informal-earner-households-still-waiting-for-emergency-subsidies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">still not received</a> any government relief. A <a title="thousand" href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/the-philippines-coronavirus-lockdown-is-becoming-a-crackdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thousand</a> residents in Pasay were forced into homelessness when their informal settlement was <a title="destroyed" href="https://www.bulatlat.com/2020/03/18/300-homes-in-pasay-demolished-amid-covid-19-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">destroyed</a> in the name of slum clearance at the beginning of the lockdown, even as the homeless are arrested and thrown in jail.</p>
<p>Duterte has placed the <a title="military" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/255763-government-implement-national-action-plan-coronavirus-dnd-lead" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">military</a> in charge of COVID-19 response. On April 1, he ordered troops to “<a title="shoot dead" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/256705-duterte-orders-troops-shoot-kill-coronavirus-quarantine-violators" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shoot dead</a>” quarantine violators, causing human rights abuses to immediately surge. The next day, a farmer, <a title="Junie Dugog Piñar" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/257165-police-shoot-dead-farmer-agusan-del-norte-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Junie Dugog Piñar</a>, was shot and killed by police for violating the COVID-19 lockdown in Agusan del Norte, Mindanao.</p>
<p>Police have <a title="locked curfew violators in dog cages" href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/26/philippines-curfew-violators-abused" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">locked curfew violators in dog cages</a>, used <a title="torture and sexual humiliation" href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/philippines-investigate-humiliating-abuses-curfew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">torture and sexual humiliation</a> as punishment against LGBTQ people, and <a title="beaten and arrested" href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/residents-seeking-covid-19-relief-charged" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">beaten and arrested</a> <a title="urban poor people" href="https://www.philstar.com/nation/2020/04/06/2005877/sitio-san-roque-residents-picked-protest-food-post-bail" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">urban poor people</a> <a title="protesting for food" href="https://international.thenewslens.com/article/133620" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">protesting for food</a>. <a title="Beatings" href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/police-abuse-prison-deaths-draw-concern-as-philippines-tightens-lockdown-measures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Beatings</a> and <a title="killings" href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/735154/cops-shoot-army-vet-dead-kin-say-he-was-unarmed-had-mental-issues/story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">killings</a> to enforce “enhanced community quarantine” continue. Meanwhile, a <a title="teacher" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/256157-teacher-son-arrested-without-warrant-general-santos-city-facebook-post-coronavirus?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">teacher</a>
was arrested simply for posting “provoking” comments on social media
that decried the lack of government relief, while a filmmaker was
detained two nights <a title="without a warrant" href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/22/philippine-activists-charged-sedition-fake-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">without a warrant</a> for a sarcastic post on COVID-19.</p>
<p><b>Mutual Aid, Solidarity, and Resistance</b></p>
<p>In the face of widespread hunger, inadequate health care, and lethal
repression, vibrant grassroots social movement organizations have
created mutual aid and relief initiatives providing food, masks, and
medical supplies to the poor.</p>
<p><a title="Cure Covid" href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/curecovidph/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cure Covid</a>,
a network of volunteers across myriad organizations in the greater
Metro Manila region, has organized relief packs and community kitchens
for thousands, while engaging in community organizing to strengthen
mutual aid. Movement organizers are calling for mass testing, basic
services, and an end to the militarized COVID-19 response.</p>
<p><a title="KADAMAY" href="https://www.facebook.com/kadamaynational/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KADAMAY</a>
is a mass-based organization of 200,000 urban poor people across the
Philippines that has been at the forefront of resisting Duterte’s drug
war and <a title="reclaiming" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-landrights-lawmaking/manilas-homeless-set-to-move-into-more-empty-homes-if-official-handover-delayed-idUSKBN1H41L7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reclaiming</a> vacant housing for homeless people. In 2017, KADAMAY led <a title="12,000 homeless people" href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1207592/how-are-kadamay-folk-after-2017-takeover-of-bulacan-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">12,000 homeless people</a> in occupying <a title="6,000" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/166293-kadamay-housing-issue-briefer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">6,000</a> vacant homes that had been set aside for the police and military in Pandi, Bulacan. Despite repression and intimidation, <a title="#OccupyBulacan" href="https://radicalhousingjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/06_Retrospectives_Dizon_105-129-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#OccupyBulacan</a> continues to this day.</p>
<p>With COVID-19, KADAMAY has led mutual aid efforts and #ProtestFromHome pot-banging actions, with <a title="video" href="https://www.facebook.com/kadamaynational/videos/1028466767553700/?__xts__%5b0%5d=68.ARAk2aqyN9TUCytKp_XaLjosdP1yy6wM_F53eVHpRuBujKvSQvRICXnJ8WWr2jCyJNr5c3LKOp0gmtYJ7u_Xxf8fRSDUkBlb-BQsrLWl9djgQMYDqeZhwgeaBNf6J2i23rIekUSWvMf-9Fne_EmN4SMEgza3kpj0oYAYXyxe-_zFuWKzTOXexwj6eJCNN2ZlG3ryucl45T_ypZ-QGyqcehWwyAKi-X1u6oVRFObfJVqfScz_iD9JCKLRc5ThpKrneGpmmq3xosV6IGrCamFV4gEecsL4xH7SKyVqjUSGK1Z8d1OP5J9pDuh11otoLK38bTEQyox9oQCnGaCgc7Ti_qb1&__tn__=H-R" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">video</a>
disseminated on social media, to demand relief and health services, not
militarization. In immediate reprisal for voicing dissent after one
pot-banging, the national spokesperson of KADAMAY, <a title="Mimi Doringo" href="https://www.facebook.com/kadamaynational/photos/a.190754707946703/1072991196389712/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mimi Doringo</a>, was threatened with arrest. In Bulacan, a community leader was taken to a military encampment and told to <a title="cease all political activity" href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/the-philippines-pandemic-response-a-tragedy-of-errors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cease all political activity</a> and “surrender” to the government or he would get no relief aid.</p>
<p>Efforts at mutual aid are being criminalized and targeted for
repression. Since late April, police have carried out mass arrests of
relief volunteers, alongside street vendors and those seeking food. On
April 19, <a title="seven relief volunteers" href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/21/2008760/critical-not-seditious-journalist-artists-say-papers-halted-bulacan-relief-drive" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">seven relief volunteers</a>
from Sagip Kanayunan were detained while on their way to distribute
food in Bulacan, and later charged with inciting “sedition.” On April
24, 50 urban poor residents in Quezon City, including a relief
volunteer, were detained for not carrying quarantine passes or wearing
face masks. On May 1, <a title="ten volunteers" href="https://www.karapatan.org/instead+of+addressing+mass+poverty+and+hunger+on+labor+day+duterte+unleashes+mass+arrests+and+fascism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ten volunteers</a> conducting relief with the women’s organization GABRIELA were arrested while conducting a community feeding in Marikina City.</p>
<p>This targeting is no accident. Since 2018, an executive order by
Duterte has authorized a “whole-of-nation approach” to
counter-insurgency, through a <a title="broad array" href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/12/11/1876093/duterte-signs-whole-nation-eo-vs-insurgency" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">broad array</a> of government agencies, resulting in <a title="increased" href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/02/09/1991651/chr-anti-insurgency-drive-being-used-justify-threats-attacks-activists" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increased</a> <a title="repression" href="https://www.karapatan.org/STOP+THE+ATTACKS+AGAINST+HUMAN+RIGHTS+DEFENDERS%21" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">repression</a> against community organizers and human rights defenders generally.</p>
<p>The crackdowns against mutual aid and survival have prompted campaigns on social media to “<a title="stop criminalizing care and community" href="https://www.facebook.com/kadamaynational/posts/1096749317347233" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stop criminalizing care and community</a>.” <a title="Save San Roque" href="https://www.facebook.com/SaveSitioSanRoque" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Save San Roque</a>, a network supporting the resistance of urban poor residents against demolition, has started a <a title="petition" href="http://bit.ly/ECQPETITION" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">petition</a> to immediately release relief volunteers and all low-level quarantine violators. <a title="Human" href="https://ichrp.net/ph-government-urged-to-set-political-prisoners-free-amid-the-outbreak-of-coronavirus-in-jails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Human</a> <a title="rights" href="https://www.karapatan.org/karapatan+asserts+call+political+prisoners+release+government+agencies+relax+rules+pardon+executive+clemency" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rights</a> <a title="organizations" href="https://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/statements/philippines/2020/04/d25775/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">organizations</a> are also <a title="petitioning" href="https://www.change.org/p/president-rodrigo-duterte-sendthemhome-free-all-political-prisoners-in-the-philippines-amid-the-global-pandemic?recruiter=19785508&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">petitioning</a>
for the release of political prisoners, many of them low-income
farmers, trade unionists, and human rights defenders facing trumped up
charges, including the elderly and ill.</p>
<p>As a direct result of the government response focused on
militarization, rather than adequate health care, food, and services,
the Philippines has among the highest number of <a title="COVID-19 cases" href="https://www.csis.org/programs/southeast-asia-program/southeast-asia-covid-19-tracker-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">COVID-19 cases</a> in Southeast Asia, and the pandemic is quickly worsening.</p>
<p><b>Colonial Roots</b></p>
<p>Today’s U.S.-Philippine military alliance has its roots in the U.S.
colonization and occupation of the Philippines over a hundred years ago.</p>
<p>Despite granting the Philippines independence in 1946, the U.S. has
used unequal trade agreements and its military presence to maintain the
Philippines’ neocolonial status ever since. For decades, propping up
oligarchic rulers and preventing land reform guaranteed the U.S. cheap
agricultural exports. The U.S. military assisted with countering a
string of continual rebellions.</p>
<p>U.S. military aid still continues to facilitate corporate extraction
of Philippine natural resources, real estate monopoly, and repression of
indigenous and peasant struggles for land rights — particularly in
Mindanao, a hotbed of communist, indigenous, and Muslim separatist
resistance and the recent center of military operations.</p>
<p>The Philippine armed forces are focused on domestic
counter-insurgency, overwhelmingly directing violence against poor and
marginalized people within the country’s own borders. Philippine
military and police operations are closely intertwined. In fact,
historically the Philippine police developed out of counter-insurgency
operations during U.S. colonial rule.</p>
<p>The U.S. military itself maintains a troop presence in the Philippines through its Operation Pacific Eagle and other exercises.</p>
<p>In the name of “counterterrorism,” U.S. military aid is helping
Duterte wage war on Philippine soil and repress civilian dissent. Since
2017, Duterte has imposed martial law on Mindanao, where he has
repeatedly <a title="dropped bombs" href="https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dropped bombs</a>. Military attacks have displaced over <a title="450,000 civilians" href="https://www.karapatan.org/2019-karapatan-year-end-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">450,000 civilians</a>.</p>
<p>Carried out with U.S. backing and even <a title="joint activities" href="https://fpif.org/its-time-to-end-u-s-military-aid-to-the-philippines/">joint activities</a>, Duterte’s military operations are shoring up the corporate <a title="land-grabbing" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pTShcOkHjqndw19oeREZrCuGFneEXPts/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land-grabbing</a> of indigenous lands and <a title="massacres" href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/martial-law-in-mindanao-takes-deadly-toll-on-land-environmental-defenders/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">massacres</a> of <a title="farmers" href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1104525/14-negros-farmers-summarily-executed-fact-finding-teams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">farmers</a> <a title="organizing" href="https://www.panaynews.net/rights-group-seeks-probe-on-death-of-farmer-leader/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">organizing</a> for their land rights. Paramilitaries backed by the armed forces are terrorizing indigenous communities, targeting <a title="schools and teachers" href="https://fpif.org/its-time-to-end-u-s-military-aid-to-the-philippines/">schools and teachers</a>.</p>
<p>In February, prior to the announced arms deal, Duterte nominally
rescinded the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which
allows U.S. troops to be stationed in the Philippines for “joint
exercises.” On the surface, this was in response to the U.S. <a title="denying a visa" href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/22/us-revokes-visa-philippines-drug-war-police-chief" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">denying a visa</a>
to former drug war police chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. However,
Duterte’s revocation of the VFA is not immediately effective, and only
begins a 6-month process of renegotiation.</p>
<p>The proposed arms sale signals that Trump intends to strengthen his
military backing for Duterte. The Pentagon seeks to maintain a close
military “partnership.”</p>
<p><b>End U.S. Military Aid </b></p>
<p>A growing international movement, in solidarity with indigenous and
Filipino communities, is calling for an end to military aid to the
Philippines. U.S. direct military aid to Duterte’s regime totaled <a title="over $193.5 million" href="https://fpif.org/its-time-to-end-u-s-military-aid-to-the-philippines/">over $193.5 million</a>
in 2018, not counting pre-allocated amounts and donated weapons of
unreported worth. Military aid also consists of grants to purchase arms,
usually from U.S. contractors.</p>
<p>Relatedly, the U.S. government regulates the flow of private arms
sales abroad — such as the current proposed sale. Sales brokered by the
U.S. government are often a public subsidy to private contractors, using
our U.S. tax dollars to complete the purchase. Congress must use its
power to cut the pending sale off.</p>
<p>The latest proposed $2 billion <a title="arms" href="https://dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/philippines-ah-1z-attack-helicopters-and-related-equipment-and-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">arms</a> <a title="sale" href="https://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/philippines-apache-ah-64e-attack-helicopters-and-related-equipment-and-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sale</a>
includes 12 attack helicopters, hundreds of missiles and warheads,
guidance and detection systems, machine guns, and over 80,000 rounds of
ammunition. The State Department says these, too, would be used for
“counterterrorism” — i.e., <a title="repression" href="https://www.karapatan.org/budget+for+ph+arms+deal+with+us+should+be+rechanelled+to+health+services+food+aid+for+poor+filipinos" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">repression</a> in the Philippines. Due to lack of transparency and Duterte’s <a title="deliberate" href="http://nine.cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/08/30/PNP-drug-war-Oplan-Double-Barrel-budget.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deliberate</a> <a title="efforts" href="https://fpif.org/its-time-to-end-u-s-military-aid-to-the-philippines/">efforts</a>
to obscure aid flows, U.S. military aid may well end up providing
ammunition to the armed forces waging Duterte’s drug war, to vigilantes,
or to paramilitaries, all without public scrutiny.</p>
<p>Duterte is using the pandemic as a pretext to continue crushing
political opposition. He has now assumed special emergency powers. Even
prior to the pandemic, in October 2019, police and military <a title="raided" href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA3513422019ENGLISH.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2Va2QPYr2O56k4XusxPnPCRrnN7S2zyB0qZh61F4uvk6YVumDhbUs35IA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">raided</a>
the offices of GABRIELA, opposition party Bayan Muna, and the National
Federation of Sugar Workers, arresting over 57 people in Bacolod City
and Metro Manila in one sweep.</p>
<p>Tragically, repression is quickly escalating.</p>
<p>On April 30, after weeks of police intimidation for conducting feeding programs, <a title="Jory Porquia" href="https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/05/02/2011223/helping-feed-poor-iloilo-activist-shot-dead" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jory Porquia</a>, a founding member of Bayan Muna, was assassinated <a title="inside his home" href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/259499-they-shot-my-tatay-nine-times-jory-porquia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inside his home</a> in Iloilo. Over 76 protesters and relief workers were illegally arrested on <a title="May Day" href="https://www.karapatan.org/instead+of+addressing+mass+poverty+and+hunger+on+labor+day+duterte+unleashes+mass+arrests+and+fascism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">May Day</a>,
including four youth feeding program volunteers in Quezon City, four
residents who posted online photos of their “protesting from home” in
Valenzuela, <a title="two" href="https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2020/05/02/many-poople-arrested-in-may-day-protests-in-philippines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two</a>
unionists holding placards in Rizal, and 42 people conducting a vigil
for slain human rights defender Porquia in Iloilo. Sixteen workers in a <a title="Coca-Cola factory" href="https://www.karapatan.org/instead+of+addressing+mass+poverty+and+hunger+on+labor+day+duterte+unleashes+mass+arrests+and+fascism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coca-Cola factory</a> in Laguna were abducted and forced by the military to <a title="“surrender” posing as armed insurgents" href="https://ichrp.net/labor-day-protests-against-dutertes-de-facto-martial-law-held-around-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“surrender” posing as armed insurgents</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S.’s war machine profits its private contractors at our
expense. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing relied on the Pentagon for
<a title="a third" href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/boeing-wants-a-government-bailout-the-pentagon-already-gave-it-one/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a third</a> of its income. In April, Boeing received a bailout of <a title="$882 million" href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/boeing-wants-a-government-bailout-the-pentagon-already-gave-it-one/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$882 million</a>
to restart a paused Air Force contract — for refueling aircraft that
are in fact, defective. But for-profit weapons manufacturers and other
war profiteers should have no place steering our foreign policy.</p>
<p>Congress has the power to dissent but must act swiftly. Rep. Ilhan Omar has <a title="introduced" href="https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-introduces-pathway-peace-bold-foreign-policy-vision-united-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">introduced</a> a bill to stop arming human rights abusers such as Duterte. This month, the <a title="International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines" href="https://ichrpus.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines</a>,
Communications Workers of America, and others, will launch a bill
specifically to end military aid to the Philippines. In the meantime, we
must urge Congress to stop the proposed arms sales to the Philippines:
please <a title="sign this petition" href="https://bit.ly/ICHRPUSsignOn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sign this petition</a> to do so.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic is baring the need for global solidarity
against militarization and austerity. In taking up the fight against the
deep footprint of U.S. imperialism, here and abroad, our movements will
make each other stronger.</p>
<p><em>This article first appeared on <a href="https://fpif.org/stop-the-2-billion-arms-sale-to-the-philippines/">FPIF</a>.</em></p>
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