LESSER INCOME, LESSER FOOD, ATTACK ON PEOPLE'S RIGHTS AND LIVELIHOOD: GMA MUST STEP DOWN!

We in the Taiwan Committee for Philippine Concerns (TCPC) would like to express our solidarity to the struggling Filipino people led by BAYAN or The New Patriotic Alliance in their protest against the SONA of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and in their call for her to immediately step down from office.

We are saddened and very much concerned about the continued misery of the Filipino people during the term of Mrs. Arroyo. Since she assumed office, she allowed the big oil companies to raise its prices of diesel and gasoline for more than 18 times. "The pump up price of diesel is now four times higher compared to her first SONA in 2001 which is calculated at 306 percent increase," according to BAYAN.

The Filipino people are also suffering from rice crisis. Filipinos are now queuing in order to buy rice at a lower price. This condition is a memory of the past particularly during the time of the deposed dictator Marcos where rice was being rationed and people needed to endure a long queue in order to buy rice especially during the 70's.

And to add more miseries, according to the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), "workers received very low wages, even lower than the standard minimum wage pegged at around P350 a day (a family of six needs P788 in order to sustain their daily necessities; most workers receive only around P150-250 for working 12 hours a day").

Not to mention the continued attack on workers rights and right of associations. Workers groups continue to experience union busting in the guise of "company closure" and union leaders are summary executed for being critical and vocal to the administration of Mrs. Arroyo. The TCPC condemns this barbaric act and demand that victims including their families must be given justice and indemnified.

Lastly, we are also concerned about the continued implementation of the Mining Act of 1995 which causes environmental destructions, land grabbing and foreign monopoly control of huge hectares of lands all over the country. We support the indigenous peoples struggle against the immediate abolition of the Mining Act of 1995 and in reclaiming their ancestral lands.

All these miseries will translate to thousands of Filipinos forced to leave the country in order to survive. Here in Taiwan, we are together with the MIGRANTE Taiwan Chapter and other migrants groups struggling against the Philippine labor export program and the continued criminalization and commodification of migrant workers.

There is only one meaning in all of these, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not capable of running the country. ARROYO MUST STEP DOWN NOW!

NO TO PRICE INCREASES!
INCREASE WORKERS WAGE! PROTECT WORKERS RIGHTS!
NO TO MINING ACT OF 1995!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!