BAYAN Canada appeals for help for Typhoon Ondoy victims

BAYAN Canada and all its allied organizations appeals to the Filipino-Canadian community to join “Bayanihan para sa Sambayanan” (Peoples Cooperation for People) relief efforts for tropical storm “Ondoy” victims, which battered Metro Manila and nearby provinces on September 26 and left over 140 people dead and thousands of submerged houses and damages properties.

Member organizations of BAYAN Canada have begun with its BALSA or “Bayanihan para sa Sambayanan” efforts by collecting financial support for the relief efforts in the Philippines. BALSA is a BAYAN-initiated network put up more than 10 years ago to concentrate on relief for victims of natural and man-made disasters in the Philippines.

Filipino-Canadian elected officials from Winnipeg to Vancouver have already solicited the support of their provincial governments and are now preparing to mobilize broader Canadian support for the victims of Ondoy. Meanwhile, Filipino-Canadian church people have also called on their communities to donate what they can.

Migrante International on the other hand, calls for the “bayanihan” (cooperation and unity) spirit of all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Administered by the Migrante Sectoral Partylist (MSP), operation "Sagip-Migrante" (migrant rescue) is helping to facilitate the smooth remittance of the relief funds and goods to the right people. OFWs are called modern-day heroes for the billions of dollars they remit to their homeland in support of their families. The ability of OFW’s to collect donations for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy will go a long way in combating the disease, hunger and displacement due to the aftermath of the floods.

Unlike the Philippine government’s slow response to the disaster, Filipinos in Canada are getting organized while material support for the flood victims have begun to flow as fast as the flood waters rose.

Receding flood waters expose more than the dead

Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) brought rains of 341 millimetres (mm) in the first six hours that it struck Metropolitan Manila on Saturday, breaking the highest 24-hour rainfall of 334 mm in Metropolitan Manila in June 1967, according to the Philippines’ weather forecasting bureau. In comparison, Hurricane Katina dumped 250 mm or ran on New Orleans in 2007.

North American reports say that at least 140 persons were killed and nearly 450,000 families were displaced by massive flooding, but these numbers are rising while the storm flood itself begins to recede. The receding waters are also exposing the inadequacy of the Philippine government in its capacity to respond to these natural and man-made disasters.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has only thirteen rubber boats to respond to the thousands of cries for help from people who were stuck on rooftops for over twelve hours under the cold and rain, without food. The Philippine government doesn’t even have radar for the weather bureau to accurately indicate the amount of rainfall of the said typhoon.

The tens of thousands of US dollars spent on Arroyo’s dinner forays with her entourage in Washington DC and New York earlier this summer could have been more wisely spent on much needed rescue equipment.

Where to give help

You can connect your local church effort with the churches in the Philippines, particularly through the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (http://www.nccphilippines.org/) who have been consistent in ensuring that help gets to those who need it the most.

The Philippine Solidarity Network in Canada has been a long-time partner of the NCCP and other Philippine organizations, especially in its work around Human Rights in the Philippines. The PSNC national coordinator, Malcolm Guy, can be reached in Montreal at (514) 574-9906 or email him at capcpc@web.ca.

People can get in touch with the following BAYAN Canada and Migrante organizations through the following contacts:


BAYAN Canada at bayan.canada.noc@gmail.com

Migarante International Canadian chapter at migrantecanada@gmail.com

Migrante Sectoral Party coordinator in Canada, Jonathan Canchela at (647) 833-1023 or email at migrantepartylist.toronto@gmail.com


BAYAN Canada contacts in major Canadian cities:

Montreal
Joey Calugay, cell (514) 947-3662

Ottawa
Yasmeen Maryam, cell (613) 558-1625

Toronto
Diwa Marcelino, cell (416) 809-3492

Winnipeg
Jomay Amora-Mercado, cell (204) 509-2491

Vancouver
Beth Dollaga, (604) 320-0285

Alberta
Aubrey dela Cruz, cell (403) 392-7178

BAYAN Canada launches awareness campaign

"Never again to Martial Law in the Philippines"

To mark the 37th anniversary declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Canada member organizations are holding rallies, study sessions, coffee house discussions, public fora and photo exhibits in different cities in Canada.

Throughout the week, BAYAN Canada member organizations will be holding events in different cities under the theme “Never again to Martial Law in the Philippines.”

In Toronto, BAYAN Canada organizations marked the day by holding a rally at a busy intersection where many Filipino-owned businesses are situated. As a tribute, the demonstrators held up enlarged photos of victims of extra-judicial killings under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. Many of those who joined the rally was made aware of the activity through an advisory in a local community paper by BAYAN Canada groups. A cultural night of short films, songs and music, highlighted by the sharing of stories from those who experienced first-hand Martial Law, concluded the activity.

In Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver, an ongoing “Peace Tour” with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) leader and peace negotiator Coni Ledesma aims at informing the public regarding alternatives being put forward to end the armed conflict in the Philippines. The peace negotiation was again recently stalled when the Arroyo government pronounced its withdrawal, a decision which according to BAYAN-Canada was largely influenced by those in the upper echelon in the military. The event also stresses on unabated humans rights abuses in the Philippines and the upcoming 2010 elections, among other issues.

Meanwhile in Montreal, BAYAN groups are holding educational discussions on the history and basic problems of the Philippines and the National Democratic alternative to the current conditions in the country. A coffee house discussion is also being organized about the possibility of another Martial Law under the Arroyo regime. The coffee house discussion will be held in Sablo Kafé where a photo exhibit entitled “Movements in Manila” which features scenes in Tondo as well as portraits of activists from people’s organizations is taking place. The photos were taken during the 2004 mid-term elections by Montreal independent journalist Stefan Christoff.

“BAYAN allied organizations are doing the important work of educating mass members, friends, allies and their communities in Canada to remain vigilant and committed to ensuring that Martial Law or other Marcosian rule in the Philippines never happens again,” says BAYAN Chairperson Dr. Chandu Claver.

The dictatorship was a dark period in Philippine history when the US-backed Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, upon declaring Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972, spawned reign of terror that committed mass abductions, arrests, torture and detention of political opponents and activists.

There was an estimated 70,000 accounts for the victims of extra-judicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearance during this period. Of this figure, 3,257 involved executions and 769 disappearances.

In less than a decade in the Philippines, there have been more than 1,000 cases of extra-judicial killings, 202 enforced disappearances, 1,036 torture, and 223 political prisoners under the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime according to Philippine-based human rights watchdog Karapatan. "Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a new dictator, who along with her cohorts has put the nation under an undeclared martial law for almost a decade," the rights group said.

“With the Arroyo regime hell-bent on staying in power beyond the 2010 presidential elections, the people have every right to fear (PWEDE BANG HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO RESIST) a return of Marcosian-type rule in the country,” says Dr. Claver who himself experienced the iron-hand of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in an ambush in Kalinga, Philippines that killed his wife, Alyce, in 2006.

“We must do everything within our power, whether we are in the Philippines or abroad, Filipinos, as well as all democratic and peace loving people, to frustrate the plans of US imperialism’s most favoured puppet in South-East Asia,” he added.

For more information contact BAYAN Canada at bayan.canada.noc@gmail.com.