Letter to the Editor — GMA, number one women's rights violator

On the occasion of international women's day today, Gabriela Women's Partylist describes Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the number one women's rights violator.

An unprecedented 83 women were victims of extra judicial killings, but her record of anti-democratic policies has reached new heights with the signing of the anti-terror bill this women's month. It is a sad fact that a woman now wears the face of the oppressor, and that even the women's right to be represented in government has been attacked.

Gabriela Women's Party officials and members have been harassed by soldiers in rural and urban communities. In Cebu, our women's organizations particularly in Minglanilla and Metro Cebu have been continually pressed by the military to stop their participation in our organization and blatantly campaigned against Gabriela in the May 2007 election.

It is with Mrs. Arroyo's tacit approval to deploy soldiers in many parts of the country who are known to be number one in human rights violations. These deployments are part and parcel of Oplan Bantay Laya, where soldiers do not discriminate between armed and unarmed, or legal and illegal targets. The extra judicial killings of a large scale, may very well start soon in Cebu.

Furthermore, what the extra judicial killings and urban militarization can't reach, the anti-terror law can. Mrs. Arroyo intends to considerably wield the anti-terror law against dissenters, including people power proponents. Under the anti-terror measure, people power, hailed as a beacon of democracy in the international community, can very well be considered a "terrorist activity".

Today, let us continue the legacy of militancy of the women's movement in the Philippines, borne out of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the Marcos years. Let us oppose the new dictatorship arising out of the Anti-terror Law. Let us unite and uphold the dignity of women, children and nation!

Kaira Zoe Alburo
Provincial Spokesperson
Gabriela Women's Party-Cebu