On the November 25 International Day to End Violence Against Women

With women all over the world, Gabriela Women's Party, the sole political party of women with representatives in the 14th Congress of the Philippine House of Representatives, commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, bringing to the fore our outrage against the intensifying violence, repression and political persecution that Arroyo regime has unleashed against women activists and women human rights defenders all over the country.

As Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's extremely unpopular government face anew another impeachment complaint, we see no end to its attempts to silence and immobilize its critics and dissenters, with its unrelenting attacks against human rights workers, leaders and activists.

There is no doubt that terror is its defense as well as its method in its attempts to stay in power while escaping accountability and denying our people the clamor for land, decent jobs and social justice, especially in this time of global financial and economic crisis.

Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed office in January 2001, up to September 2008, 107 women have fallen victims to extra-judicial killings, 31 have disappeared, 271 were victims of illegal detention and 22 are political prisoners. All of them leaders if not members or supporters of progressive people's organizations and militant partylist groups.

To date, the terror tactics of the Arroyo regime and its butchers and human rights violators in the AFP, PNP, DOJ and the IALAG has taken to the wholesale filing of trumped up charges against activists and human rights defenders in its continued implementation of its anti-insurgency campaign Oplan Bantay Laya.

Currently facing possible arrest for fabricated cases of arson, conspiracy to commit rebellion, multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder is Gabriela Southern Tagalog Secretary General and Gabriela Women's Party 5th Nominee Helen Asdolo and Gabriela provincial coordinator for Cavite, Amelita Sto. Tomas. Along with 70 others from Southern Tagalog, including 18 more women, they have been accused of participating in a raid conducted by the NPA in March 3, 2006 in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Oriental.

In Negros, Gabriela staff and volunteer Mary Grace Delicano, was illegaly arrested for her alleged participation in a raid conducted by the New People's Army in Bgy. Malasibog, Escalante City in 2006.

Similarly, Emilia and Marycris Quirante have been arrested after a .38 caliber pistol was purportedly found in an unspecified area of their home in Bgy. Trinidad in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental.

Indeed, November 25, this historical day that marks the death of Patria, Teresa and Minerva Mirabal, the Mariposas that fought the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s, remains significant for Filipino women who stand in defiance of President Arroyo's terror.