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Message to Philippine Advocacy through Arts-Canada
on the Occasion of Its Concert "Songs of Our Times"
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
December 8, 2007
On behalf of the International League of Peoples' Struggle, I wish to express
warmest greetings of solidarity to the officers and members of the Philippine
Advocacy Through Arts-Canada (PATAC). We appreciate PATAC highly as
an organization of Filipino artists that envisions a future where human rights,
real freedom and a just peace reign and that strives to promote the Philippines,
its people, culture and struggles through music, visuals, spoken word, prose and
poetry and other artistic forms.
We commend you for holding the concert for peace and human rights, Songs
of Our Times-Touch a Life, Help a Soul, in order to commemorate human rights
day and to raise funds for helping the Philippine-base Children's Rehabilitation
Center to run its programs and aid the children victims of militarization and
human rights violations in the Philippines. We wish you the utmost success in
this noble and lofty purpose of serving those among the most vulnerable in
Philippine society.
In connection with the concert, you have an excellent partner in the Children's
Rehabilitation Center which has long devoted itself to serving children and families
that are victims of state violence . It focuses its services on children in the rural
and urban areas who suffer physical health problems, emotional disorders, and
social maladjustments due to such traumatic events as arrest, torture, forced
displacement, strafing, bombing, massacre, disappearance, and other forms of
human rights violations.
We hope that PATAC would be able to attract and encourage more Filipino
artists in the Greater Toronto Area to express themselves and relate themselves
to the Filipino community and other people in Canada and to the Filipino people
back home in the struggle for their rights and for better conditions. You can
amplify and extend your strength by developing alliances with community organizations,
institutions and key individuals that are interested in the promotion of the arts and
social justice.
You are on the correct track in responding to the need for advocacy on human rights,
justice and peace issues in the Philippines and Canada and in supporting programs and
activities that are meant to help the most oppressed and exploited people. To
achieve your purpose, you need an ever expanding audience and participation
of people.
You have chosen the arts as truly a potent instrument for reaching out and inspiring
the people to act and change their lives and the world. The arts are an effective way
for letting the people understand what are the problems of social injustice that confront
them and what are the possible solutions to such problems.
We wish PATAC to become a learning centre for the understanding of socially significant
issues and for developing artistic skills such as in songwriting, popular theatre, spoken word
and visual arts. May PATAC be successful in promoting Philippine arts in various forms for
the purpose of enlightening, inspiring and mobilizing the Filipinos here to stand and act
for their democratic rights and legitimate interests and to support the Filipino people back
in their struggle for national and social liberation against imperialism and the local exploiting
classes. ###
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