By YZELLE ROSE PADA and MICHELLE SIMBUL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Various sectoral groups denounced the continuous bombing of Gaza by Israel, saying that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not represent the voice of Filipinos when he expressed his support to Israel.
“Our message to the Philippine government: stop enabling genocide in Israel,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary General Raymond Palatino said in an interview with Bulatlat, Oct. 27 during a protest action in University of the Philippines in Diliman.
Bayan said that it is imperative that the Philippine government condemn in no uncertain terms the genocide against Palestinians and stop giving any form of political and material support for the Israeli occupation. They also said that “It is urgent and necessary for the Philippine government to call out the United States for its unequivocal support of the terrible actions of Israel.”
Palatino lamented that in 2018, under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines had “contributed to the fund of the fascists and zionists in Israel” when his administration ordered buying military weapons from Israel.
“All Philippine arms sales contracts with Israel should be scrapped as we do not want our taxes to be paying for occupation and genocide,” Palatino said.
He said that the Philippines is the third largest buyer of Israeli arms from 2018-2022 totaling $275 million or more than P15 billion. This year, Palatino said that the Philippines is set to acquire surveillance planes from Israel worth $114 million, on top of other weapons such as drones, mortars and tanks used to kill Filipinos.
According to news reports, the Philippines has procured weapons from the government of Israel in 2021 and 2022.
Israel has been bombing Gaza for 19 days. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 6,546 people have been confirmed killed. This includes 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 364 elderly people. Areas that were bombed were residential areas, hospitals, schools and churches. Health workers as well as journalists have also been killed.
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino President Luke Espiritu, meanwhile, criticized the “backwardness” that runs in the government and its lack of understanding regarding the current Israel-Palestine conflict.
“The Philippine government is the most mediocre when it comes to human beings,” Espiritu said when asked about the administration’s humanitarian response,” he said.
Bayan said Filipinos and Palestinians are linked by a common desire to be free from all forms of foreign aggression.
“We are linked by a common fight against US imperialism which is the main backer of Zionism,” the group said. (AMU, RVO) 
