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Office of
Representative RAFAEL V. MARIANO
South Wing - 615, House of Representatives
Constitution Hills, Diliman, Quezon City
Tel. No. 931-6397& 931-5001 loc. 7314
NEWS RELEASE
March 30, 2005
References: Rep. RAFAEL MARIANO, ANAKPAWIS Party-list (0920-9507361)
Jim Fernando, Public Information Officer (0920-9507362)
Day 1 of "Fasting for Justice and Peace"
Stop killing activists, GMA told
Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano today kicked-off a
"three-day fasting" in protest to the systematic and coordinated
killings of leaders and members of progressive parties and legitimate
people's organizations.
The protest at the gates of the House of Representatives dubbed as
"Fasting for Justice and Peace" coincides with the continuing arrival
of international parliamentarians to the 112th Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU) assembly to be held in Manila and Congress' special
session called by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Mariano also presented to the media a matrix of victims of the
killings and involuntary disappearances which shows that the death
toll already reached 32 since the start of the year and five (5)
desaparacidos.
"I urge the country's leaders, especially the President and Speaker
Jose De Venecia, to immediately probe these senseless killings and
bring the perpetrators to the bars of justice," says Mariano adding
that "the world's parliamentarians are watching."
The peasant lawmaker stressed that "the President's deafening silence
in these political assassinations is tantamount to the approval,
consent and blessings to the military to annihilate leaders and
members critical to the administration's anti-people economic policies."
Mariano, was joined by fellow Anakpawis party-list legislator Crispin
Beltran, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) spokesperson Willy
Marbella, Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap, National Federation of
Peasant Women – Amihan chair Carmen Buena, Central Azucarera de Tarlac
Labor Union spokesperson Rene Tua and Rodel Mesa, adviser of the
United Luisita Workers' Union (ULWU).
The leaders announced that the three-day fasting is only the start of
a nationwide and sustained protests against the increasing political
repression under the Arroyo government.
"This protest may escalate into bigger protest actions or a possible
full-blown hunger strike in the coming weeks if the President will not
lift a finger in these blatant human rights violations and if the
killings will not stop," the leaders said. #
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