Filipina/x/o American Educators and Scholars Support Philippine Presidential Candidate Leni Robredo and VP Candidate Kiko Pangilinan

April 14, 2022
For Immediate Release

Contact: cffscollective@gmail.com

Filipina/x/o American Educators and Scholars Support Philippine

 Presidential Candidate Leni Robredo and VP Candidate Kiko Pangilinan

The Critical Filipina/o/x Studies Collective (CFSC), a network of Filipina/x/o American educators, scholars, graduate students, professors and researchers in the United States, stand with millions of Filipinos in the Philippines and across the globe that support the Presidential Candidate Leni Robredo and VP Candidate Kiko Pangilinan in the current presidential elections in the Philippines. Some of us are dual citizens of the Philippines and the United States, some of us are US citizens, but all of us are active and committed to organizing, researching, and writing about issues in the Philippines and how it impacts us in the diaspora. We continue to condemn the brutal authoritarianism of current president Rodrigo Duterte. We believe that the Filipino people, in the country and in the diaspora, deserve a system of governance that is free from political corruption and dynasties. We stand in solidarity with the millions of Filipinos who clamor and organize for a new administration, a change ensuring the welfare of the Filipino people.

In the current race, Bong Bong Marcos, son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is running for president with vice presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, daughter of the incumbent president. Bong Bong Marcos (BBM) and Sara Duterte are running on a slate that proposes “unity” in an effort to lift the Philippines from the devastation of COVID-19. Yet,their campaign has operated on revised historical facts that claim the Marcos dictatorship, which lasted from 1972 to 1986 under Martial Law did not claim thousands of Filipino lives through forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. BBM supporters are claiming that the period of Martial Law was a “Golden Age” for the Philippines, ignoring the facts that the Marcos dictatorship was responsible for the plundering of the Filipino economy; the ballooning of the country’s national debt from $2 billion to $28 billion; and facilitating an export economy that pushes millions of Filipinos to venture abroad in order to support their families, continued to this very day.

Current VP Leni Robredo on the other hand has offered a vision of the Philippines that can unite the country.  Unlike the response to the COVID-19 pandemic of the Duterte regime, which has criminalized the poor, disrupted the education of the country’s youth, and caused greater precarity across all working sectors, Robredo’s platform is a stark contrast that promises to serve the most vulnerable and address the healthcare, economic, and educational needs of Filipino citizens. Furthermore, while Marcos has signaled his intent to expand mining in the Philippines, Robredo has signed covenants with environmental and indigenous people’s organizations to protect both the environment and safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples.  She has promised relief to farmers and indigenous peoples who have suffered from “red-tagging” by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which incites human rights violations against those defending their rights and their claims to their ancestral lands. Crucially, Robredo has signaled that her administration would be open to dialogue and furthering peace talks toward achieving democratic reforms and a lasting peace in the Philippines.

In the past, it was the Filipino people’s power, both in the country, and all over the world, that led to the national clamor to oust the Marcos administration. As the elections approach, Filipina/x/o American communities, including educators and scholars in the CFSC, are joining the global call to end political dynasties and corruption in the Philippines. We stand against a revision of history and a return of dictatorial dynasties. We support candidates that are committed to creating a new history, one that is more democratic and peaceful, a Filipino people’s history that they rightfully deserve.