The Malaya Movement calls on the Filipino-American community to go out and vote in the U.S. local and presidential elections. Let us show through the ballot our vote for human rights and democracy by rejecting the fascist regime of Donald Trump.

The Malaya Movement condemns the assassination of Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis, National Chairperson of Anakpawis Partylist and Deputy Secretary-General of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), who died in his Quezon City home early Monday. We also denounce the actions of the PNP who seized his dead body later that evening from his grieving wife and family. Erlinda, Ka Randy’s wife, identified his body earlier that day, noticing signs of torture as well as multiple gunshot and stabbing wounds. We further condemn the illegal arrest and detention of paralegal Paolo Colabres, and the ridiculous charge of “obstruction to justice” for attending to the retrieval of Ka Randy’s forcibly removed remains by police.

As brutal and bloody as they were, the past four years under Duterte might have only been a preamble to a more ruthless and unrelenting rule. Almost as soon as Duterte signed the Anti-Terror Law (ATL), repression and fascism have run rampant, seemingly picking up speed by the day!

As many of you already know, President Duterte signed the Anti-Terror Law this past July 3rd, ushering in a new dark era for democracy and civil liberties in the Philippines. Despite the widespread criticism and concern from legal experts and renown human rights organizations, Duterte has chosen, yet again, the way of brutality and authoritarian rule by enacting a law that threatens to institutionalize his Martial Law-style dictatorship and place a chilling effect on the practice of democratic rights and constitutional freedoms.

Malaya Movement condemns in the strongest possible terms the passage of Duterte’s reprehensible Anti-Terror Law he signed on July 3rd in the Philippines. Republic Act 11479 or “The Anti-Terror Act of 2020” plunges the nation into further danger, posing a serious threat to human rights defenders who have long been critical of the government’s bloody drug war, attacks on press freedom, and crackdown on opposition and dissent. While the COVID-19 pandemic remains unresolved and record-breaking unemployment challenges working class families to put food on the table, Duterte’s weak stomach for criticism and bloodthirst for unquestioned power has put the health and wellness of Filipinos last on his list of priorities.

Movement strongly condemns the illegal arrests of members of progressive LGBTQIA+ organization, Bahaghari, and the violent dispersal of their peaceful Pride protest by officers of the highly militarized Philippine National Police. Even ahead of the enactment of the Anti-Terror Bill into law, fascism runs wild in the streets wearing fatigues and combat boots.