The elusive justice in the Philippine Peace Process - information session

Wednesday, June 20, 6pm - 8 pm

Immigrant Workers Centre (CTI-IWC)

4755 Van Horne, #110, Montréal (Metro Plamondon)

Free event (donations welcome)

The fast changing situation in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front requires peace activists to take stock and understand the unfolding events. The Centre d'appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC) is hosting an information session on the current situation of the peace process in the Philippines with speaker Joey Calugay. 

Joey is a member of the CAP-CPC and a longtime human rights advocate. He has interviewed members of the NDFP peace panel based in the Netherlands and researched the peace process under various Filipino administrations since he was a student activist. With the Montreal Coalition of Filipino Students, Joey helped organize a Canada-wide tour for NDFP peace negotiators in the early part of the 1990s. This started his long commitment and activism for peace based on justice in the Philippines.

-- Joyce Valbuena, CAP-CPC

 

 

Pourparlers de paix aux Philippines - séance d’information

Mercredi 20 juin, 18:00-20:00

Centre des travailleuses et travailleurs immigrants (CTI-IWC)

4755 Van Horne, #110, Montréal (métro Plamondon)

Événement gratuit (dons bienvenus)

L’évolution rapide de la situation des pourparlers de paix entre le gouvernement philippin et le Front national démocratique (FNDP) exige que des militants en faveur de la paix fassent le point pour comprendre les évènements qui se déroulent. Le Centre d’appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC) organise une séance d’information sur la situation actuelle du processus de paix aux Philippines avec le conférencier Joey Calugay.

Joey est membre du CAP-CPC et un défenseur de longue date des droits humains. Il a interviewé des membres du Panel des négotiations de paix du FNDP basée aux Pays-Bas et a fait des recherches sur le processus de paix sous différentes administrations philippine depuis qu’il était militant étudiant. Avec la Coalition des étudiants philippins de Montréal, Joey a aidé à organiser une tournée pancanadienne des négociateurs de paix FNDP au début des années 1990. C’était le début de son long engagement et son militantisme pour la paix fondée sur la justice aux Philippines. 

-- Joyce Valbuena, CAP-CPC

CAP-CPC in solidarity with the evacuees from Camansi, Banglay, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental

The Centre d'appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC) is in solidarity with the communities of the Higaonon Lumad in Sitio Camansi in Banglay, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental. We sympathize with the 35 Higaonon Lumad families (158 individuals) who were forced to flee their homes—for the sixth time since 2015—due to harassment from soldiers from the 58^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) who have encamped in their communities.

We condemn this affront to basic civil and human rights among the indigenous people. We are in cognizant that these Higaonon Lumad families were repeatedly subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation by the soldiers, maliciously accusing them as members or supporters of the armed group New People’s Army (NPA).

We condemn the military for its repressive tactics to harass the evacuees that even after their escape to seek refuge in another village and seek help from non-government organizations, the military followed them and make their struggle more miserable. One Lumad girl was even nearly raped because there is no safety in the area where they built plastic tents outside of the provincial Capitol building for temporary shelter. Many of them got sick because of their exposure to the urban environment they are not accustomed to.

We are concerned that the consequences of the government’s development projects is destroying the sacred grounds of the indigenous people and consequently forcing them to leave their communities.

We support the demand of the community to pull out from their village and cease the construction of the military’s detachment in their ancestral territory.  We are in support of the evacuees’ demand to demilitarize their community, to obtain their consent on whatever development plans the government is planning for their community, and to respect their right to a self-determined development.