Ecumenical Advocacy Network on the Philippines

PLEASE SIGN THIS URGENT REQUEST CONCERNING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES 

January, 2009  •  Your help is urgently needed to support conditions and restrictions on a Foreign Military Aid Package for the Philippines that is coming before Congress in only a few weeks.

Here, you will find a Letter of Concern that is addressed to all members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate that asks our representatives help keep the pressure on the Philippine government concerning extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations against civil society groups in the Philippines.

With the support from you and many others, The Ecumenical Advocacy Network was able to obtain over 300 signatures on a Letter of Concern in 2007, which urged attaching Human Rights conditions and funding restrictions to US military aid to the Philippines. We were able to get human rights restrictions in the bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008.

While deaths and disappearances have been reduced, the original conditions that were in the military aid package for FY 2008 were not met by the Philippine government. With the arrival of the new administration in Washington, we have a new opportunity to obtain implementation of the original conditions and additional restrictions on military aid.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be conducting a campaign to accomplish those goals. The first step is to send the Letter of Concern to the House and Senate membership, and we need your help in getting signatures. Following that, we will be focusing our efforts on members of House and Senate Appropriations Committees and their subcommittees, and we will need help in contacting key members of those committees at critical times in the process of writing and passage the FY 2010 bill.

Can you help us with this first step in getting the signatures of faith leaders, civic organizations, educators, academicians, writers, labor leaders, and human rights advocates? Signers do not need to have organizational support, as they can sign and include their affiliations for identification purposes.

Please send names of signatories to office@ncncucc.org by Wednesday., February 4, 2009.

Thank you again for your dedication and commitment.