Militant groups protest Marcos visit in Germany

Militant Filipino organizations and their allies in Europe and Germany welcomed Philippine president Marcos Jr’s arrival in Berlin with protests. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Europe together with ALPAS (Alternatibong Pangarap Para Sa Ating Sambayanan) Pilipinas, GABRIELA Germany, and the Deutsch-Philippinesche Freunde e.V. (German-Filipino Friends) organized a demonstration in front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Berlin yesterday March 12 as part of a series of actions condemning Marcos Jr.’s human rights violations. Marcos Jr. was in the said hotel to have dinner. “Marcos Jr.’s visit, designed to cleanse his family’s rotten image in Germany and the international community, will not be warmly welcomed. The President cannot hide from his family’s repugnant reputation,” said BAYAN Europe in a statement. "The widespread historical revisionism and disinformation campaign of the Marcoses should be considered an outright attack on the Filipino people," said ALPAS in another statement delivered during the protest action. The group called out the German government for agreeing to supply drones to the Marcos administration amid rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea. Earlier this year, the German Cooperation for International Cooperation (GIZ) pledged to provide additional four units of Trinity F90+ drones worth €129 million (P7.9 billion) to the Philippine Coast Guard to be used for imagery and reconnaissance purposes in the disputed waterways. “By providing ongoing military and political support to the Marcos Jr. regime, Germany and Europe are complicit to these abuses and criminal acts,” BAYAN Europe explained. The protesters also condemned the recent unjust and arbitrary deportation of Dutch-Filipina activist Marikit Saturay which happened last March 7 a few days before Marcos arrived in the region. Further, they called out the Philippine president for his frequent travels abroad at the expense of people's money. "It is the height of hypocrisy that Marcos is constantly globe-trotting and trying to present an amenable face to other world leaders, while at the same time maintaining all the violent repressive machineries of Duterte and other presidents before him that are meant to stiffle any form of dissent," said GABRIELA Germany in a statement. "We demand that Germany hold Marcos accountable. There should be no talk of business and trade relations while Filipino migrant activists are being repressed and barred from returning to our homeland," GABRIELA Germany added. "Instead of deporting and prohibiting the entry of activists and government critics to Manila, Marcos himself should be declared persona non-grata in Europe!" said BAYAN Europe. Other German-based groups participated in the demonstration including Courage, Internationale Solidarität, and The Left Berlin.