[imc-ottawa] Philippines: Montreal Press Conference: Elections 2007: Violence, Fraud & Corruption

[Stefan Christoff]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:19:29 -0400
From: "Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP/CPC)" <capcpc at web.ca>



MEDIA ADVISORY:

Philippine Elections 2007: Violence, Fraud & Corruption

Montreal international observers to 2007 mid-term
Philippine elections to address local media

Press Conference: SUNDAY, June 3, 2007
2 pm at St. James United Church - Montreal
Ste. Catherine Street West & City Councilors

Media Contact: Malcolm Guy, Centre d'appui aux Philippines / Centre for 
Philippine Concerns: 514 574 9906 (cell)

A five-member delegation of Montreal-based international observers to the May 
2007 mid-term elections in the Philippines returned this week to report 
observation findings to the Canadian public and media. International observers 
traveled to the Philippines in response to a call from Filipino human rights 
and church organizations who formed the Peoples' International Observers 
Mission (IOM) in an attempt to expose patterns of fraud and violence to the 
international community.

The Center for Philippine Concerns from Montreal sent four delegates: Minerva 
Gutierrez, a member of the political party, Quebec Solidaire, Freda Guttman, an 
internationally-acclaimed visual artist who visited the Philippines in the 
1980s, Fr. Artemio S. Calaycay, a local priest with the Iglesia Filipina 
Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) and Montreal-based journalist 
Stefan Christoff. The fifth delegate, Roderick Carreon, is a leader of the 
national Filipino worker's organization, Siklab Canada.

The 2007 mid-term elections in the Philippines are of major political 
significance on a national and international level as the U.S.-backed President 
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fights to maintain a grip on power in both the House of 
Representatives and the Senate of the Philippines. Observers from Montreal 
witnessed first-hand vote buying, direct intervention of the Armed Forces of 
the Philippines (AFP) in the voting process and systemic denial of the right to 
vote for left-leaning voters.

IOM representatives from Montreal took detailed accounts of the general 
atmosphere of poverty and violence throughout the Philippines serving as a 
back-drop to the 2007 elections. Human rights organizations internationally, 
including Amnesty International, have accused the current Philippine 
administration of complicity in a string of politically-motivated killings 
which have robbed over 850 lives since 2001.

Montreal observers to the 2007 Philippine elections will address the media days 
after a petition to the Canadian Parliament, signed by over 5000 Canadians, was 
announced at a press conference in Ottawa including representatives of the 
Liberal Party, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois. The petition addresses the 
alarming deterioration of human rights in the Philippines, specifically the 
over one thousand political killings and abductions which have targeted human 
rights workers, lawyers, journalists, church workers, labor organizers, peasant 
leaders and left-wing politicians.

Extreme poverty rates in the Philippines, driven to extreme levels by the 
implementation of neo-liberal economic reforms promoted by the World Bank and 
International Monetary Fund (IMF), were also noted by Montreal-based observers 
who observed elections in impoverished communities in both rural and urban 
settings. According to a recent U.N. study upwards of 50% of the Filipino 
population lives on less than $2 per day.

Final results to the 2007 elections in the Philippines are still up in the air, 
as vote tallying throughout the country's 7000 islands continues amidst reports 
of manipulation of results by pro-administration authorities. Montreal-based 
observers will address the Montreal public and media in an effort to expose the 
reality in a country touted by western governments as a "vibrant democracy" and 
ally in the "War on Terror".

- 30 -