A discussion on the Filipino community’s views on LGBTQ and immigrant rights issues.

“Psssst…. did you hear that cousin Baby who just arrived from the Philippines is bakla?”
“Shhhh! We don’t talk about that!”

How does our community perceive lesbians, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) people, and how can we support each other to understand issues that LGBTQ (immigrant) folks face?

Everyone is encouraged to attend to make our discussion more enriching…
LGBTQ or straight, immigrant, US-born, all ages, everyone is welcome.

Monday, March 5, 2012 (6:30-8:30pm)
Filipino Community Center
4681 Mission Street (between Ocean & Persia)
San Francisco 94112

Questions?: babaesf@gmail.com

February 1, 2012

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA, email: chair@bayanusa.org

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, express condemnation and disgust over the efforts of Philippine President Benigno Simeon “Noy-Noy” Aquino III to accommodate the ”new” US defense strategy that entails a so-called “rebalance to Asia”, including an increase in US military presence in the Philippines. BAYAN USA also denounces the US government’s Cold War-style media offensive against economic rival China as a pretext to justify its gross expansion of US military powers in the Asia-Pacific in order to increase US economic, political, and military investments in the region.

Economically-Motivated

Under neoliberalism, the US economy is largely dependent on the Pacific Rim, particularly because of its export position. In 2010, the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum accounted for 61% of US exports ($775 billion) and 37% of private services exports ($205 billion). The US economy’s export position in the region accounts for nearly 5 million US jobs. But for countries such as the Philippines, the US investment and export position is at the heart of deepening crisis and poverty due to lack of sovereign claim to natural resources and territory. In line with their national interests, countries like the Philippines must wage fierce struggles against US interventionism in order to assert their right to chart their own economic and political paths.

With China’s economic growth threatening US dominion over the region, and with Obama’s push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that would outline a US-dominated free trade zone in the region, the US government has announced it will shift its military focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan and renew its commitment to assert it’s position in Asia-Pacific. It has found a reliable stooge in the Aquino government. Recent negotiations framed as a Strategic Dialogue between top Washington security and defense officials and the Aquino administration have laid the ground work for the consolidation of the Philippines as a key US military base location, serving as a permanent staging ground for US military offensives, storage space for surveillance drones, resupply and refueling station for US warships and aircrafts, as well as rest and recreational facility for US servicemen.

In addition to violating Philippine national sovereignty, Aquino’s compliance in accommodating US saber-rattling seeks to undo the 1991 landmark decision of the Philippine Senate to reject the US bases treaty that essentially shutdown permanent US military bases Subic Naval and Clark Air Field, by once again opening these ports for indefinite and “rotational” basing of US troops and throughout the archipelago.

Aquino Positions the Philippines in the Crossfire

Not only does Aquino government reach an all-time high in the barometer of US puppetry with these negotiations, it is aligning the Philippines with a military scheme that will threaten peace in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The US government, driven by its war-dependent economy, is expanding its military presence in Asia-Pacific region under rhetoric of security in the South China Sea and in particular the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands, when in fact it seeks an excuse to provoke military aggression and create a war-like situation against China that will boost up it military-industrial complex at the expense of the surrounding countries. Such compliance on the Aquino government’s part will surely position the Filipino people in the middle of the crossfire.

Starting with the Philippine-American War of 1899, which marked the advent of US imperialism onto the global stage at the turn of the 20th century, 113 years US geopolitical strategy in region has left the Philippines with a tragic history and ongoing reality of US military infestation whose social costs have burdened its people with untold pain and misery. From hosting the largest US permanent foreign military bases to succumbing to the onerous US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)– the mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements– to the virtually permanent Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), over one century of US military presence in the country has been directly linked to the indiscriminate killings, rape and other sexual offenses, massive displacement of rural communities, waste, disease, and other forms of human rights abuses.

Call for Resistance & Solidarity

As Filipinos in the US, BAYAN USA sees concretely how both the Aquino and Obama governments– guardians of financial oligarchy– are acting in betrayal of the broad interest of the Filipino and American peoples. Just as the poor grow poorer in the Philippines under Aquino’s failed economic policies, so are working people in the US forced to carry the heavy burden of paying for a debt crisis they did not create. As peoples resistance to the intolerable 1% escalates amidst the crisis, BAYAN USA joins the call for greater solidarity between people in the US struggling against the US military-industrial complex and for economic equality and the Filipino people’s ongoing struggle for genuine national independence and democracy. This must translate to greater efforts to expose and oppose the US geopolitical strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as a scheme of the purveyors of crisis and war to maintain tight control over the region’s wealth. Peoples resistance and firm solidarity are key in our efforts to frustrate US interventionism in the region!

US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES! 

US OUT OF ASIA!

JUNK THE US-RP MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY!

JUNK THE US-RP VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!

UPHOLD PHILIPPINE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY!

LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

December 31, 2011

Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson, GABRIELA USA
gabrie…@gmail.com

Filipina Women in the U.S. Call for Relief Donations for Victims of the Natural and Man-Made Disaster that has Taken the Lives of Thousands of Women and Children in Southern Philippines

Just days before the Christmas holiday, Typhoon Sendong (Tropical Storm Washi) hit two major cities of the northeastern region of Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro and Ilagan.  It is confirmed that more than 1,200 lives have been claimed thus far, and more than one thousand people are left unaccounted for.  Hundreds of thousands are left homeless as rampant rainfall and flash floods swept away and destroyed whole villages in what many weather experts claim to be the worst storm to hit Mindanao in over 60 years and the world’s deadliest storm of 2011.

A majority of the victims killed by the massive typhoon were women and children.  Already in a state of economic crisis, the climatic tragedy has exacerbated the worsening livelihood of many of the people of this region, whose lands have been overtaken by mining and logging corporations, destroying the environment. The flash floods following the massive rainfall was caused primarily by deforestation which allowed the rain water to easily slide down the mountainside, when typically having trees help control the flow of water.  The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the Cagayan de Oro River also failed to hold the huge amount of rainfall brought by tropical storm Sendong that eventually poured into the 2 low-lying cities.

Multinational corporations which are backed by the Philippine government under the Mining Act of 1995,  have continued to plunder the Philippines of its natural resources, bloating the pockets of big businesses and corrupt politicians who benefit from it, while the majority of the Filipino people suffer from poverty.  Mining and logging have been detrimental to the people of this region and other part of the Philippines, and the cause for rampant human rights abuses by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in attempts to clear the land.

Raquel Redondiez, Chair of Gabriela USA states “This is not only a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity caused by government neglect and corruption and corporate greed.  Like Typhoon Ondoy, the human toll would not have been so severe if not for the decades of environmental denigration and if the basic infrastructure was in place for the communities affected.”
GABRIELA USA and its member organizations are working together with Bayan USA and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) in relief efforts to help the people of Mindanao hit hardest by this calamity. Fundraising events are being held in major cities in the U.S., including a New Year’s Eve fundraiser tonight in San Francisco.

Any donation amount will help! Please submit your donations via the GABRIELA USA Paypal Donate button: http://gabusa.org/ 

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GABRIELA USA is a grassroots-based alliance of progressive Filipino women’s organizations in the United States seeking to wage a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed Filipino women and the rest of our people.

Contact: Jun Cruz
NAFCON Public Information Officer
Email: info@nafconusa.org
Phone: 650-580-7382

On the quiet night of December 17th, the Philippines was struck by another calamity in the Southern Islands of Mindanao identified as tropical storm ‘Sendong’.

Cagayan de Oro, Negros Oriental and Iligan were amongst the worst cities hit by flash floods and landslides leaving 650 confirmed dead, with more reported fatalities expected, and nearly 100,000 victims homeless.

The National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), with member organizations throughout the U.S., is activating its Bayanihan Relief program for the victims of ‘Sendong’ in Mindanao.

NAFCON is collecting exclusively monetary relief (not material goods) and ensures that your donations go directly to the communities of the Philippines who are deeply and adversely affected by ‘Sendong’.

“As we near Christmas, we urge our kababayan to ease the suffering of children, families, and loved ones back home who were hit hard by ‘Sendong’ by making immediate monetary donations in the true spirit of the holidays,” said Terry Valen, NAFCON President.

NAFCON has established collections centers throughout the U.S and has a Paypal account. For Paypal go to: http://tinyurl.com/bayanihanrelief or click on the donate button below:

Cash or checks go to locations listed below. On memo please write: NAFCON Bayanihan Relief

North East: Checks Payable to “Philippine Forum”
Mail to 40-21 69th St. Woodside, NY
Regional Coordinator: Michelle Saulon, ne@nafconusa.org, (347) 867 – 1550

Mid West: Checks Payable to “Good Shepherd Congregation”
Mail to 4707 W. Pratt Ave Lincolnwood, Il 60712
Regional Coordinator: Lorena Nabua, mw@nafconusa.org, (224) 678 – 3415

Nor Cal: Checks Payable to “FOCUS-Filipino Community Support”
Mail to 4681 Mission St. San Francisco, Ca 94112
Regional Coordinator: Angelica Cabande nc@nafconusa.org, (415) 946 – 9904

So Cal: Checks Payable to “Tulong Sa Bayan (TSB)”
Mail to: 519 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Regional Coordinator: Alex Montances, sc@nafconusa.org, (253) 381 – 7444

North West: Checks Payable to “Pinay Sa Seattle”
Mail to 5740 Martin Luther King Junior Way Seattle, WA 98118
Regional Coordinator: Freedom Siyam, nw@nafconusa.org, (206) 659 – 1130

For more information on fundraising and relief activities in your area please contact NAFCON regional coordinators nearest you.

Meet & Occupy SF @ The Federal Reserve – 101 Market St. in SF