Filipino Youth for Peace

Joint Statement by Ninotchka Rosca, International Spokesperson of GABRIELA Purple Rose Campaign Against The Sex Trafficking of Filipinas, and GABRIELA Network USA.

May 17, 2003

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO THE WHITE HOUSE
PROVES AT LEAST ONE FILIPINA IS FOR SALE!

On May 19th, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, unelected president of the Philippines, will begin her state visit to the United States. As part of the reward for her unswerving loyalty to the policies of the U.S. government led by George W. Bush, another president not popularly elected, she will be given a state dinner at the White House–which event drives her supporters to paroxysms of delight, never mind that for nearly 50 years, a Philippine president dining at the White House has been generally interpreted as indication of the most abject puppetry.

Ms. Arroyo expects to collect the few million dollars–a decent New York Lotto prize– promised by the U.S. as payment for supporting the alleged war on terrorism and the American war on Iraq. She also expects to make nice with American business corporations who have received a bonanza of contracts for the so-called “reconstruction” of Iraq. Ms. Arroyo hopes that part of the 100,000 jobs which the “reconstruction” will require will be contracted out to the Philippines.

All of which goes to prove that at least one Filipina is truly for sale–willingly and without reservation. The problem is that she is also willing to sell more than herself; she has sold the Philippines’ national sovereignty by allowing the return of U.S. troops to the country. She has sold the Filipino people’s dignity as this return effectively nullified all the sacrifices of thousands and thousands of men and women of the Philippines to get the U.S. military off their backs. Now, she wishes to sell the same men and women whom she vowed to protect and defend, by offering them to the Iraq job market to be run by U.S. corporations.

Curious that the job categories specified - health care workers and domestic workers–will involve large numbers of women. Curious as well that this alleged Philippine president is willing to export health care workers at a time when SARS has begun its slow albeit fatal rampage through the archipelago. And even more curious, why would the war-devastated Iraqis who barely have food and water need domestic workers–nannies, cooks, maids, housekeepers? Or are these women destined for manual labor and sexual exploitation by the U.S. troops occupying Iraq?

The use of Filipinas by the U.S. military for “rest-and-recreation” has had a long history. In 1900, when the archipelago was barely under U.S. control, a Major Ira Brown recommended a system of “regulated vice” to keep the troops entertained. This meant bars, brothel houses and, of course, “native” prostitutes. During the Vietnam War, the Philippines became a major “rest-and–recreation” center, “entertaining” some 10,000 GIs daily. This created an army of prostitutes - 60,000 at any given time - to console the battle-weary. And when the Gulf War took place, there were persistent reports of floating “R&R” ships, each with 50 women from the Philippines to provide sexual entertainment for U.S. troops.

Considering the rather strange obsession of the U.S. military for the Philippines and for Filipinas, it will not be a surprised to us if, by the end of this visit, the two unelected presidents will agree to increase U.S. military presence in the Philippines, allow a US military base to be built in Mindanao Island and re-open the old Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base to U.S. military use. After all, the U.S. military gained so much from its presence in the archipelago: use of cheap but highly skilled labor in equipment repair, recruitment of “non-citizens” who fought and died for the U.S. without being able to vote, and the use of women whose mental and physical well-being no one worried about. Or for that matter, the mental and physical well-being of the children who were the result of organized and large-scale military prostitution.

Ms. Arroyo comes from a province - Pampanga - whose development has been warped by the abomination of military prostitution. She knows full well the meaningof placing Filipinas on the market - whether for manual labor overseas or in the sex trade. It is therefore strange that she takes pride in having sold herself, the Philippine government, the Filipino people and the women of the Philippines to the Bush Administration.

It is also despicable of the Bush Administration to deepen the corruption and puppetry already inherent in the Philippine political system; despicable to take advantage of a weak and spineless government. But no doubt, this will not bother Mr. Bush, just as it did not bother his father who toasted the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos with champagne and the words “We love your adherence to democracy.” Bush Junior will do no less, in the case of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

We of GABRIELA Network, of GABRIELA’s Purple Rose Campaign Against the Sex Trafficking of Filipinas; we women of Philippine ancestry; we who are friends, allies and supporters of the Filipino people, both men and women, in their hundred-year struggle for independence and democracy, we denounce this unholy alliance between two presidents not popularly elected. We oppose the presence of U.S. troops in the Philippines; we decry the labor export policy imposed on the Filipino people by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; and we condemn the continuing sale of Filipinas into sexual slavery.

As regards Ms. Arroyo - one Filipina who is willingly for sale–we say that Mr. Bush should purchase her, to stop her from afflicting herself even further on the people of the Philippines. And perhaps keep her in Florida.