On the 76th commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Migrante International and its chapters of overseas Filipino organizations around the world assert that full realization of our migrant and human rights entails our achievement of national freedom and the democratic demands of our people.
Through genuine agrarian reform, we can realize the economic rights of millions of landless peasants by ending feudal and semifeudal land monopolies. We can uphold the dignity of millions of exploited Filipino workers by asserting people’s control and building of basic industries in our homeland. By achieving national freedom, we can end decades of oppressive and foreign plunder of our land and people.
After countless violations of the rights and dignities of migrant workers, the millions of Filipinos overseas and their families are together with the toiling masses back home in wanting these basic demands. We realize that upending the social bases of the Labor Export Program is the solution we need to end decades of forced migration, human trafficking, and labor exploitation. To achieve our national democratic demands, we must come together in opposing the US-backed Marcos Jr. regime as it tramples on human rights on a widespread scale to uphold the rotten order.
We continue to charge Marcos Jr. for his gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Following his guilty verdict for war crimes during the 2024 International People’s Tribunal, cases of extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced disappearances, bombing and forced internal displacement, and the use of terror laws against dissenters and ordinary people have continued to pile up.
Marcos continues decades of state policy of suppressing dissent against worsening economic crises under his rule. Wages are unlivable for the vast majority of workers. Prices of basic goods continue to spiral up. Landlessness and forced displacement is a harsh reality for peasants. The budget for social services for the people continues to be pilfered by the Marcoses and their corrupt cronies. Under US dictates, Marcos continues to ramp up military spending instead of supporting migrants and the entire toiling masses.
As the Marcoses escalate their feud with the Duterte clique for their own gain, we must also continue to hold the Dutertes accountable for their own violations of the people’s basic rights. Rodrigo Duterte must be jailed for the blood of thousands of Filipinos on his hands for his dirty wars on “drugs” and “insurgency”. Sara Duterte must be impeached for losing public trust after plundering confidential and intelligence funds under the OVP and DepEd.
We Filipino migrants, who make immeasurable contributions to our economy and society, cannot tolerate the Dutertes for wasting public funds and waging wars on the poor. We cannot allow the Marcoses to continue doing the same as they bicker and threaten each other over the “prize” of ruling the country. Their political families represent the most rotten state of politics in our country, commit gross crimes against our people, and deny our aspirations for land, livelihood, and rights. To realize our human rights and aspirations to return to a liberated Philippines, we must continue to organize, march, and remove the Marcoses and Dutertes as obstacles towards our goal of genuine freedom and democracy.
Marcos, singilin! Duterte, panagutin!