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Carrying anti-VFA detergent bars, basins and laundry paddles, members of the militant women's group GABRIELA staged a protest picket in front of the US Embassy this morning to "wash away" the highly-controversial Visiting Forces Agreement.
The women protesters portrayed the VFA as an "agent that will further blemish the already crisis-stained situation of Filipino women".
Like grease and grime on a white shirt, the lack of basic services, high prices, unemployment and landlessness wrought by the worsening economic crisis plague women.
Worse, what poses as a security blanket, the VFA actually poses a greater threat to women in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific as it means the further implementation of US dictates. Ergo, a continuing crisis looms in the horizon.
"Just as the continuous implementation of US dictates will create a continuous supply of women and children made desperate by the crisis, the presence of US military servicemen in 22 ports all over the country will only create an increased demand for prostitution." This was the statement made by GABRIELA Secretary General Liza Maza.
The situation of dire poverty has made women and children vulnerable to prostitution and abuse, and it does not help at all that the supposedly pro-people Erap administration is pushing for an agreement that will worsen everything. GABRIELA also condemns the current administration, specifically President Joseph Estrada and Defense Secretary Orly Mercado, for treacherously endorsing an anti-people agreement.
"Organized actions of Filipino women together with other basic sectors
have cleared the country of the US Military Bases in 1991. The same women's
militance will oppose VFA
All-women anti-VFA protest actions, led by GABRIELA, are being held simultaneously
in Iloilo City, Davao City, Cebu City and Bacolod City. GABRIELA Networks in
Los Angeles, USA and Vancouver, Canada are holding similar anti-VFA actions.
