July 27, 2009

BAY AREA Support 4 Melissa Roxas This THURSDAY!

The USA-Philippines Ecumenical Advocacy Network invites you to Vigil for Human Rights in the Philippines

July 30, 2009 6 pm

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church

756 Mission St.

San Francisco, CA

On the night of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo’s meeting with President Obama, we’re gathering to remember human rights victims and to pray for meaningful change in the militarized situation in the Philippines . Clergy, musicians and concerned advocates from around the Bay area will meet to reflect, sing, light candles and sign a letter to Barack Obama asking him to hold the Philippine Government and its military accountable for the abduction and torture of hundreds of activists, including American citizen Melissa Roxas.

Since Arroyo came to power in 2001, hundreds of clergy, activists and human rights workers have been illegally harassed, abducted, tortured and murdered. Reliable sources such as the United Nations and Amnesty International put the total at 600 disappeared or killed in the last eight years, with additional hundreds of thousands indiscriminately displaced by military exercises and fear-mongering.

In May 2009, an American citizen, Melissa Roxas, was illegally abducted and tortured while on a medical relief mission in the Philippines . President Obama must demand justice for her and for all the other human rights victims in the Philippines . The US taxpayers do not want to support corrupt foreign governments! Demand justice for the Philippines and stop funding the Philippine military!

We ask you to join us for this time of sharing and prayer.

Contact Lindsey Kerr, USA-Philippines Ecumenical Advocacy Network Coordinator, at

lkerr@psr.edu or 412-576-5763

For more information see www.usapan.wordpress.com

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