ICHRP PNW

05/28/2024

✊Fight Like Brandon Lee: A Speaking Tour for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines!✊

Join ICHRP Portland and Clackamas UCC for a potluck lunch and a discussion on the human rights crisis in the Philippines, the US-backed counterinsurgency program of the Marcos Regime, and the ongoing fight to achieve a just and lasting peace.

In August 2019, Brandon Lee, a Chinese American environmental and Indigenous rights activist, survived an assassination attempt by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He was shot and hit in four places rendering him a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down with partial sensation in his arms and hands. After community efforts to evacuate him from the Philippines, Brandon now lives in the US with his family where he continues his advocacy for human rights in the Philippines.

As state fascism in the Philippines intensifies and the US enables the brutality and injustices, there is a growing need to build international support for the Filipino people and demand an end to US support of these crimes.

When: Friday, June 7th at 12-2pm
Where: Clackamas United Church of Christ (15303 SE Webster Rd, Milwaukie OR)
Masks are required at this event
This is a potluck lunch event, please bring a dish to share if you are able!

09/17/2023

In the face of attacks against the Philippine labor movement and intensifying worker struggles, Filipino worker-leaders are visiting the United States to strengthen solidarity with unions, worker organizations, and community groups based in the U.S., as well as share the situation of workers in the Philippines.

Building from the momentum of our labor solidarity tour last year, BAYAN USA is happy to launch the Kapit Bisig (Link Arms) Tour 2023: Solidarity for Philippine Labor under Attack. In Oregon, we will be joined by Elmer “Ka B**g” Labog, Chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

On Sunday, September 24, 4-7pm, at Moreland Presbyterian Church, BAYAN Oregon, ICHRP Portland, and Malaya Portland are hosting an event where Ka B**g will be sharing his experience as a labor leader and discuss ways we can support the labor movement in the Philippines.

RSVP: tinyurl.com/OregonKapitBisig
FB event page: https://fb.me/e/VIORrxSW

07/19/2023

On July 15, members of ICHRP PDX attended two separate town halls hosted by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley to ask him once again to sponsor the Philippine Human Rights Act in the Senate. Although he has shown concern in the past regarding the human rights situation, he has been unwilling to introduce this Bill which would end security assistance to the Philippine State.

Merkley explained that "the administration is wrestling with how to create effective leverage with a new president who we thought could turn the corner." That leverage is denying the Marcos Regime the military aid which it used to carry out the ongoing human right violations & war crimes. Despite the continued red-tagging, disappearances, and killings of human rights advocates, Merkley stated he had met with members of the Marcos family. What good is it to talk about human rights with a government that demonstrates a complete disregard for human rights, if you are unprepared to take action to hold them accountable?

To justify his refusal to support the PHRA, Merkley pointed to the US's "longstanding connection to the Philippines" and its role in defending them from China. The US has failed to protect Filipino fisherfolk from China's incursions in Philippine waters all while the US intensifies its own military presence on the islands to the detriment of peasants, farmers, women, and the environment. Instead of defending the Philippines, the US is turning the Philippines into a pawn in its own dangerous rivalry with China. It should be clear that the US "connection” to the Philippines has been one of domination and exploitation, not of respect for human rights and Philippine sovereignty.

Merkley cannot claim to be a champion of human rights while knowingly funding ongoing human rights violations in the Philippines. We call on the people of Oregon to join us in standing with the Filipino people and demand that Merkley introduce the PHRA in the US Senate. We refuse to send billions in military aid to a fascist state and instead demand these funds be spent to provide free higher education and universal healthcare, protect our forests and waters, and improve failing infrastructure.

Pass the Philippine Human Rights Act
Stop the Killings
Defend the Defenders!
End US Support of the Marcos Regime!

02/11/2022

ICHRP US International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and Kalikasan Solidarity Organization, an ICHRP-PDX member organization, were proud to stand alongside other social and climate justice organizations in demanding that Senator Merkley introduce the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA) in the Senate. "There is no climate justice without human rights," writes 350PDX to Senator Merkley. "There is no climate justice under state-sanctioned fascist violence. Please be a champion for human rights and environmental justice by introducing the Philippine Human Rights Act." We were proud to add our names along with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon Breach Collective, Oregon PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility) Rogue Climate Familiesforclimate Cedar Action, Sunrise Movement PDX and Sunrise Rural Oregon. Read the whole letter at https://350pdx.org/merkleyphraletter/

01/12/2022

12/01/2021

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of educator, philanthropist, and organizer for climate justice, immigrant, worker, and human rights, Eric Vega. In addition to his decades-long commitment to social justice, Eric was a father, husband, and friend. He was an integral part of ICHRP PDX’s work as a local member of the coalition, and a fierce advocate for human rights in the Philippines.

In 2019 and 2020, Eric’s brilliance and powerful, militant speaking was a key contribution to our work with the City of Portland’s Human Rights Commission (HRC). Eric offered impassioned calls for the City of Portland to pass a resolution in line with the language of the Philippine Human Rights Act, and, along with others’, helped to unite the HRC on the importance of international issues in general, and issues of human rights abuses under the Duterte regime in particular.

Even through the sadness of his passing, Eric’s legacy lives on through all the people whose lives he touched, from Sacramento to Portland, from the movement for immigrant rights to the labor movement. We will carry on his legacy of internationalism and genuine people to people solidarity in the fight for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines. ICHRP PDX offers our deepest condolences to his family. Mabuhay Eric Vega! Eric Vega presente!

03/18/2021

In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, land defenders are under attack by the US-backed Duterte government for resisting the construction of a Chevron Geothermal Plant on Indigenous ancestral lands. Meanwhile, the OR State Treasury continues to invest its assets in Chevron and make a profit off the corporate plunder of the Philippines.

Join us in a national day of action to condemn these fascist attacks and corporate plunder of the Cordillera! Demand the OR State Treasury take a stand for human rights and Divest from Chevron!

Sign the petition: tinyurl.com/oregon-divest-chevron
Take a selfie or publish a statement!
Participate in the digital takeover of Chevron’s social media!




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