Derechos: Human Rights Listings

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New Release
February 27, 2007

References: Sandra Panopio, Show Organizer, Stop the Killings Tour, email:
spanopio@hotmail.com; Raul Menchavez, NY Coordinator, BAYAN USA, email: ny @
bayanusa.org

HIP-HOP TOUR TO STOP THE KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES COMES TO NEW YORK

New York-- With the recent release of the report of United Nations Special
Rapporteur and New York University Law Professor Philip Alston last week,
the issue of extrajudicial killings continues to pit the Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo regime to the corner against an international whirlwind of
condemnation from human rights watchdogs.

The climate has set the stage for intensified pressure against the regime as
it will face serious charges, including that of crimes against humanity, at
the upcoming Permanent People's Tribunal Second Session on the Philippines
[PPT] from March 22-25 in the Hague, Netherlands.

Filipinos in the United States have already been actively fundraising for
PPT, including a national benefit Hip Hop Tour by Filipino-American artist
Geologic, the frontman of the Seattle-based Blue Scholars. The Stop the
Killings Benefit Tour for the PPT commences this month in San Francisco, and
makes it way through several US cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego,
Long Beach, Chicago, and Portland, and will make its way to New York City on
March 16, 2007, at the M1-5 Bar and Lounge in downtown Manhattan.

Joining Geologic on the stage is a lineup of talented Filipino-American
performers and artists, including MC Kwela of the Rhapsodistas and the
hip-hop artist Koba. Most performers, including Geologic, double as members
of BAYAN USA, an alliance of over 12 Filipino organizations in the United
States that serves as an overseas chapter of a mother alliance of the same
name in the Philippines.

Since 2001, over 830 BAYAN members and affiliates have been killed under the
Arroyo regime. The alliance remains at the forefront of a broad-based
people's movement heavily critical of Arroyo's domestic policies and
subservience to the US war and trade agenda in what Bush has tagged "The
Second Front" in the War on Terror.

Local social justice activists in the New York area are also speaking out
against the politically-motivated killings.

Dasaw Floyd, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in New York
City, recently returned from a solidarity affair in the Philippines where he
was hosted by BAYAN. "It is evident from spending time with the people that
the Arroyo regime has lost the trust of the vast majority of Filipinos. The
bloodshed and daily headlines in the news indicate that state terror is very
much a daily concern for those struggling for basic reforms," Floyd stated.

Ai-jen Poo, an organizer with CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and
Domestic Workers United in New York City, also traveled to the Philippines
in 2005 to participate in a international fact-finding mission on human
rights violations committed amdst the deafening silence of the Arroyo
administration. "The voices of restlessness and resistance from the majority
of those suffering from poverty are now amplified by the cries from victims
of death squads. The Arroyo's regime's hand in the pattern of killings
cannot be allowed to disappear inside it's bubble of impunity," Poo added.

BAYAN is amongst the list of initiating groups pressing charges against the
Arroyo regime at the PPT. Prominent supporters of the tribunal include
former US Attorney General and NY-based human rights attorney Ramsey Clark,
who has been invited to testify at the tribunal as a US foreign policy
expert. The Philippines remains a top recipient of US foreign aid in the
Asia Pacific region.

Local sponsors for the Stop the Killings concert in New York include
Anakbayan New York and New Jersey, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment
(FIRE), Sandiwa Filipino Youth, and the NY Committee for Human Rights in the
Philippines.

All concert proceeds will go towards general operations of the PPT and
airfare for the families of victims in the Philippines who will provide
testimonies at the tribunal.

For more information on the PPT, visit www.philippinetribunal.org
For more information in the Blue Scholars, visit www.bluescholars.com
For more information on BAYAN, visit www.bayan.ph and www.bayanusa.org