HOPES in the REMEMBRANCE OF PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE

June 12, 2001* Migrante B.C. CANADA A lot of hope is riding on the newly proclaimed President Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino III, the 15th President of the Philippines. After nine “Gloria Arroyo years,” the national sigh of relief that Arroyo is no longer in Malacanang Palace is heard loud and clear. Those years are marked by poverty, unemployment, corruption, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances committed under a culture of impunity, the abuse of public trust, and a counter-insurgency operation designed to eliminate all her critics. Can Aquino restore the people's faith in the institutions of government that were undermined by his predecessor Arroyo? Will Aquino's 100 days and beyond be a mirror of what his governance is going to be? Hope rides high on Aquino’s promise of anti-corruption and clean government. We hope to see Aquino’s political will in bringing the former president Arroyo to court for large-scale corruption, electoral fraud and gross human rights violations. We hope to see Aquino pursue genuine national land reform and a comprehensive program on nationalist industrialization that would push economic development, thereby generating jobs and economic opportunities at home. We hope to see Aquino put more teeth in enforcing and making the laws to protect the rights and welfare of the 10 million overseas Filipinos, because Filipino migrants deserve the greatest promotion and protection of their rights wherever they are. We want to see an end to the Visiting Forces Agreement (ratified in 1999 by the Philippine Senate) that allows heavily-armed U.S. soldiers to freely roam around the Philippines and to get away with murder, rape and harassment of Filipino women, maltreatment of Filipinos and destruction of the environment. Foreign troops have no business “visiting” a truly sovereign country, and for more than a decade at that! We want to see an agenda for a just peace and for Aquino to resume the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. And the release of political prisoners as a prelude to the peace talks is most certain to be taken as a step by Aquino in the right direction on the peace issue. Migrante B.C., particularly in today’s remembrance of Philippine Independence Day, reaffirms its hope in the Filipino people in its continuing struggle for a better Philippines for all, and not just for a few. While we hope (as all of us should), our hopes are grounded in the context of our history and collective experience. We have seen presidents make promises and break them. We put our hopes, not on one man alone, but on the Filipino people working for change, continuing to fight in the tradition of our heroic men and women throughout our history for genuine independence and liberation. +++ * distributed at the June 12 independence day event at Slocan Park, Vancouver