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Research & Exposure Trip Needs Your Support

A group of Filipino-Americans and Filipino immigrants living in Portland are raising funds for a research and exposure trip to the Philippines this December. As leaders of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (PCHRP), the  group is joining a fact-finding trip organized by BAYAN Philippines (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or New Patriotic Alliance), a multi-sectoral formation struggling for national and social liberation against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism.

I am a Filipino immigrant. I have lived in the United States for all of my adult life, yet I still hold deep emotional ties to the homeland. I commend the efforts of PCHRP in learning first-hand about worsening economic conditions in the Philippines. I am encouraged by their initiative to gain a deeper understanding of underlying cultural, political and socioeconomic issues that have created a wide chasm between the haves and have-nots. Their ultimate goal is to bring back what they know to the United States, and advocate effectively on behalf of nationalist and worker rights issues among Filipino-Americans.

What can Filipinos in America do about how government is run back home? We have the privilege of living in the most powerful country in the world. Many of us support family members with dollars sent through remittances. We have the opportunity to influence U.S. foreign policy by educating U.S. lawmakers about the impacts of their decisions on the Philippines' hard-working poor. 

By supporting the PCHRP team's research trip to the Philippines, we are investing in the next generation of Filipino-American leaders who will always inspire us to reach back and help out in any capacity.



 

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