Statement of Support For International Tribunal vs US-Backed Philippine Government

Dear Friends,

Please find below a unity statement currently being distributed worldwide by Filipino expatriates and friends of the Filipino people, in support for the international Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Second Session on the Philippines. The Tribunal will be held on 21-25 March 2007 in The Hague, in the Netherlands to hear the case of the Filipino people against the US-backed Arroyo regime for human rights violations, economic plunder and transgression of the Filipino people's sovereignty.

The statement of support is also available for online signing at : http://philippinetribunal.org/index.php?option=com_facileforms&Itemid=77

Signatures gathered through the unity statement will be published shortly before the Tribunal. For your information and guidance. Thank you!

For the International Coordinating Secretariat

Permanent Peoples' Tribunal

Second Session on the Philippines

Email: secretariat@philippinetribunal.org

http://www.philippinetribunal.org

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
FOR THE PERMANENT PEOPLES' TRIBUNAL
SECOND SESSION ON THE PHILIPPINES

We, the undersigned, hereby express our solidarity with the Filipino people and our wholehearted support for the Second Session on the Philippines under the auspices of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, which shall try the case of the Filipino people against the Arroyo regime and its foreign accomplices headed by the government of the United States of America, in The Hague, The Netherlands, on 21-25 March 2007.

We look forward to the successful prosecution and trial of the accused and the rendering of a just verdict for the benefit of the Filipino people and the particular victims, within the framework of the 1976 Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples and international laws on human rights and the rights of nations, with regard to the following three charges:

1. Gross and systematic violations of civil and political rights:  Extra-judicial killings, massacres, abductions and enforced disappearances, torture, arson, bombings, mass intimidation, forced mass evacuation and other gross human rights violations against individuals, organizations and communities. Most brazen of these crimes the assassinations of unarmed political activists, workers, peasants, women, youth, church people, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and peace advocates.

2. Gross and systematic violations of economic, social and cultural rights:  Economic plunder, including the imposition of the US policy of "neoliberal globalization", the violation of Philippine economic sovereignty by foreign business giants, the sell-out of the national patrimony, unscrupulous superprofit-taking by the US and other multinational firms, debt bondage to the imperialist banks and bureaucratic corruption of the Arroyo regime.

3. Gross and systematic violations of the right to national self-determination and liberation:   Transgression of Philippine national sovereignty, including treason by the Arroyo regime, all-out war policy and use of state terrorism to keep the Arroyo puppet clique in power and to align with the US global war of terror and aggression, the culpability of the Arroyo regime and the US for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the encroachment on Philippine territory by US military interventionist forces and surrender of jurisdiction to the US over criminal cases in the Philippines.

We are confident that the outcome of the Second Session on the Philippines will inspire the Filipino people to fight more resolutely and vigorously than ever before for national independence, democracy, social justice, development and peace. In this regard, we pledge to gather further support of the people of the world for the just struggle of the Filipino people.