US-BASED GABRIELA NETWORK LEADERS ON PHILIPPINE "WATCHLIST"; CHAIRPERSON BANNED FROM EXITING PHILIPPINES

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Doris Mendoza, Secretary General,
9 August 2007
secgen@gabnet.org;
(212) 592- 3507, (718) 753-0257;
Milady Quito, milady@gabnet.org

On August 5, 2007, GABRIELA Network (GABNet) USA National Chairperson Dr. Annalisa Enrile was barred from boarding her return flight to the United States. This act of harassment occurred on the culminating day of the 10th bi-annual Women's International Solidarity Affair in the Philippines, a conference that draws hundreds of women from all over the globe and covers issues such as sex trafficking and other international human right violations.

A professor at the University of Southern California's School of Social Work, Dr. Enrile was returning to the U.S. after chaperoning a delegation of USC Masters students attending the conference and visiting with local Philippine non-profit organizations. Officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport advised Dr. Enrile that she must report to the Philippine Bureau of Immigration. She was informed that she had been placed on the Philippine government's watchlist on July 25, 2007, two days after Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation Address.

GABRIELA Network is a Philippine-US solidarity network that consists of several U.S. chapters. Members of GABRIELA Network work closely with their sister organization in the Philippines on issues affecting Pilipina Women and Children. Most recently, Dr. Enrile has led the Network's vocal support against the continuing political persecution of Philippine Representative Liza Maza of the GABRIELA Women's Partylist. Along with several other progressive representatives, Congresswoman Maza was falsely imprisoned in the Batasan - the congressional building of the Philippine Government. Military and police forces, following the direction of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, awaited the departure of Representative Maza from the Batasan like vultures, ready to pounce and arrest her on false charges. Ms. Maza remained in the Batasan for 71 days until legal and grassroots actions prevented the military and police from continuing to harass her. GABRIELA Philippines has also suffered at least 83 murders and disappearances of members and organizers since Pres. Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001. The detention of Dr. Enrile, a natural born citizen of the United States, is part of the continuum of harassment and violence GABRIELA women in the Philippines and abroad have faced under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

Also reportedly on the watchlist are GABNet USA leaders Judith Mirkinson and Ninotchka Rosca. Dr. Enrile, Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca were in the Philippines, along with other GABNet members, officers, and USC students for the 10th bi-annual Women's Solidarity Affair in the Philippines. The GABNet 3 also led the GABNet-co-sponsored human rights fact finding mission to the Philippines with a group of US women lawyers in May-June 2006.

GABNet Secretary General Doris Mendoza said, "This is undoubtedly a scare tactic by the Philippine government to intimidate women's international solidarity with Filipina women and their struggles."

The treatment of Dr. Enrile, of the GABNet 3, however, had the opposite effect. Leaders and members of GABNet USA are even more determined, refusing to be silenced by such fascist measures.