SUPPORT FOR IMPRISONED ACTIVISTS IN NEW ZEALAND

On Monday, October 22, 2007, The Centre for Philippine Concerns came out to support
the protest action outside the office of the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity in Montreal. The Centre for Philippine Concerns, a member of the International
League of People's Struggles, opposes the New Zealand government's suppression of the
Moari and environmental activists and the "terrorist" labeling of these same acttivists.
These are the same tactics used by the Philippines in the suppression of Filipino activists.
Attached is the press statement of the Maori Solidarity Committee in Montreal.

Press Release

Protest New Zealand's bid for UN Human Rights Council
IN SUPPORT OF IMPRISONED ACTIVISTS IN NEW ZEALAND

Montreal. Last week in Aotearoa /New Zealand, Maori sovereignty
campaigners, environmental, peace and social justice activists, were
targeted in military-style raids under the post 9/11 Terrorism Suppression
Act, and are being painted in the media as terrorists. Police raided
homes, confiscated possessions and imprisoned at least seventeen mainly
Maori activists in a military-style operation. Amongst those arrested was
prominent Maori activist and community worker Tame Iti, who has been
denied bail along with eleven others.

"We are not terrorists - we've been terrorised" read banners on a 1500
strong demonstration on Friday in the small town of Whakatane, in
solidarity with the arrestees.

Protests this week continue across Aotearoa/New Zealand. In the USA,
Australia, Germany, Greece, and South Africa, people are denouncing New
Zealand's targeting of Indigenous sovereignty campaigners – and making
links between last week's raids, and an international trend of labeling
legitimate political dissent "terrorist".

On Monday, October 22, 2007 at 13h, we are protesting last week's raids,
and drawing attention to Canada and Aotearoa/New Zealand's hypocracy with
respect to the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Last month, New Zealand and Canada were among only 4 governments to vote
against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. On 13
September 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) with 143 member states voting in
favor, eleven abstaining, and Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US
voting against the Declaration.  New Zealand is now waging a militarized
campaign against Maori sovereignty, environmental and social justice
activists. Shamelessly, New Zealand announced its candidacy for the UN
Human Rights Council for the period 2009-2012 this past Friday.

Maori advocacy for self-determination was portrayed a domestic "terrorist"
threat in Aotearoa long before 9/11 and long after colonization of the
nineteenth century.

We stand in solidarity with those in Aotearoa/New Zealand, like here in
Canada, who continue to be terrorized and persecuted by legislation that
criminalizes dissent, particularly those most affected – Indigenous
Peoples and immigrants of colour.

New Zealand repression echos events here in Canada

New Zealand police raids echo the treatment of Indigenous activists in
Canada. Similarly, so-called anti-terror laws are used to label dissent –
especially the dissent of Indigenous peoples – as criminal and terrorist.
Internationally, Canada and New Zealand have consistently attempted to
block the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This summer, Tyendinaga Mohawk activist Shawn Brant was arrested after
blockades of rail lines and highways on Tyendinaga land. A leader in his
community's struggle, he has been portrayed as a criminal and terrorist.
Like Tame Iti, Shawn was jailed in July 2007, and was denied bail until
the end of August.

Communities in the Mohawk territories of Kahnawake, Akwesasne, and
Kanehsatake are all too familiar with racist government repression and
attacks. In Kahnawake in 1990 and in Kanehsatake in 1994 the Canadian
government used the military to attack and repress Mohawk people. In 2006,
we saw heavy police repression in Six Nations when Indigenous activists
reclaimed their land. This summer's police crackdown after the June 29th
days of action are proof that colonialism is alive and well in Canada in
the 21st century.

Repression hidden beneath laws to supposedly fight 'terror' has become all
too familiar.

Demands

We call on people to expose and oppose the New Zealand government's
repressive actions. We strongly oppose New Zealand's bid for a place on
the UN Human Rights Council for its clear suppression of the legitimate00
right to dissent, and for the ongoing violent repression of the Maori
people. We demand in that New Zealand government release those arrested
and apologize to the Tuhoe.

WHEN: Monday, October 22, 13h
WHERE: Outside the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, 413, Saint Jacques Street, Montreal
CONTACT: Maori Solidarity Committee 514-839-4661

Arnel Salvador of WAC wraps up Montreal tour

Montreal was Arnel Salvador's last leg in his three-city tour of eastern Canada, including Toronto and Ottawa. In Montreal his week of activities was hosted by the Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC). Arnel Salvador is the executive deputy director of the Workers Assistance Centre (WAC) based in Cavite, Philippines. He was invited to Canada by KAIROS (a church-based social justice movement). The Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (Ottawa) and the Philippine Network for Justice and Peace (Toronto) also played an active role in his trip.

Arnel met with several union federations in Quebec including representatives from the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) and the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ). He also met with the Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO- International Centre for Workers' Solidarity) campaign committee on sweatshops. Salvador exposed the situation in the Cavite Export Processing Zone where thousands of workers, mostly women, face the exploitative labour practices of foreign multi-national corporations. One of the most notorious is Wal-Mart, where a strike for the right to unionize at one of its Philippine suppliers, the Chong Won clothing factory, has been violently attacked.

CAP-CPC contacts among college professors were mobilized to help organize talks in schools to inform students about the high cost of low priced goods that corporate giants like Wal-Mart provide. It was an important part of building solidarity with a new generation of young Canadians.

On Saturday, October 20, the Filipino Association of Montreal and Suburbs (FAMAS) co-hosted a community forum with Arnel as the main speaker in the FAMAS Community Centre. Present were representatives from Filipino community organizations like the Federation of Filipino Associations of Quebec, NGO's like Development and Peace and social activists based in Montreal. This event was a first step for future collaboration between the well-established Filipino community organizations, the Centre for Philippine Concerns and other concerned organizations on issues such as the extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations happening in the Philippines.

Arnel is returning to the Philippines satisfied that he has gained concrete support from organizations in Montreal. Many of the people and organizations he had met gave their commitment to continue their links and raise financial support for the WAC, organize a Canadian Labour delegation to the Philippines, and lobby Canadian government to pressure the Arroyo administration to put a stop to the ongoing human rights violations in the Philippines.

Related links:

More photos of Arnel's visit in Montreal

Public Service Alliance of Canada hosts Arnel

Bataille syndicale aux Philippines - article de CISO

Workers Assistance Centre

WAGES, PRICE, PROFIT &… WAL-MART

a public forum on the high cost of low prices

Featured Guest Speaker:

Arnel Salvador -- Deputy Executive Director
Workers Assistance Center, Cavite, Philippines

1 pm - Saturday, October 20, 2007
FAMAS community centre - 4708 Van Horne (Metro Plamondon)

Organized by the Centre for Philippine Concerns
in collaboration with Filipino Association of Montreal and Suburbs (FAMAS)

Mr. Salvador, a long time human and labour rights advocate, will be presenting the situation on the ground in a Cavite export processing/free trade zone and the struggles of the thousands of Filipino workers for their right to organize. Mr. Salvador will also report on the crackdown of management, security, police and military elements on the workers of Chong Won factory (a supplier of Wal-Mart). The repression is happening within the context of the Arroyo regime's unjust war against "those who terrorize foreign industries" operating in the Philippines.

For more information please contact Sid de Guzman of the Centre for Philippine Concerns:

514-735-8012 or email capcpc@web.ca

Jocelyn Dulnuan and the Filipino Community Cannot Rest Until There Is Justice

A prayer for Jocelyn Dulnuan, St. Simon's Anglican Church, Toronto

Toronto, October 13, 2007 -- Jocelyn Dulnuan, 27 years old, of Namulditan, Hingyon, Ifugao, the Philippines was found dead on Oct. 1, 2007 in the house located at 2450 Doulton Place, Mississauga where she worked as a live-in caregiver. Jocelyn had arrived in Canada last November through the Live-in Caregiver Program of the Canadian Government. Peel regional police are investigating her death and treating it as a murder case.

Twelve days have already passed since the discovery of her body. Press reports as of today are conflicting over whether the police have already finished their investigation. The police for its part have been very tight-lipped about the case. We hope this has only been so as not to jeopardise the investigation.

Jocelyn Dulnuan's murder raises important issues of public safety, equality and justice for the Filipino community. Given the recent problems regarding the treatment of Filipinos by certain police departments in certain jurisdictions in Canada, the fear exists in the minds of many in the Filipino community that Dulnuan's murder may not get the serious and prompt treatment it requires. We need to know that the police is taking this case seriously and not doing a slipshod job because Jocelyn is a Filipino, and a migrant worker.

Filipino migrant workers are a significant part of our community of 100 thousand plus in the greater Toronto area and contribute greatly directly to the Canadian economy through their work, the products they buy, and the taxes they pay without availing of Canadian public services. Indirectly as well, the work of Filipino migrant workers enables Canadians themselves to contribute greater to the economy. Filipinos, and especially Filipino migrant workers deserve equal rights, safety and justice.

The proper institution to ensure that justice is pursued and the muderer(s) of Jocelyn punished is the Philippine consulate. It is the role of the Philippine consulate to protect the rights of Filipinos in Toronto and surrounding regions. At the very minimum the Philippine consulate has the duty both to pull every diplomatic lever it can to ensure that justice is thoroughly pursued by the local Canadian authorities while keeping the Filipino community properly informed of its efforts. We note that Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal said that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has instructed Alejandro Mosquera "to provide full cooperation for bringing anyone responsible for the crime to justice...." Given the sorry history with other cases of Filipino migrants that have come to grief and the initial response of the local consulate and labour attaché to our approach for help, we can only hope that these instructions are not mere public relations exercises. If any harm comes to a Filipino abroad, will the consulate just leave that person behind and hush matters?

Jocelyn Dulnuan would be alive now if the Philippine government had been able to provide the employment back home sorely sought after by so many Filipinos rather than relying on sending people abroad for remittances. We hope that Jocelyn is not a sacrifice to this policy of exporting Filipino workers.

The Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee is composed the following Migrante-Ontario organizations: Damayan Migrant Resource and Education Centre, Philippine Advocacy Through Arts in Canada (PATAC), SIKLAB-Ontario, Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada-Toronto

(UKPC-TO), and United Filipinos for Nationalism and Democracy (UFiND); the following organizations: Asosacion Negrense, AWARE/Gabay, Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), Ifugao Association, Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC), Philippine Network for Justice and Peace, and the Santaginian Association of Ontario; Fr. Ariel Dumaran of San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish and members of Jocelyn Dulnuan's extended family and friends.

FOR REFERENCE: Maria Sol Pajadura. Cell: +1 647-448-7030.
Email: siklab_ontario@yahoo.ca

Arnel Salvador in Montreal - Philippine workers against Wal-Mart

Workers on picket line in Cavite Export Processing Zone, Philippines

Nous aimerions vous informer de la visite prochaine à Montréal (du 15-21 octobre, 2007) de Arnel V. Salvador, du Workers Assistance Center de Cavite, Philippines.

Arnel fait une tournée à Toronto et Ottawa actuellement, et viendra à Montréal après. Sa visite fera suite au séjour de son collègue, Renato Pambid, parmi nous plus töt cette année, et sera l'occasion pour nous d'avoir des nouvelles fraiches de la lutte en cours chez Chong Won, un fournisseur de Wal-Mart. Vous trouverez ci-joint un bref curriculum vitae de Arnel en anglais.

Arnel attend sa visite avec impatience, et il aimerais bien rencontrer des gens et des organismes intéressés par le travail du WAC à Montréal. Son voyage en Ontario et dans l'ouest du Canada est coordonné par Kairos Canada.

Le Comité de solidarité ouvrière du Centre d'appui aux Philippines aidera à coordonner son séjour à Montréal. On serait heureux d'organiser une rencontre/visite avec Arnel pour vous.

Pour rejoindre les membres du Comité de solidarité ouvrière du CAP-CPC: capcpc@web.ca

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We would like to inform you of the upcoming visit to Montreal (October 15 - 21, 2007) by Arnel V. Salvador from the Workers Assistance Center in Cavite, Philippines.

Arnel has been visiting in Toronto and Ottawa and is now planning to come to our city. He would like to follow up on the trip to Montreal earlier this year by Renato Pambid of the WAC and bring us up-to-date on the ongoing struggle at the Wal Mart supplier, Chong Won. You can find his short curriculum vitae below.

Arnel would be pleased to meet with interested parties during his Montreal trip and is very excited about visiting Quebec. His trip to Ontario and to western Canada is being coordinating by Kairos Canada.

In Montreal the Workers' Committee of the Centre d'appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC) will be helping to coordinate his trip. They would be pleased to arrange to have you meet with Arnel.

You can contact the members of the Workers' Committee of the CAP-CPC at capcpc@web.ca
___________________________

Arnel Villorente Salvador - Workers Assistance Center

Arnel V. Salvador is a seasoned but low-profile activist in the Southern Tagalog region south of Manila, capital of Philippines. At present, he is the deputy executive director of the Workers Assistance Center, Inc., or WAC since 1998. As deputy executive director, he is in-charge of the whole organizing program of WAC in Cavite and Batangas provinces.

He was the main researcher in a research-study contracted by WAC in 1996 that established and had become a basic data/information about the real working conditions of the workers employed in the Cavite Export Processing Zone, the biggest government-owned and controlled free trade zone in the Philippines. This research provided WAC, which was still in its formative stage then, a basic tool for its education and information services that led to the formation of several workers unions in different export-oriented economic zones inside the province of Cavite.

Prior to his work at WAC for the labor sector, Salvador was the Regional Coordinator of KAPATID, a human rights organizations composed of friends and relatives of political detainees from 1986-87. He was also the Secretary-General of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace in Southern Tagalog (EMJP-ST), a church-backed human rights and peace organization, from 1988 to 1995.

As a labor rights advocate, he had been invited to speak about the Filipino workers conditions in the free trade zones in some events/gatherings abroad. Last year, he went to the USA on three-week speaking tour with a worker to expose the anti-labor character of the Wal-Mart’s codes of conduct and to gather support for the striking workers of a Wal-Mart supplier in Cavite.

CAP-CPC members support blockade against uranium mine at Sharbot Lake

Sarwat Viqar, Kelti Cameron and I visited the site of the blockade at Sharbot Lake in Ontario on the Thanksgiving weekend .

This is a blockade set up by the Shabot obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations to try to stop a planned uranium mine from being set up there. We spoke to settlers who have formed a support group for the First nations people, and we talked with the chief of the Shabot Obaadjiwan people, Doreen Davis or Eagle Cloud Woman.

There was a court hearing today, Tuesday, October 9, 2007. The Algonquin were asking for mediation but it was refused: the government is only willing to discuss unstaked (i.e. surveyed for mining purposes) land, and already 30,000 acres have been staked. This is unceeded land, in an area which is the watershed for eastern Ontario and western Quebec. The Algonquin are asking for a moratorium on uranium mining, similar to what already exists in Nova Scotia.

They asked us to speak to people in Quebec about this issue.

There are two websites to check out: www.aafna.ca and www.ccamu.ca.

Sarwat and I are available to be interviewed or to speak about our experience more extensively. Contact me by email at capcpc[at]web.ca. Also, the struggle was covered on Ecolibrium on CKUT radio this morning and is available on the archives -- Tuesday Oct. 9, at 11 a.m.

Eileen Young

Jocelyn Dulnuan: Twice a Victim - Migrante Ontario

(Photo taken from related article in the Toronto Star, October 5, 2007:

http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Crime/article/26391)

TORONTO, October 4, 2007 -- Jocelyn Dulnuan, a Filipina housekeeper of a multi-million dollar mansion in Mississauga , was murdered on Tuesday October 1, 2007.

Her sister in law Regina Kinnud said that "the police came to our door andstarted asking questions about Jocelyn. When we asked why, they said that she was dead". Shocked by thenews, Regina said that Jocelyn was "quiet andhappy person".

Jocelyn came to Canada under the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP), a federal government program that allows Filipinas to come as nannies, housekeepersand caregivers. In this program, she was required to live in her employer's residence.

"That is the inherent problem in the LCP program" said Sol Pajadura, coordinator of Migrante-Ontario, an advocacy group that supports caregivers and other migrant Filipinos in Ontario . "Under these conditions, live-in caregivers are vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and to something like what happened to Jocelyn," she added.

Regina and the agency that found Jocelyn the current job went to the Philippine consulate to ask for help. A consular official said that they do not have the money and resources to repatriate Jocelyn's remains. Besides, the official also said they could not help bring home Dulnuan's remains because she was an unregistered worker.

"We cannot really expect much from them. Jocelyn was also directly hired by an employer and did not go though an agency, so there is no agency that can help repatriate her remains either. But the Philippine consulate, no matter what, should be looking after its own nationals, especially those that it boasts of as "modern-day heroes," said Ms. Pajadura.

This same view was expressed by an Ifugao email sender who said "Her citizenship and the circumstances (behind) her death, not her status, should be considered by the Philippine Consulate."

Jocelyn came from an indigenous farming community in Ifugao province north of Manila . She went to Hong Kong with her mother to work as a domestic worker. After working there for a year she came to Canada hoping to be able to work and sponsor her husband and 4 year-old daughter to join her. That will never happen anymore.

"It's really sad to hear what happened to Jocelyn. Like me and many others she left the Philippines to get a better job," said Michelle Gose, a member of migrant organization Siklab. "Not only did she suffer a violent death, she was also a casualty of our government's program that pushes us out of the country to work and be separated from our families," Michelle added.

Along with Ms. Pajadura, Michelle and other migrant workers' groups and concerned community organizations have started collecting all the information that they can get to provide news to Jocelyn's mother in Hong Kong and to ensure that body will be brought back to their hometown.

Spearheaded by Migrante-Ontario, a Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee will be formed to provide assistance to the repatriation of the Jocelyn's remains and to support the family. Some people in the committee are also looking into the possibility of opening up a trust fund on her behalf.

FOR REFERENCE: Maria Sol Pajadura. Cell: 647-448-7030.
Email: siklab_ontario@yahoo.ca

VICTORY FOR JOMA SISON AT DUTCH COURT OF APPEALS

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, NDFP Negotiating Panel
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

3 October 2007

I am elated by the decision of the Court of Appeals rejecting the demand of the Public Prosecutor's Office for my detention in connection with the investigation of the false and politically motivated charge of ordering or inciting the killing of the two notorious military and police agents Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

The Court of Appeals decision upholds the earlier decision of the District Court of The Hague releasing me from incommunicado detention on the ground that there is no sufficient evidence against me. It goes even further by declaring essentially that there is no prima facie evidence against me. It categorically states that there is no direct evidence to link me to the aforesaid killings and that I am not a criminal perpetrator in any sense.

The Court of Appeals has clarified that for anyone to play a prominent role on behalf of any revolutionary political party or movement in general or in abstracto is no proof of criminal wrongdoing. Direct concrete evidence is necessary to prove any criminal act. The decision has profound implications and has far reaching consequences not only on the question of preventive detention but also on the validity of the charge.

The Court further notes that the charge against me must be seen in their political context and that the statements given by the various witnesses cannot be simply accepted as reliable. It also expresses its doubt as to my ability to fully exercise my right to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses in view of the terrible human rights situation and the dangers to my lawyers.

The prosecution witnesses had been mainly, if not entirely, supplied by the Manila government to Dutch investigators who went to the Philippines to fish for testimonies without any prior finding of wrongdoing by me in The Netherlands and despite the absence of a treaty of extradition between the Philippines and The Netherlands.

The biggest anomaly is that the Dutch prosecutors construe as acts of murder the killings of Kintanar and Tabara whereas in 2006 the prosecutors of the Manila government categorized these as specific acts of rebellion in the rebellion charge filed against me and fifty other persons. This charge, together with its specifications and supposed evidence, was nullified by the Philippine Supreme Court last July.

On their own account, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army have described the Kintanar and Tabara incidents as acts of revolution. They have admitted that the people's court duly issued the warrants of arrest against Kintanar and Tabara and that these armed and dangerous criminal suspects were given battle upon their resistance to arrest by the NPA arresting teams.

The decision of the Court of Appeals is the triumph of justice. In this regard, I thank the judges, G. Oosterhof as Chairperson and G. P. A. Aler and F. Heemskerk as members. Likewise, I thank my counsel Michiel Pestman of Bohler Franken Koppe and Wijngaarden law office and all the parties, institutions, organizations, personages and broad masses of the people who have stood in solidarity with me in order to defend my rights and support my cause against injustice.

I hope that soon the Dutch prosecutors drop the false and politically motivated charge against me. The District Court of The Hague and the Court of Appeals have pointed to the lack of direct and sufficient evidence against me in ruling against my return to solitary confinement. They have exposed the baselessness of the charge against me in fact and in law. I also hope that the prosecutors return to the panelists, consultants and staffers of the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines the computers, cameras, publications, papers, digital files and other things seized in the police raids of 28 August.

It is best that we reacquire the means for exercising our democratic rights in The Netherlands and that we can continue to work for the national and social liberation of the Filipino people, defend human rights against the gross and systematic violations thereof in the Philippines and promote a just peace through the resumption of the formal talks in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.