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Call for Global Day of Action Against Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines on September 21, 2006
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
August 22, 2006
On September 21, 2006, the Filipino people will remember the imposition of martial law and a fascist dictatorship
on them by Marcos upon the instigation of the US in 1972. They will commemorate their suffering and sacrifices
and honor the revolutionary martyrs and heroes. They will celebrate the victory ultimately won in the struggle
against the US-directed fascist regime.
At the same time, they will renew their resolve to continue the struggle for national liberation and democracy
against the persistent and worsened dominance of foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat
capitalism. These evil forces have once more given rise to a new repressive regime, that of Gloria M. Arroyo, since
2001. State terrorism in the Philippines is today the bitter fruit of such US imperialist policies as the "neoliberal
globalization" and "global war on terror".
The Filipino people are confronting and resisting the Arroyo regime, and its violent instruments, such as the
Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and their death squads - the perpetrators of
massacres, assassinations and other grave violations of the human rights of the people in both the urban
and rural communities. Under the US-instigated Oplan Bantay Laya, patterned after Phoenix Program in the
Vietnam in the 1960s, not only the forces of the armed revolutionary movement are being attacked in a
barbaric manner but also the unarmed leaders and activists of progressive legal forces.
The Arroyo terrorist regime has already murdered 730 and abducted more than 180 legal activists, including
party list local leaders, workers, peasants, women, youth, students, teachers, lawyers, church people, human
rights workers and media people. The murders and abductions have been perpetrated with impunity at an
accelerating rate since 2001. The annual rate at which these crimes have been committed during the 5-year
rule of Arroyo has surpassed that in the 14-year fascist dictatorship of Marcos.
Amnesty International, Asian Human Rights Watch and other international human rights organizations, religious
institutions and organizations, trade unions, political parties, lawyers groups, media organizations and many people
abroad have condemned the rampant human rights violations in the Philippines and have manifested solidarity
and support for the Filipino people in the struggle for justice against the Arroyo regime and its instruments of
repression and state terrorism.
The victims, their families, friends and colleagues and the broad masses of the Filipino people are crying out for
justice and retribution. The Arroyo regime, the military, police and death squads must be made to stand trial for
their crimes against the Filipino people, and against humanity. Otherwise, these vicious violations of the democratic
and human rights of the people will continue.
We are calling on all justice-loving people and forces of the world to join the international mobilization against the
Arroyo regime and its US imperialist master. We demand an immediate stop to the extrajudicial killings and open
the way to all possible measures for the attainment of justice. With the solidarity and support of the people of
the world, the Filipino people can bring closer the day of reckoning for the entire Arroyo regime.
Join us in declaring September 21 as the global day of action against the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
Let us hold indignation rallies and protest actions in front of the embassies and consulates of the Philippines in
your country. Let us light a candle for the more than 730 martyrs killed by the Arroyo regime. Let us call on
our host governments to end their support of the Arroyo regime and hold it responsible for its crimes against
humanity.
NEVER AGAIN TO FASCIST DICTATORSHIP!
STOP THE TERRORIST KILLINGS BY THE ARROYO REGIME!
FIGHT STATE REPRESSION AND STATE TERRORISM!
JUSTICE TO THE VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!
UPHOLD DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE PHILIPPINES!
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