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PRESS RELEASE
28 July 2006

Reference: Dorotea A. Mendoza, Secretary General
GABRIELA Network USA
secgen@gabnet.org, (212) 592-3507

SUMMARY REPORT ON THE ALL-WOMEN LAWYERS' FACT-FINDING MISSION TO THE PHILIPPINES

GABRIELA Network is pleased to announce the completion of Phase One of Seeking Answers:  The All-Women Lawyers’ Fact-finding Mission to the Philippines.  Sponsored by GABRIELA Network and Vanguard Foundation, in cooperation with the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Mission went to the Philippines in May-June in search of clarification regarding the human rights situation in the archipelago.

In the Philippines, the Mission was hosted by the GABRIELA National Alliance of Women and the Gabriela Women’s Party.
Two long-lasting actions have been undertaken since the all-women lawyers’ team returned to the United States:

• A Subcommittee on the Philippines has been established under the National Lawyers Guild at the initiative of Attorney Merrilyn Onisko; 
• A joint GABRIELA Network-Center for Constitutional Rights Committee on the Philippines has been established at the initiative of Attorney Tina Foster.

These structures represent an institutionalization of the Mission’s work.

While in the Philippines and in pursuit of its objective to focus public attention on the assassination of activists and the persecution of pro-people organizations, the Mission was able to accomplish the following:

• The Mission had 37 television exposures in five (5) days, including individual and group appearances, spot interviews, talk shows, reruns and as additions to related news reports.  (See Attachment D, video copies of TV news reports on the Mission)  
• The Mission was mentioned some 30 times in the print media, including in such mainstream newspapers as the Philippines Daily Inquirer, Manila Times, Manila Bulletin, Malaya Newspaper, Daily Tribute, Philippine Star – often in the daily’s front page.  Photographs of Mission members with Congresswoman Liza Maza appeared in a wide variety of publications, even tabloids as well as the provincial press.  (See Attachment E, copies of media articles and photographs)
• News about the Mission was carried by all wire services and photographs also went out via such conduits as Yahoo News (English and French), BBC, etc.  
• The Philippine government itself had to respond to the Mission and the Office of the President, through the Press Secretary, stated that all were “welcome” to conduct investigations and that the government was “proud” of its human rights record.  This provided the opportunity for the Mission to engage the government itself, via a public letter requesting for a meeting with the President of the Philippines, on the issue of human rights.  The letter was signed by all the lawyers and members of the GABNet implementing team. 
• Shortly after the Mission’s departure from the Philippines, the president herself, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, made the acerbic comment that certain “groups (were) intent on demonizing” her administration to the international community.   The statement is designed to preempt the Mission’s intent to lobby such international agencies as the United Nations to censure the Philippines for its human rights record and is indicative of the Mission’s profound impact.  
• The Philippine government’s reaction to the Mission gave the latter the opportunity to ask for a meeting with the Embassy of the United States to the Philippines.  This meeting was held as scheduled. 
• Right-wing attacks were quick to come, one column carried by the ABS-CBN calling Mission members “enemies of the state.”  The Secretary of the Department of Justice commented over a radio program that the Mission members should be deported for “meddling.”  

The full mission report should be ready for distribution shortly.  Meanwhile GABRIELA Network is preparing Seeking Answers 2, which is intended to raise the level of international public attention on the continuing violations of human rights in the Philippines.  ###

 

July 28 summary report

May 26 press release

May 26 press statement

Letter to US Ambassador to the Philippines

Letter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Statement of All-Women HR Team. 31 May 2006