News Release
June 4, 2006
New York—It’s been one year since the infamous police dispersal of peaceful Filipino parade marchers ordered by the Philippine Consulate along Madison Avenue during the last Philippine Independence Day Parade. Filipinos in New York have not eased up on their demand for a recall of Philippine Consul Cecilia Rebong for her lavish lifestyle-spending of federal Philippine funds that rightfully belong to overseas Filipinos.
Marchers from the Philippine Forum, a immigrant rights and community organization based in Elmhurst, Queens, were the unlikely targets of the NYPD when they held up placards reading “No To Lavish Spending” and “$10k=12 new homes” back in the summer of 2005.
Congen Rebong currently resides in three homes, one of which is a two-bedroom condominium apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower along First Avenue. Rent has been reported to total a minimum of $10k a month, a exorbitant fee that has more and more Filipinos fuming amidst the worsening fiscal crisis in the Philippines, where over 80% of all Filipinos live below the reported poverty-level.
“Since the dispersal of the Philippine Forum marchers, all of whom are hard-working Filipinos with families who came here under the common denominator of economic survival, Congen Rebong has lavishly spent at least $120,000 more on her rent alone. That is the equivalent to at least P6,480,000 from the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), a government agency that supposedly exists to address the rights and welfare concerns of overseas Filipinos. This is basically the people’s money being wasted on shameful decadence,” stated Robert Roy, executive director of the Philippine Forum.
Roy asserted that the Philippine Forum marchers “harbor absolutely no regrets” with holding up placards expressing their disdain over outlandish personal expenditures of Philippine diplomats such as Rebong, and “would undoubtedly do it again in a heartbeat.”
In fact, what is even more shameful now is that this spending of resources continues while the crackdown on immigrants in the US is escalating to alarming heights, thanks to the US House of Representatives passage of HR 4437 and the US Senate’s passage of SB 2611, two bills that are leaving more and more Filipino immigrants with little room for dignity and basic human rights in the US.
In a recent Pulong Bayan at the Philippine Consulate, ConGen Rebong was reported to have defended the Malacang’s non-position on HR 4437 debate by stating, “Just as the US does not intervene in our Philippine government affairs, so must we not intervene with US legislation.”
“Rebong’s lavish spending coupled with government inaction amidst legislative injustice towards Filipino immigrants, documented or not, are part of the criminal negligence and culpability of the Arroyo regime towards the overall plight of our overseas compatriots,” Roy added.
The anti-lavish spending campaign was first initiated last year by Migrante International, the largest overseas alliance of Filipino organizations of which the Philippine Forum is a member.
“Filipinos in the US are not alone in their sentiments. This is an internationally-coordinated campaign because this is an international phenomenon with our consular officers,” stated Robyn Rodriguez of Migrante International in New York.
“It is especially up to Filipinos in the US to make their voices heard and express their intolerance for this type of treatment,” Rodriguez concluded.
For more information, contact Philippine Forum at philforum96@yahoo.com.
