Press Statement
7 April 2005

Our sympathy bridges distance! Our sympathy is a cry for justice!
Stop the killings of activists and progressives.
 
As we gather today outside the doors of the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong to condemn the spate of killings of Filipino progressives, Church people and journalists, we, migrant workers, Church people, human rights advocates and civil libertarians, call on the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately stop its killing frenzy of advocates for peace, justice, human rights and democracy.
 
Since mid-January 2005, 32 people identified with activist political parties and organizations, have been systematically gunned down or abducted in a series of incidents across the country. In Central Luzon alone, the center of the Hacienda Luisita dispute, 13 people have been summarily executed and five more have been forcibly taken and are still missing.
 
The murders and forced disappearances were reported to have been perpetuated by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and paramilitary groups.
 
We may be far from our country. Still, we sympathize with our fellow Filipinos whose only crime is to want what is rightful and just. We sympathize, for Filipinos abroad also dream of a country to come back to where peace and social justice reigns.
 
If activists and progressives are felled by bullets, migrant workers are slowly killed by government neglect and inaction.
 
There are at least 5,168 OFWs languishing behind bars, including 673 women and 50 minors, worldwide. On death row are at least 5 Filipinos in Malaysia, one in the US and 13 in Saudi Arabia. Robert Tarongoy remains a captive in war-torn Iraq. Four OFWs have been beheaded recently in the Saudi Arabian city of Taif.
 
In Jordan at least 50 abused Filipina workers continue to languish at the Philippine post in Amman. Their requests for repatriation are being delayed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA); that at the same time pressures the families of these workers to shoulder the expenses of their deployment, fines and repatriation.
 
The same goes for more than 100 stranded workers in the cities of Jeddah and Al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia. The unsolved murders of two Filipinas in The Netherlands have not gotten any attention from Malacanang.
 
The inaction of Pres. Arroyo on the continuing assassination, summary execution and forced disappearance of Filipino progressives and journalists is in effect an approval if not an endorsement of these atrocities and murders.
 
Like our fellow Filipinos back home – whose plea for wage increase and stable jobs where answered by live bullets, gunned down because their faith brought them to serve the exploited peasants of Hacienda Luisita, silenced because they criticize the corruption and other wrong doings of the government in their articles and statements in the news papers and radio program – abused and exploited overseas Filipino workers’ plight fall on deaf ears and are left to suffer their unbearable condition. If this is not state terrorism, then what is?
 
Distance can never impede us from extending our solidarity and sympathy to the parents, wives, husbands, sons and daughters of our modern Filipino martyrs.
 
Because our sympathy bridges distance... our sympathy is a cry for justice.
 
Stop the Killings, Uphold Human Rights! Justice for the victims of state terrorism! Respect Civil Liberties, Oppose State Terrorism! Bring the perpetrators to justice! Scrap all policies and measures that curtail civil liberties and human rights! 

* The views and opinions contained herein do not necessarily reflect the view of The Dean and the Council of St. John's Cathedral
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The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel : (852) 2810-4379    Fax : (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
Website: http://www.unifil.org.hk
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* The views and opinions contained herein do not necessarily reflect the view of The Dean and the Council of St. John's Cathedral
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel : (852) 2810-4379    Fax : (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
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