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PH migrants express support for HK protests


Filipino migrants and progressive Filipino organizations in China’s Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau expressed their solidarity with massive people’s protests in Hong Kong that call for reforms and democratization amid “worsening economic conditions”. The group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Hong Kong & Macau (Bayan-HKM – New Patriotic Alliance) also condemned the governments of […]

Protesta ng iba't ibang sektor ng mga mamamayan sa Hong Kong. Photo courtesy: <strong>Eman Villanueva</strong>
Hong Kong protests for universal suffrage and democratization swelled to “tens of thousands” even after brutal efforts to purge it. Photo courtesy: Eman Villanueva

Filipino migrants and progressive Filipino organizations in China’s Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau expressed their solidarity with massive people’s protests in Hong Kong that call for reforms and democratization amid “worsening economic conditions”.

The group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Hong Kong & Macau (Bayan-HKM – New Patriotic Alliance) also condemned the governments of HK and mainland China in Beijing for “unleashing brutality and excessive use of force by Hong Kong police” on Sunday, Sept. 28.

“As a people, Filipinos feel for those in Hong Kong who were at the receiving end of the brutality of the government and the police. We also suffered and we continue to suffer from repression when we call for change and for the people’s democratic rights,” said Eman Villanueva, chairperson of Bayan-HKM.

Several other migrant groups expressed support for, and joined, the protests.

“The movement for universal suffrage has been gaining steam for the past years and is further being propelled by the government’s lack of effective response to the problems besetting many of the Hong Kong people. Cuts in social service, disregard of the condition of workers, and the prioritization of the government of the interests of businesses especially in times of crisis have contributed greatly to the desire of the HK people to have a more direct say in the election of the Chief Executive,” stated the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, an organization of Asian migrants, including Filipinos, in HK.

Villanueva said that the strike started by students who called for full universal suffrage. Then the protests, he said, “swelled (to) tens of thousands of youth and (people from) other sectors.”

As of this writing, the protests reportedly spread out in shopping areas of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok in Hong Kong.

“Protesters on various thoroughfares were repeatedly pepper sprayed and canisters of tear gas were thrown at them. However, undaunted, the public who witnessed the brutality of the police’s actions against the protesters even came out to join the action,” Villanueva added.

The protesters dubbed their actions “Occupy Central with Love and Peace”, after the Occupy protest movement in the US that called on, among others, taking the financial elite to account for its central role in triggering the global financial crisis.

‘Excessive force’

Aside from calls for democratization and universal suffrage triggered by a worsening economic crisis felt even among middle and lower class youths in Hong Kong, some protesters have called on Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to resign.

The protesters have taken the Beijing government to task for failing to live up to promises of greater democratization and universal suffrage after the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.

Bayan-HKM also said that the Hong Kong people have right to protest for social change, as inflation continues to rise in this supposedly prosperous capitalist hub.

“The display of discontent by the Hong Kong people and demand for political changes are rooted in the worsening economic condition that includes rising inflation, constricting social services, austerity, privatization and prioritization by the government of big business interests over that of the working people,” Villanueva added.

He said that the HK youth and people have shown “militancy, perseverance and courage” in the protests in the face of state reprisals.

“We call for the HK government to immediately cease from its repressive actions against the legitimate expression of the protester’s demands. Those who were unjustly arrested must be immediately released. The freedom of assembly and speech must be respected,” Villanueva concluded.