End the rotten system that exploits women workers!
As GABRIELA USA, we are enraged and heartbroken that Filipino workers were named among those involved and exploited in the heinous sex trafficking schemes laid out in the Epstein files. Naming these workers as complicit in these crimes against women and children, while redacting the names of many of the ruling elite involved in this case, is just another example of how Filipino workers are scapegoated so the rich can avoid accountability.
Epstein targeted the Philippines as a source of cheap and docile labor. He knew that in the Philippines, many people are in need of adequate livelihood; this is because the corrupt Philippine government has no interest in actually developing the economy for the people. He also knew that the Philippines, a semi-colony of the US, would not dare raise alarm over its people being exploited and implicated within these crimes as long as the bureaucrat capitalists can continue to fatten their pockets with US aide.
It's not just Epstein who takes advantage of this. More artificial-intelligence programs and companies like Waymo, Flock and even OnlyFans are using digital sweatshops in the Philippines. US-based companies only pay Filipino workers a fraction of what they would pay US-based workers, reaping maximum profit while offering crumbs to Filipinos. Of course we cannot blame Filipinos for taking these jobs, the national minimum wage is barely $10 a day and the Philippine government has shot down every genuine people's attempt to raise it.
Meanwhile, Marcos, Duterte and the horde of bureaucrat capitalists in the government sit back and reap the profits while their people suffer. For months, the people have been protesting and demanding: lahat ng sangkot, dapat managot! Their response? Increase the budgets for counterinsurgency through the NTF-ELCAC and double down on attacking activists and people's organizations, especially those in the rural areas. From Abra de Ilog, to Dupax del Norte to the recent violent dismantling of the kampuhan in Cabuyao, Laguna, the attacks from the Philippine state have done nothing but spread terror among peasant and indigenous communities - including the women and children.
Our kababayan deserve better. They deserve the right to live on their land peacefully, to have access to decent livelihood and not have to be exploited for their labor, and the right to protest and speak out against this abuse. If we want to end the epidemic of violence against women and children, to end the crisis of human trafficking, we have to organize ourselves against the 3 basic problems of US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism that upholds this rotten system.
MAKIBAKA! HUWAG MATAKOT!