Art Beyond Barriers: Live Art Petition to Stop Human Rights Violations in the Philippines

FREE the 43 health workers! Never Again to Martial Law!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Southern California Never Again to Martial Law Convention, 3:00 PM
Live Art Petition, 5:30 PM

Fernando’s Hideaway
519 S. Spring St (between 5th St and 6th St)
Los Angeles, CA 90013

barrier – a structure that prevents or hinders movement or action

We would like to invite you to share your images, movement, rhythm, and voices to break beyond the barriers and take action to stop human rights violations in the Philippines.

In an ongoing assault on human rights by the Philippine government, 43 health workers were illegally arrested and detained on February 6, 2010 in Morong, Rizal, Philippines. They are still illegally being held at the Philippine Military Camp Capinpin and have endured three weeks of continuous ill treatment and torture in the military camp. This situation is critical. Each day that the 43 health workers are not released, it is one more day they have to endure pain, fear, and torture.

Please join us in the movement to demand freedom through art by participating in this live art petition to demand the immediate release of the 43 health workers, stop human rights violations, and to say Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines.

The first Art Beyond Barriers live petition will be held after the convening of the “Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines” Coalition for Southern California.

This project will tour North America. More information will be forthcoming about other cities and countries where the Art Beyond Barriers petition will tour.

About Art Beyond Barriers live art petition:

A coming together of concerned artists, communities, and human rights supporters to create a movement for change through music, voice, dance, images, and words created during the Art Beyond Barriers collaboration.

You don’t need to be an artist to participate and all ages are welcome.

Participation in the live art petition means you support the movement to stop human rights violations in the Philippines, support the call to Free the 43 health workers, and to say Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines.

Support of this movement is in support of a global movement to uphold and defend human rights.

What to bring with you:

A passion for making art in all forms whether it be through music, song, dance, spoken word, written word, images, and collaborating with other artists and non-artists to create a movement for change.

Art materials, instruments of all kinds (you can be creative and bring found objects; anything that can make a rhythm), movement, voice, poems, and anything you would like to share with others in this experience.

This project is in collaboration with Melissa Roxas, poet, human rights activist, and survivor of abduction and torture in the Philippines; and Habi Arts, an artist collective that promotes political and artistic empowerment to inspire and mobilize people for progressive social change.

Closing Night of Papo de Asis’ Art Exhibit, Talk By Human Rights Leader, and Film Screening

Please join us in the closing night of Papo de Asis’ Art Exhibit.  The exhibit will coincide with an event to commemorate the Philippine-American War (February 4, 1899) which will include a talk by Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of the leading human rights alliance in the Philippines, KARAPATAN; and a film screening of the short, “This Bloody Blundering Business.”

Thursday, February 11, 2010, 7:00 PM
(during Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk)

Fernando’s Hideaway
519 S Spring St (between 5th St and 6th St)
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Free event but donations are welcome!

Emergency Action Alert! Release the 43 Illegally Detained Community Health Workers Now!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Philippine Consulate
3600 Wilshire Blvd (between Harvard and Kingsley)
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Contact: Rhonda Ramiro
Secretary-General, BAYAN-USA
secgen@bayanusa.org

BAYAN-USA Condemns Illegal Abduction and Detention of Health Workers in Rizal

The alliance of 14 Filipino American organizations known as BAYAN-USA strongly condemns the Philippine police and military’s illegal raid and abduction of 43 community health workers and doctors who were conducting health skills training in Morong, Rizal, Philippines on Saturday, February 6.  The health workers and doctors administer health services to poor communities, and were participating in a First Responders Training, sponsored by the Community Medicine Foundation, Inc. (COMMED) and Council for Health and Development (CHD). Their personal belongings, as well the training materials used, were all confiscated by the military.

According to reports by the media and the human rights alliance KARAPATAN, approximately 300 soldiers and police of the Southern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Rizal Philippine National Police (PNP) forcibly entered the farmhouse of Dr. Melecia Velmonte at 6:15 AM. The training participants were then lined up, violently frisked, blindfolded, and taken to Camp Capinpin, headquarters of the 202nd Infantry Brigade, AFP.  The health workers have been held incommunicado since then, and have been denied their right to legal counsel.  A team from the Commission on Human Rights was also blocked from seeing the detainees.

“We denounce the PNP and AFP’s illegal abduction and detention of health professionals,” stated Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN-USA Chair. “It is contemptible that the government arrested these health care providers while they were undergoing training in ‘first response,’ especially in light of the government’s failure to provide this type of critical care during disasters like typhoon Ondoy.”

KARAPATAN reported that the AFP and PNP illegally used a search warrant naming a person who was not the owner of the home, nor specifying an exact address.  Moreover, the military declared that the victims were members of the New People’s Army because of explosives allegedly found inside the compound, even though witnesses said that the military conducted the search of the compound’s premises only after all of the victims and residents were already outside the buildings. Witnesses also said that the military brought in with them plastic bags with the GMA Kapuso logo printed on it.

“The government is sending the message that Filipino doctors and nurses are welcome to go abroad to work, but they are labeled rebels if they stay in the Philippines to serve the poor,” said Ellorin.  “This falls right in line with President Arroyo’s bloody counter-insurgency program Operation Plan Bantay Laya 2, which has terrorized innocent people with extra-judicial killings, abductions, disappearances, torture and mass arrests.”

BAYAN-USA makes the following demands:

1. The immediate release of the health workers who are illegally arrested and illegally detained at Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal.
2. The government to ensure the safety of the victims and that they are not harmed; their belongings be returned immediately to them.
3. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into raid and illegal arrest of the health workers conducting health skills training in Morong, Rizal.
4. The military to stop the labeling and targeting of human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”
5. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

Papo de Asis Art Exhibit and Open Mic

Related Pages:
In Memory of Papo de Asis
Papo de Asis Gallery

Emulate the Late Papo: Artist, Activist, Revolutionary

Habi Arts Statement Commemorating Papo de Asis’ 5th Year Death Anniversary

Habi Arts joins our Filipino compatriots, friends, and supporters in commemorating the life and works of one of our organization’s founders, Danilo “Papo” de Asis. He passed away five years ago today, after wholeheartedly serving the people in the Philippines and here in the United States for many years. Even after half a decade, his legacy has remained alive in the hearts and minds of those whom his memory continues to teach and inspire.

Papo was a well-known artist, but foremost, an activist and revolutionary. As early as 1973, Papo was already in the midst of the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. He was active in Sining Bayan, a group of artists who propagated patriotic and progressive art. Afterwards, he also became involved in NPAA or Nagkakaisang Progresibong Artists-Arkitekto (United Progressive Artists-Architects), Mabini Artists, and other artist groups fighting for social change in the Philippines. In 1990, he immigrated to the US and continued his involvement in the community.

Papo was instrumental in leading and developing various organizations in Southern California. He worked with various sectors: workers, youth and students, cultural workers and artists. In 1986, he founded the group People’s Artists, which created artwork that spoke to the issues faced by Filipinos in the Philippines, Filipino immigrants, Filipino Americans, and other oppressed and exploited peoples in the US. In 2003, along with other concerned artists, he founded Habi Ng Kalinangan or Habi Arts.

Throughout his life in the US, Papo worked with many people and a multitude of organizations. The one lesson that he imparted to all of them, by example, is his commitment to genuine social change and service to the masses. Particularly in Habi Arts, he had instilled the importance of educating, organizing, and mobilizing the broad masses of Filipino compatriots, allies, and other oppressed peoples around human rights, immigrants’ issues, basic civil rights and welfare, and linking those issues to the basic problems of the Philippines—foreign intervention, landlessness, and corruption (also referred to as imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism).

As an immigrant himself, he understood and had compassion for those who had just arrived from the Philippines and from any country. He fought against Proposition 187 (an anti-immigrant initiative prohibiting access to public services) and supported justice for immigrant campaigns. He understood that the issues faced by Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the US are inextricably connected with the issues faced by his people back home. Thus, he also propagated and organized around Philippine issues such as state violence, repression, corruption, and economic devastation. He condemned human rights violations in the Philippines, and called for genuine independence and democracy in Philippine society. Until his death, Papo poured his heart and soul into working towards a better and brighter world.

In commemorating the fifth anniversary of Papo’s death, we do so not with tears in our eyes and grief in our hearts, but with fists raised high and a united determination to surge forward in the struggle to which Papo had dedicated his life.

Habi Arts calls on all progressive artists, Filipino immigrants, Filipino Americans, and other oppressed peoples to celebrate and learn lessons from the life and struggle of Papo de Asis. Let us emulate his commitment to social justice. Let us take the side of the immigrants, the victims of human rights violations, the workers and peasant masses. Let us take the side of the oppressed and exploited—just as Papo had done.

Long live Papo de Asis!
Justice for victims of human rights violations in the Philippines!
Justice for immigrants in the US!
Onward with the struggle for genuine independence and democracy in the Philippines!
Long live the Filipino people!

Related Pages:
In Memory of Papo de Asis
Papo de Asis Gallery