Over 65 activists confronted U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley at his town hall event on Friday, August 2, 2024 including members of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), BAYAN Oregon, Malaya Portland, labor activists, and XRPDX. Protesters expressed outrage at a recent visit to the Philippines by U.S. officials that resulted in $500 million in additional military aid to the country.
Since former president Duterte left office, the human rights situation in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has only gotten worse. Daphne Auza, Malaya Portland expressed frustration that “in 2022 we asked you to take a stand on the Philippine Human Rights Act [PHRA]. More bombs have dropped, more people have been displaced and disappeared under military repression funded by our tax dollars…and you still choose inaction.”
Environmental and other activists are endangered and global corporations backed by the military engage in land grabs from Indigenous peoples for extractivism, including minerals for electric vehicles. Merkley has refused to introduce the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA) to the Senate despite sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the bill receiving endorsements from local representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer. The PHRA would impose limitations on U.S. financial assistance to the Philippine police and military until human rights violations cease.
Community members raised questions and concerns about the abrupt and significant increase of U.S. military aid to the Philippines at a time when more and more Oregonians cannot afford rent, groceries, and healthcare. They also called on Merkley to oppose the Philippine Enhanced Resilience Act (PERA) which was recently introduced into the Senate and would grant $2.5 billion in military assistance to the Philippines over the next 5 years.
The action was part of a national day of action to protest the Blinken-Austin visit to the Philippines. Activists promised to return to future town halls to protest the Senator’s “contributions to the horrors that are being committed against the Filipino people every day!”
