Activists protest fascism and Duterte’s martial law, war on drugs
The slapping of red hands on the face of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is to symbolize the blood he has spilled in his war against drugs and his call of martial law in Mindanao.
Located right outside the Philippine consulate in San Francisco, these activists are also protesting against fascism — having cited Duterte’s own words.
Fil-Ams here also point to the recent bloodshed in Batangas between alleged rebels and the Philippine military, saying they were only poor activists who are wrongly being portrayed.
“Our role here in the United States is to expose that this thing is happening because the media in the Philippines; this is something they would not like to report upon because they are buddies and allies with the same landlords that oppress the peasantry,” said Raymond Jegillos.
And for Katrina Liwanag, her presence at this demonstration was personal.
“Josephine Lapera, one of my dear, dear friends who was killed in Batangas allegedly with other 14 youth and she was a student at UP Manila.”
Liwanag opposes the Duterte administration and the calls from supporters demanding for a revolutionary government.
She says those calls are reactionary and contradicting in nature.
“Because if you’re a revolutionary government why would you be killing over 13,000 people in a drug war? When if you were to be a really revolutionary government you would be providing livelihood to those people rather than leaving them as the poorest of the poor.”
Liwanag cites the recent celebration of Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio’s 154th birthday as a true model of revolution.
“To me it’s continuing the revolution of Andres Bonifacio which is anti-feudal and anti-colonial in nature, and those are just two words, I would not associate with Duterte and his administration.”
Following this action — there are plans for a bigger assembly in Vancouver, Washington on the eve of International Human Rights Day.
“U.S. Community organizations and faith leaders and human rights advocates are gathering across the country to launch a ‘stop the killings’ campaign nationally, and to found the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines on December 9th,” said Katie Joaquin.
Before leaving, activists taped their signs on the consulate windows only for it to be removed by security moments later.
The fight between rebels and the military in Batangas, the presence of 14 U.P. student activists in Batangas, International Human Rights Day in Vancouver, Washington, the poorly research (probably cut and paste-Tiglao, 2017) figures used by Human Rights groups of 13,000 killings are as broken record as they can be…there’s a rule for the, before you start running your lip, the least you could do is to do some real research, not just buy some cheap figures sponsored (invented) by some left wing-yellow cult circles…