Los Angeles, CA - Concerned Filipino American community leaders and human rights advocates held a mid-day protest at the Philippine Consulate to demand the immediate release of 43 health care workers in the Philippines who were abducted and tortured by the Philippine military on February 6, 2010. Despite heavy rain, over 30 community leaders from AnakBayan LA, and Habi Arts of BAYAN USA, SiGAw! Of GABRIELA USA, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the United Methodist Church, the California Nurses Association and the Filipino Migrants Center assembled with family members of the abducted health care workers in front of the Consulate. A delegation of community leaders, including Melissa Roxas, victim of abduction and torture in the Philippines last year, and Chairperson Marie Hilao Enriquez of Karapatan met with Consul General Mary Jo Aragon to deliver open letters addressed to President Arroyo and President Barack Obama and other elected officials demanding the release of the “Morong 43.”

In her letter to Consul General Aragon, Enriquez wrote: We would like to express our concern on and bring to your attention the abduction and illegal detention of forty three (43) health workers in the Philippines who were “arrested” by a combined 300-force raiding team of the Philippine National Police (PNP) as well as military men of the 202nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (202nd IBPA) under the 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), on February 6, 2010 in Bgy. Mabangcal, Morong, Rizal. The incident, the account of which is narrated in the enclosed KARAPATAN urgent alert action documentation, as well as news reports, is a very alarming case to every Filipino, both in the country and elsewhere, especially in the light of the spate of killings and other violations happening in the Philippines, like the recent Ampatuan massacre and the runup to the May 2010 elections in the country. This is troubling, to say the least, as we are supposedly a democratic country with supposed democratic processes.

The health workers and doctors arrested administer health services to poor communities, and were participating in a First Responders Training, sponsored by the Community Medicine Foundation, Inc. (COMMED) and Council for Health and Development (CHD). Their personal belongings, as well the training materials used, were all confiscated by the military.

Terrie Cervas, Vice Chair of GABRIELA USA and member of SiGAw stated, “We condemn the illegal arrest of the 43 community health workers by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, for denying basic rights like access to legal counsel and food. The mass arrest of the Morong 43 is part of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya, which seeks to intimidate and kill civilians that are engaged in the mass movement for genuine social change in the Philippines.” Cervas asserted, “President Arroyo and her cronies should be the ones arrested for their widespread corruption and grave human rights violations.”

Chito Quijano with the International League of Peoples’ Struggle stated, “We call on the international community to condemn this gross violation of human rights and hold Arroyo accountable for her administration’s gruesome human rights atrocities. We demand that all taxpayer dollars budgeted for US military aid supporting the Philippine military be withdrawn immediately.”

An on-going petition http://www.petitiononline.com/Free43/petition.html has been launched online and all supporters of human rights are invited to join the international effort to Free the 43.

For more info:

BAYAN USA –

vc@bayanusa.org