Students express concern for Filipino activist

13 May 2008

Students express concern for Filipino student activist

Auckland University Students' Association (AUSA) has today requested that Prime Minister Helen Clark call on Philippines President Gloria Arroyo to ensure the safety of a student unionist who has received death threats from the Phillipines military. Glaiza Dimapilis, the 19 year old president of the Philippine Christian University student council, and secretary general of the National Union of Students of the Philippines(National Capital Region), has received death threats from the Filipino military.

Dimapilis has told reporters that a military officer approached her and told her that, "I could be on the shoot-to-kill list or be arrested without a warrant".

"President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was hosted by our government at Waitangi last year, has the power to end these violations of basic and fundamental human rights, yet continues to allow her security forces to terrorise students, trade unionists and activists," said AUSA President David Do.

Since Arroyo took power, 850 people have been summarily murdered, and between January and October 2007 68 people were victims of extra-judicial assassinations by her military and a further 26 were ‘disappeared’.

"We call on Helen Clark to convey to Arroyo our deepest concern for the fate of Glaiza Dimapilis and request that she do everything in her power to end government killings of political activists in the Philippines," Mr. Do concluded.

ENDS

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