NEW FACLA NEWS
March 03, 2015

LA FILIPINOS REMEMBER EDSA, SAF 44

LOS ANGELES – The community with the largest Filipino concentration took part in a prayer service commemorating the 29th anniversary of EDSA revolution.

Community leader Art Garcia traces his activist roots to those days when he was among the crowds barricading the streets.

“We are ready. We had offered our lives to the service of our country and we were ready to fight Marcos to the death. We were ready to die but instead we won,” Garcia.

Andrea Aquino, cousin of the late Senator Benigno Aquino II, was part of the Ninoy Aquino movement in Los Angeles. As the peaceful revolution took place in the Philippines, she was joining rallies in Washington DC.

“We were asking President Reagan to recognize Cory Aquino as the president and not Marcos. We all went there. Some drove, some flew,” said Aquino.

As Filipinos remembered one of the country’s great triumphs, they also remembered the 44 lives lost in the country’s most recent tragedy.

This year’s EDSA anniversary has also fallen on the one month mark since the Mamasapano encounter that left 44 Special Action Force members dead.

“One way of looking at the events in Mindanao is that many of our good people in the police force sacrificed their lives to frustrate the attempt of one Malaysian terrorist to thwart our way of life,” said LA Consul General Leo Herrera Lim.

Lem Amit of the Filipino Ministry added, “Although it’s a tragedy, we have to remember we learn a lot of lessons out of it. We live on our past, but we also experience what we need to grow in ourself.”

The incident has sparked outcry calling for the impeachment of President Benigno Aquino III.

“We do not believe Aquino should resign. We do not believe in the so-called command responsibility because the president has already relieved the SAF commander and Purisma has resigned the buck stops there,” said Garcia.

Aquino’s cousin believes that the President will not be impeached and that the “SAF issue is getting clearer now”.

Aquino and Garcia both add that the President has successfully carried on his family’s legacy and expect him to finish his term on a strong note next year.

You can contact Steve Angeles at [email protected] for more information.

ALLIANCE NEWS
March 03, 2015

ALLIANCE CONDEMNS AFP/MILF MILITARY OPERATIONS THAT DISPLACED MORE THAN 41,000 IN MINDANAO

Los Angeles—The war is raging again in Mindanao.

The Alliance Philippines National Coordinator Arturo Garcia said, “the Alliance Philippines vehemently condemns Intensified military operations in Mindanao that caused grave the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Mindanao.

The situation in Mindanao has intensified into a full-scale war. as the fighting between the BIFF and the AFP/MILF forces for more than a month now.”

Garcia also said, “Alliance sources said more than 41,000 people were displaced by the more than one month old- military operations against the BIFF in Maguindanao and Cotabato. The AFP has been bombarding the BIFF areas with artillery and airstrikes by attack helicopters and OV-10 bombers. for more than one month now.

Diseases and Hunger stalks the Evacuees

Reports of diseases ,hunger and depravations have affected the more than 41,000 evacuees and yet the government is too slow to act on these reports.

We in the Alliance-Philippines and ANSWER LA fears that the fighting will spill in other Muslim provinces sooner or later.

The military launched the operations as a revenge on the deaths of SAF 44 in the Battle of Mamasapano,Maguindanao last January 25, 2015. The AFP is spearheading the operations with the use of ground troops supported by tanks, artillery, helicopters gunships and bombers.

On the other hand, the MILF acts as a blocking force in coordination with the AFP.” Garcia said.

The Mamasapano Incident Fall-Out

Garcia explained, ” This Mamasapano Incident or misencouncter that resulted to the death of 44 SAF commandos, 15 MILF fighters and 5 civilians has been the subject of many investigations and had resulted in an intensified division operations by the PH government.
It’s like 2008 all over again when the Supreme Court decided against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) of PGMA Regime .
That’s why the BIFF was formed and split from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that made the agreement with the Arroyo Regime in 2008.

While they say that MILF and the GPH want to salvage the peace efforts and the BBL, war is going again in Mindanao. It’s the Moro and the Lumad people who are suffering this war.

The Alliance-Philippines and its allies in the United States asks; Is this the peace they want us to believe we will have?”

For more information please call the alliance at (213)241-0995 or email us [email protected]

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