This past Monday, newly elected President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Philippines delivered his state of the nation address (SONA). Filipino-American activists, however, weren’t about to sit there idly and listen to false promises. Simultaneous protests took place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and New Jersey. While a lot of people are overjoyed that the grossly incompetent and corrupt past president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is unseated, they are reluctant to celebrate Noynoy’s victory.

In the one month that he’s been elected, there have already been 5 political killings: Mark Francisco, 27,  a teacher at San Isidro Elementary School; Francisco Baldomero, a local coordinator for the Bayan Muna Political Party; Pascual Guevarra, 78, a peasant advocate from Nueva Ecija; and Josephine Estacio, 46, who was with the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). The Philippines is by far one of the most dangerous places to be a champion of the dispossessed. It ranked #3 in a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists and in Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration alone, there have been over 1,200 political killings. Last year, Melissa Roxas, a Filipina-American volunteer in a community medical mission was physically and psychologically tortured for six days. This is not even to mention the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre of twelve farmers and two children (with hundreds injured), who demanded agrarian reform, in which the Aquino family  (the owners of the property) is implicated. Read More »