PHILIPPINE GROUPS FORM ANTI-WAR NETWORK: Call for Permanent Ceasefire, End to Genocide in Gaza

 

 We, the Philippine groups representing various interests and advocacies, including those on human rights, labor, women, youth, urban poor, Moro and IPs, environment, and political parties, form ourselves today into NO TO WAR network in solidarity with the world’s people who are suffering from the devastating impacts of ongoing conflicts and in preventing the slide of other conflicts into new wars, including those in Asia and possibly in the Philippines.

 

As an anti-war network, we are campaigning for peace with justice and will continue to oppose the ruling establishment's inclination toward war, militarization, colonization, and destruction, both of humanity and the environment.

 

In solidarity with the Palestinian people, we join the international community in calling for a permanent ceasefire, a stop to genocide in Gaza, and an end to Israeli occupation.  Words cannot adequately convey the horrors of war being experienced by the Palestinians from the endless airstrikes and ground raids carried out by Israel. There must be a stop to this genocide and human suffering!

 

We advocate for an unconditional and permanent ceasefire because we believe this is the critical first step towards de-escalation, facilitating humanitarian aid, and creating a conducive environment for brokering negotiations and dialogues. Without a a permanent ceasefire, sparks of violence will only lead to the escalation of further violence.

 

The international community, especially the free countries within the United Nations, must step up to address the intensifying humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They should redouble their efforts to find diplomatic and political solutions to the Palestine-Israel conflict and cease support for Israel’s campaign of siege and genocide in Gaza by halting aid from the US and other western powers.

 

As a contribution to the growing peace and anti-war movement across the globe, the Philippines’ NO TO WAR network will be holding a series of activities ranging from teach-ins, physical and online fora, as well as direct actions to amplify our cause.

 

In particular, in addition to its obligation to secure Filipinos on both sides, including the safe release of the remaining Filipino hostages in Gaza, we urge the Philippine government to support the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire and the creation of free corridors for humanitarian aid. In the 1930s, when many other countries refused to take in Holocaust refugees, our nation welcomed 1,200 Jewish individuals from Shanghai, China, ensuring their safety from the genocide perpetrated by

Nazi Germany. In a similar manner, we implore the Philippine government not to abstain and, once again, to stand against genocide—this time, by calling on Israel for a permanent ceasefire.

 

On November 30, the NO TO WAR network will link up with Nagkaisa Labor Coalition in commemorating Andres Bonifacio's day. Bonifacio, alongside fellow Katipuneros and Katipuneras, led the revolutionary resistance against Spanish colonialism. Members of NO TO WAR collectively believe that the historical legacy of colonialism, occupation, and militarism has perpetuated conflicts throughout modern times. Therefore, our opposition remains against militarization and the imposition of unjust policies by foreign powers in our country.

 

NO TO WAR will also be part of the human rights community in celebrating Human Rights Week at the start of December.

 

Access photos of launching here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xdTDQQmgzbQ-4MmSiXVsy4Vi2vhoLIYy

 

NO TO WAR network is composed of the following organizations:

 

Alyansa ng Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao

Amnesty International Philippines

Anak Mindanao-Youth

Bangsa

Coalition Against Human Trafficking of Women-Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)

Dakila

Federation of Free Workers

Focus on the Global South

KAGULONG

IIRE-Manila

In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (IDefend)

Laban Kababaihan

LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women's Rights)

MINDANOW

Nagkaisa Labor Coalition

National Federation of Labor

Partido Manggagawa (PM)

Public Services Labor Independent Confederation

Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO)

Tara Kabataan

United Filipino Service Workers

United Muslim Alliance for Development (UMA DEV)

World March of Women - Pilipinas

PRESS STATEMENT

NO TO WAR

28 November 2023

Invitation for coverage: Groups form anti-war network in response to Palestine, West PH Sea issues

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

NO TO WAR

27 November 2023

Contact: Wilson Fortaleza @09452182693

Partido Manggagawa

 

Invitation for coverage

 

Dear friends,

 

PHILIPPINE GROUPS FORM ANTI-WAR NETWORK

Call for Permanent Ceasefire, End to Genocide in Gaza

 

Various interest and advocacy groups, including those on human rights, labor, women, youth, urban poor, Moro and IPs, environment, and political parties, will be forming the NO TO WAR network in solidarity with the world’s people who are suffering from the devastating impacts of ongoing conflicts and in preventing the slide of other conflicts into new wars, including those in Asia and in the Philippines.

 

WHEN: November 28, 2023

TIME: 10:00 AM

WHERE: Workers House, 94 Sct. Salgado, Brgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City

 

In solidarity with the Palestinian people, we join the international community in calling for a PERMANENT CEASEFIRE and END TO GENOCIDE IN GAZA.

 

As a contribution to the growing peace and anti-war movement across the globe, the Philippines’ NO TO WAR network will be holding a series of activities ranging from teach-ins, physical and online fora, as well as direct actions to amplify our cause.

 

See you at the Workers House. Thank you very much!

“War is violence against women”—feminist groups in the Philippines

 

On the first day of a 18-day global campaign to end violence against women, feminist groups in the Philippines highlighted the call for a permanent ceasefire as a step towards a permanent solution to the question of Palestine.

 

“War is violence against women. It is as clear as day in the ongoing hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas that women are disproportionately victimized in war. The history of conflicts reveals this ugly truth. Thus, we call for a stop to the war in Palestine and elsewhere. And demand a just peace,” argued Judy Ann Miranda, secretary general of Partido Manggagawa (PM). PM is among the groups that participated in today’s activity.

 

A hundred women leaders from various organizations that comprise the World March of Women-Pilipinas marched to the grounds of the Commission of Human Rights today for a rousing and festive program to launch the violence against women campaign. Community assemblies in several working class areas in Metro Manila followed later in the day.

 

The launch of the campaign served as an opportunity for women to raise the urgent call for solidarity to the people of Palestine. In the statement released for the event, the World March of Women-Pilipinas, stated that “Israeli forces through persistent bombings on Palestinian communities, kill[ed] more than 14,000 Palestinians. Most hurt were women and children, as hospitals were also bombed. World March of Women members in Palestine were [also among those] attacked.”

 

“The so-called humanitarian pause should give way to a sustained ceasefire in both Gaza and the West Back. A permanent ceasefire then enables political negotiations to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” Miranda explained. The women’s groups’ call for solidarity with Palestine is part of a sustained advocacy by social movements, trade unions, human rights organizations and grassroots communities in the Philippines.

 

Next week, on November 30, which is a traditional day of mobilization for workers in the Philippines, trade unions along with other civil society groups will also underscore the demand for a permanent ceasefire and a stop to the genocide in Palestine. Today, a rally is being held in Manila by Muslim and Christian organizations together with progressive groups. The mobilization is billed as a march for peace and justice in Palestine.

 

All these solidarity actions build upon earlier activities by numerous organizations in different parts of the country, including in the southern island of Mindanao which has a substantial Muslim population. Among those actions was a rally outside the Catholic Church in Manila last November 4 which was a local response to the call by the International People’s Assembly for a global day of action for Palestine.

 

“The drums of war are beating so hard that they are not only deafening but are inciting harm and violence against women,” according to the World March of Women-Pilipinas. It added  that “Historically, women and children suffer the most during war in the form of hunger, sexual assault, physical violence including unjust imprisonment as hostages of warring parties, loss of home and of family members.”

 

Miranda averred that “Women also do not want to be caught in the middle of the US and China conflict. We call for a peaceful solution to the West Philippine Sea issue. Through negotiations among the claimants, we want to guarantee the right of fishers, Filipinos and other nationalities, to gainful livelihood in what should be treated as common fishing grounds.”

 

Tensions in the South China Sea are escalating with the United States forming various military alliances such as the Quad and the AUKUS in a bid to contain China and maintain control over the busy shipping lanes in the region. The Quad is an alliance between the US, Japan, Australia and India while AUKUS unites Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

 

Recently the US has avowed that it will respond to an attack on Philippine ships in the disputed sea according to terms of a mutual defense treaty. Meanwhile, talks are ongoing for a visiting forces agreement with Japan.

 

The threats of war in the South China Sea has become a convenient pretext for an influx of the American soldiers and weapons to the Philippines. In 1991, US military bases in the country were kicked out in the culmination of a long struggle led by progressive movements to assert national sovereignty and an independent foreign policy. However, the war on terror opened the door for the return of the American military as so-called “visiting forces.”

 

The feminist groups recalled that prostitution and abuse of women and girls flourished around the sites of the former US military bases in the Philippines. Since the return of US troops in the country, they have been involved in two separate incidents involving the rape of a woman and the murder of a trans. All of the accused soldiers are now back in America after controversial decisions of acquittal or pardon.

November 25, 2023

Ceasefire now and humanitarian aid to Gaza towards an end to Israeli occupation

 

We join the majority of the United Nations and the peoples of the world in campaigning for peace and in calling for an immediate ceasefire to the armed conflict in Gaza to pave the way for a negotiated, internationally brokered political solution to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

 

By means of war, Israel has dispossessed the Palestinians of their right to existence as a free nation, with their territories effectively occupied and ghettoized by Israeli forces since the Nakba of 1948. This horrific condition suffered continuously by the Palestinian people was made possible with the imposition of unimaginable forms of repression, including killings and an unjust economic embargo, while the Israeli government continues to enjoy massive military and economic assistance from the US and other Western powers.

 

The retaliatory campaign by Israel to completely siege Gaza by cutting off food, water, and electricity supplies to annihilate “subhuman” Palestinians is not simply out of bounds but is downright genocide that needs to be opposed to avert a colossal humanitarian crisis.

 

We continue to emphasize that the only solution we see for peace to finally reign in this region is for the peoples of the world, along with institutions such as the United Nations, to campaign for an end to Israel’s occupation and continued land grabbing in Palestinian territories, and to guarantee the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.

 

The Philippines maintains diplomatic relations with Palestine since 1989, thus working for freedom and peace and preserving mutual respect with each other as independent nations will work better than being torn apart by geo-political alignments and other relations dictated by big powers.

 

However, we find the vote of abstention to the UN ceasefire resolution by the Philippine government politically reprehensible since a “no position” stand in the face of a glaring state of genocide and humanitarian crisis in Gaza works in favor of imperialist powers who seek for the total extermination of any Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.

 

We therefore demand that the Philippine government reverse its stand in favor of the UN ceasefire resolution as this is the most urgent need at the moment to stop further loss of lives and destruction, facilitate global humanitarian aid to Gaza, and formulate a workable and just solution to end the war.

 

We likewise call on the Philippine government to exert all efforts to determine the actual condition and secure the safe release and repatriation of Filipinos who reportedly went missing or have been killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas. At least 30,000 Filipinos live in Israel, and 100 live in Gaza Strip, according to reports.

 

STOP THE WAR ON GAZA!

CEASEFIRE AND HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA!

END ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF GAZA AND WESTBANK!

FREEDOM FOR PALESTINE!

November 4, 2023

Partido Manggagawa 

Media Advisory: Protests today to call for immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Gaza

Media Advisory

November 4, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

Contact Judy Ann Miranda @ 09175570777

 

Groups to call for immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Gaza

 

What: Solidarity actions by groups of workers, women and youth in Manila, Cebu and Bacolod (Partido Manggagawa, Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, PM Kabataan, Dakila, IDefend and Youth Claim)

 

When: Today (November 4), 4:00 to 5:30 pm

 

Where: Our Lady of Loreto Church, Bustillos, Sampaloc, Manila

              Fuente Osmena Circle, Cebu City

              WDC office, Airport Subdivision, Singcang, Bacolod City

 

Photo opportunities: Candle Lighting in Manila along with singing and poetry reading; Candle lighting in Cebu; Chanting in Bacolod

 

The solidarity actions in Manila, Cebu and Bacolod will call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid as a step towards an end to the Israeli occupation and a negotiated political settlement in Palestine. The groups are also criticizing the abstention of the Philippines to the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire. The protests today in the Philippines are part of a global day of action in solidarity with Palestine.