protest: Philippine president's trip to Canada met with opposition
Tom Crute, Associate News Editor

The arrival of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Canada on January 29 was greeted by protests from several organisations. The president has allowed United States military forces to infiltrate the island of Mindanao despite a constitutional ban on foreign troops on Philippine soil.

"This intervention is an outright violation of Filipino people's national sovereignty," said Lynn Farrales of the Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia.

The U.S. has sent over 600 troops, over 100 of which are from the special forces, to Mindanao. The Americans claim to be intervening in support of the Philippine governments' campaign against Abu-Sayyaf, a small Muslim terrorist organisation, as part of their war on terrorism. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency initiated abu-Sayyaf, a group that carries out kidnappings for ransom and has victimised civilians and foreign tourists.

Protests against the illegal intervention by the U.S. in what is seen by many Filipinos as a domestic matter, which should be handled by the Philippine military, were held in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. In Vancouver, the Philippine Women Centre led protests by several Filipino groups, as well as representatives from other groups including the Communist Party of Canada, Grassroots Women, Mayworks, and the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians.

The rally met little opposition from Vancouverites. Repeated screams of "bullshit" came from one man who then waved his arms in the air like a conductor and mock-led the protesters in a chant of "U.S. intervention stop the aggression!" This disorderly interruption of the protest, however was short-lived as the man, still alone, quickly left the scene.

Upon resuming the rally, Farrales spoke vehemently of the effects that past foreign military intervention has had on the people of the Philippines. One issue of particular concern for Farrales, since American troops re-entered the Philippines, is that of rising prostitution and potential raping of Filipino women.

"History is mired with violent acts of rape and terror inflicted on Filipino women by the U.S. military in its wars of aggression during the Philippine-American War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War," said Farrales. "[This] contributed to the past growth of institutionalised prostitution and trafficking of Filipino women and girls for the rest and recreation of U.S. troops."

Political conflicts such as these and their devastating impact on all levels of society are not uncommon in the recent history of the Philippines. Many of the organisations which participated in the Vancouver rally also participated as Canadian voices in the "Oust Estrada" movement of 2000, which was instrumental in deposing Macapagal-Arroyo's corrupt presidential predecessor Joseph Estrada.

Concern over the current situation in the Philippines is an issue of importance to all nations of the world, said Charles Boylan of the Communist Party. "The struggle of the people of the Philippines is our - the Canadian people's - struggle."

"Together, every nation around the world, every people around the world, by fighting to build their nation, by fighting for independence, for their dignity, for their freedom to develop the society that befits human beings in the conditions of their own national context, all of these struggles are the route to pinning down this monster that has grown in the 21st century to be what they call the singular super power."

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