October 1, 2007
Social Justice Fund
OPSEU
Greetings and peace!
We at the Philippine Advocacy Through Arts in Canada (PATAC)
hope you enjoyed yourself at our Sept. 22, 2007 evening of peace
and music, "35 years of martial law" held at the OPSEU region
five hall on Wellesley St.
We are writing you to express our heartfelt appreciation to you
for offering to sell tickets for our December 8 concert
"Touch a Life, Help a Soul: Songs of our Times," a concert for
peace and human rights - 6pm, OISE Auditorium, 252 Bloor St.
West - tickets are $15.00 each
As you very well know something is something
desperately wrong in the Philippines today. There is an alarming
rise in political killings and forced disappearances, which many
people believe, involve Filipino state security forces. Since
2001, close to 900 deaths have been documented. Many of those
murdered are labour unionists and leaders. Cases include the
massacre of farm workers at Hacienda Luisita who were only
asking for a meager increase in their wages and the murder of
Diosdado "Ka Fort" Fortuna, the high profile president of Union
of Nestle Workers and outspoken critic of the Arroyo regime.
With this alarming human rights violation and continuing
violence, the children are mostly affected. Recently Glecil Buya
a petite 9 year-old girl was shot in the head by the military.
They alleged that Grecil was a combatant of the New People's
Army, an allegation that they recently retracted. To date,
according to the Children's Rehabilitation Center, the death
toll of children killed by the military during operations has
reached 54. Seventeen children have been tortured, 69 illegally
arrested, and 63 beaten and raped. Grecil's story is just one of
many.
The urgency of this situation has not been lost on many
Canadians, Filipinos, and Filipino-Canadians in Toronto. The
work of highlighting the terror being experienced by ordinary
Filipinos today can benefit from strong international vigilance
and continuing exposure of the situation.
A group of local Filipino artists are coming together to raise
awareness and money to help the children victims of human rights
in the Philippines. The night of peace and music you attended is
part of this campaign and culminates in the above Saturday,
December 8, 2007 concert. The proceeds of this concert will go
towards the Children's Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in the
Philippines.
We appreciate your concern for human rights and compassion for
the victims and their families. We especially appreciate your
concrete acts of solidarity for the children of working people
in another land.
We are thanking you for becoming PATAC's partner in our work for
a just and lasting peace for the Philippines. Because you are
our partner in this effort, we consider it our responsibility to
give you a report on the funds raised and the transfer to CRC.
We hope that many of your members will be able to attend the
December 8 concert.
We appreciate your taking the time to read this letter. Please
contact me at 905-369-9938 or
m_luciano@rogers.com
if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you.
In Solidarity,
Marco Luciano
For the Philippine Advocacy Through Arts - Canada (PATAC)
