Diwang Pinay 2011 “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained” Press Release

For Immediate Release

April 23, 2011

Contact: Melissa Reyes, LFS-San Francisco State University lfs.sfsu@gmail.com

Ninth Annual Diwang Pinay to Highlight Importance of Sacred Bonds of Motherhood and Sisterhood

Themed “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained,” the event will raise funds for exposure trips to the Philippines for the International Women’s Alliance First General Assembly and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle Conference. Funds will also be donated to various communities in the Philippines

San Francisco, CA— On Friday, April 29, 2011 Babae San Francisco-Gabriela USA, League of Filipino Students, and Kappa Psi Epsilon will host the 9th Annual Filipina Women’s Showcase, Diwang Pinay. With the recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights by House Republicans, the women of these organizations will come together in defense of our mothers and sisters. The House Republicans’ proposals in Congress would indefinitely slash funding for Planned Parenthood and services for women, such as abortions and family planning services. With Babae’s ongoing campaign to fight Violence Against Women, this campaign includes the State’s violent attacks on women’s most basic human rights. By highlighting motherhood, sisterhood and our collective reality, we hope to celebrate our triumphs in the face of oppressive power.

Diwang Pinay (Spirit of the Filipina) is an annual performance and silent auction showcasing Filipina/Filipina-American performers, writers and artists. This event serves as one of very few venues solely dedicated to providing pinays from the Bay Area and beyond a platform to proudly share and express their struggles and triumphs.

This year’s celebration is themed “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained,” to highlight the importance of the sacred bonds of motherhood and sisterhood and how essential these bonds are in sustaining healthy communities. By strengthening our connections as mothers and sisters, our relationship with systems of oppression becomes less difficult to fight. When we reclaim our sacred bond and work toward interdependence in the defense of our communities, we are victorious in every battle against those that deem us unworthy of our basic rights, like the choice to control and determine the rights to our bodies, whether that be access to abortion or family planning and reproductive rights services.

This year’s Diwang Pinay hosts an array of performances from talented pinays from San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, with acts like spoken word artist and rapper Ruby Ibarra, singing and poetry by members of the Galing Bata Afterschool Program, and an in-progress teaser for Pinay Stories, a production by an entire Filipina cast. There will be an art gallery on display and a silent auction showcasing art work of different mediums by artists such as Dianne Que of Hurley Sashimi Handmade, Faye Lacanilao, Raisa Cuevas, Vee Caragay, and a live art session by Niki Escobar.

Join us on Friday, April 29, 2011, from 7 to 9 P.M. at the Cesar Chavez Student Center-Jack Adams Hall at San Francisco State University: 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132. The suggested donation will be a sliding scale of $7-12, $5 for students ages 10-17 with a valid student ID, and free for children under the age of 10. For more information, visit Diwang Pinay’s official website at https://sites.google.com/site/sfdiwangpinay.

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“The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off.”

The Only “Change” We See Is the Change Being Pocketed by the Philippine Government to Rape and Terrorize the Filipino People—BAYAN-USA

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE CASE GO TO: Another ‘Nicole’: Filipina Accuses US Marine of Rape; Case Heightens Junk-VFA Call – Bulatlat

(Fact Sheet on the case at the bottom of statement)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rhonda Ramiro, secgen@bayanusa.org
May 14, 2009 www.bayanusa.org

Vanessa, her back to the cameras, narrates her plight during a press conference on Thursday. (Photo by Ayi Muallam/Bulatlat.com)

Gabriela’s Emmi de Jesus (left) and lawyer Evalyn Ursua both say Vanessa’s case strengthens the argument against the Visiting Forces Agreement. (Photo by Ayi Muallam/Bulatlat.com)

The Only “Change” We See Is the Change Being Pocketed by the Philippine Government to Rape and Terrorize the Filipino People—BAYAN-USA

Appalled by the double-news of the rape of another Filipina woman by a U.S. Marine and the increase in U.S. financial aid to the corrupt Philippine government, BAYAN-USA reiterated its call to terminate the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (“VFA”), which the alliance of 14 Filipino American organizations in the U.S. sees as the red carpet used to usher in U.S. troops, supplies, and military training linked to thousands of human rights violations.

Under the auspices of the VFA, over 6,000 US troops were deployed to the Philippines this past April, to engage in so-called Balikatan (“shoulder-to-shoulder”) military exercises.  In a press conference today, the 22-year-old Filipina “Vanessa” (not her real name) told the story of how she was raped in a hotel room on April 19 by a U.S. Marine, registered in hotel records as “from Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group/Balikatan.”  According to the women’s group GABRIELA, Vanessa has decided not to file a case against her alleged rapist though there is evidence to support her claim.

“We are outraged that another Filipina has become the victim of U.S. troops, and that the VFA is blocking her from obtaining justice,” said BAYAN-USA Secretary General Rhonda Ramiro.  “Last month’s acquittal of convicted rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith signals that U.S. military personnel can get away with the most heinous crimes on Philippine soil because they will be protected by the VFA.”

LFS Music Break! “I Want You” by Caroline Calderon

First off, we would like to thank all of you who came and supported the 7th Annual Diwang Pinay! We were proud to support and showcase many of our community’s talented artists. It’s important that we help cultivate and provide a space for our artists to present their skills to the community, while educating ourselves on the important issues we face. With that said, for this music break, we’d like to show one of this weekend’s performers. Props to Caroline and the many talented folks who performed Sunday! Hopefully we’ll get to see you perform again soon! And support independent artists!!!

San Francisco Filipino Women Rise Up Through Art: May 3, 2009

For Immediate Release

April 21, 2009

Contact: Marisa Mariano, Chair, Babae-GABRIELA USA, 415-333-6267, info@babaesf.org

San Francisco Filipino Women Rise Up Through Art

San Francisco, CA—As the weekend of International Worker’s Day, or Mayo Uno, approaches, the women of Babae-GABRIELA USA, League of Filipino Students, and Diwata Young Women’s Group prepare to not only celebrate the contributions of the working class worldwide, but to also celebrate the experiences and contributions of one of San Francisco’s distinct immigrant working populations, Filipino women. On Sunday, May 3, 2009, Babae, LFS, and Diwata hosts the 7th Annual Filipina Women’s Showcase, Diwang Pinay.

Diwang Pinay (Spirit of the Filipina) is an annual performance and silent art auction by Filipina/Filipina- American performers, writers, and artists. “With a 40,000 Filipino population in San Francisco, and more than half of whom are women, it is only appropriate to give light and praise to the different ways Pinays are living, resisting, and surviving today in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond,” states Marisa Mariano, chairperson of Babae.

GABRIELA USA Denounces US-Philippine Collusion in the Acquittal of a High-Profile Military Rape Case

For Immediate Release
April 23, 2009

Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chair, GABRIELA USA, 415-244-9734

GABRIELA USA Denounces US-Philippine Collusion in the Acquittal of a High-Profile Military Rape Case

Filipina-Americans in the United States express our disgust and anger at the news that the Court of Appeals in the Philippines has acquitted Lance Corporal Smith in the 2005 rape case of “Nicole.” Lcpl. Smith was convicted of raping “Nicole” on December 4, 2006, and legalities around custody and sentencing has been ongoing for the past three years. Due to the highly contentious Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Smith has been in the custody of the U.S. Embassy instead of a Philippine prison. However, on March 12 of this year, a questionable recantation by “Nicole” was released while in the same month, monetary compensation and the termination of her legal counsel casted doubt on who prepared the content of the affidavit.

In this long and dirty case, US and Philippines collusion through loopholes in the VFA have demonstrated that in the Philippines, the rule of law and justice are commanded by American interests and corrupt politicians. The Court of Appeals has failed Filipino women worldwide. Instead of holding Smith accountable of rape, the appellate court has repealed the justice that was already rightfully won by “Nicole” and her family. After years of struggling and fighting with huge and broad support from Filipino organizations like GABRIELA in the Philippines and worldwide, Smith’s acquittal from his legitimate conviction in 2006 is a betrayal to both Nicole and her loved ones, but also to all of the Filipino women, children and men who have been victims of sexual assault and crimes by US military servicemen.

SMITH ACQUITTAL A COLLABORATIVE MANEUVER BY ARROYO & US GOV’T TO PROTECT VFA

RP court acquits US Marine convicted of raping Filipina

MANILA, Philippines – Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, the American who was earlier convicted by a lower court of raping a Filipina in Subic, was acquitted by the Court of Appeals (CA).

The Philippines has many ‘Nicoles’

The Philippines has many “Nicoles,” but only Suzette Nicolas was served justice when the Makati Regional Trial Court convicted Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith of rape on December 4, 2006.

From 1981 to 1988, when the US military bases were in the Philippines, 3,274 cases of abuse of women and children were filed against US servicemen in Subic and Clark. However, not one of the US servicemen was convicted.

Data from the Olongapo City prosecutor’s office showed that during the same period, cases of rape and sexual abuse involving children ages 11 to 16 were filed against US servicemen. Another 82 cases of sexual abuse involving young women were also recorded. All of these cases were dismissed.

Ninety-seven of these cases, in which 15 children were involved, were filed by the non-government Bikolana Gabriela against American soldiers in Clark and Subic.

Smith was the first-ever American military personnel who was convicted of committing a crime on Philippine soil since the establishment of the US military bases at the Subic Bay Naval Base in Zambales province and Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga and the passage of the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999. – GMANews.TV

News Release
April 23, 2009

Reference: Rhonda Ramiro, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA, email: secgen@bayanusa.org

SMITH ACQUITTAL A COLLABORATIVE MANEUVER BY ARROYO & US GOV’T TO PROTECT VFA– BAYAN USA

BAYAN-USA, an alliance of Filipino organizations in the United States, declared the recent court acquittal of US Marine Daniel Smith of a rape conviction back in 2006 as a collaborative move by the US and Arroyo governments to protect the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The controversial decision comes right after a Philippine Supreme Court (SC) ruling to probe into the circumstances surrounding the affidavit issued by rape victim Nicole and the leakage of a draft Court of Appeals (CA) ruling of acquittal for Smith last week, prompting CA officials to act fast.

The 2005 rape of 22 year-old Filipina Nicole leading to the 2006 trial and conviction US Lance Corporal Smith was a landmark case that marked the first time in the 100+ history of US military presence in the country that a US military personnel was actually convicted under the Philippine judicial system for a crime committed in the Philippines. But the events following the celebrated conviction, beginning with Smith’s transfer of custody from Philippine jurisdiction to the US Embassy drew such outrage and condemnation from the streets that it sparked a burgeoning patriotic movement inside Philippine Congress to abrogate the 10 year-old VFA military agreement, which allows for the “temporary basing” of US military troops in over 20 ports throughout the Philippine archipelago.

Happy Birthday FiRE- NYC!!!

Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment- New York City

http://firenyc.org/

Statement of Solidarity from LFS- SFSU on the Occasion of the 2nd Anniversary of the Founding of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment- NYC

April 14, 2009

The League of Filipino Students- San Francisco State University Chapter would like to express our most heartfelt solidarity and congratulations to Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment- NYC on the 2nd Anniversary of their founding. Its establishment and continued work to organize Filipinas in the New York City area is a testament to the rich and revolutionary history of our movement, as well as the determination of its members to address the root problems of Filipinas in the Homeland and the Belly of the Beast.