STATEMENT
Concerned Artists of the Philippines on the WTC Terrorist Attacks
26 Sept 2001

THE TERRORIST attack on the WTC of 11 Sept 2001 is unjustifiable in every term and deserves the strongest condemnation possible. We grieve with the relatives and friends of the victims. But we cannot condone the hate and anger campaign and pro-war stance of humility-challenged American political leaders.

The US has historically been sowing terror, has used every necessary weapon of war, and has inflicted massive destruction on human lives and the environment on a global scale – the massacre of thousands of Filipinos in the course of the Fil-Am war, the killing and maiming of thousands of Japanese civilians in the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the napalm bombing of villages in Vietnam. It blasted a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan; a hospital, the water supply system and school houses in Iraq.

It continues to finance dictators and arm tyrants, who kill according to their own whims. It continues to wage wars of aggression and intervention, using all fronts—economic, political and military—all terrorist acts several times the magnitude of the WTC incidence.

So, when America’s President Bush asked every nation to make a decision to be either with them or the terrorists, he is actually giving countries no choices. The tragedy should not be used as a pretext to launch a global war on terrorism in general. Terrorism is the result, it is not the cause. Now is not the time for vengeance and retaliation. Now is the time for reflection. War is an over-used solution to the basic problem of inequitable and unjust systems. History has proven that it does not work. The US is calling for a war that marks no borders, respects no limits and knows no rules.

The Philippine government should re-examine its unqualified and over-eager support for the US. A global war at this stage will unfold the grandest human drama no theatre will be big enough to hold.The actors are the victims, they are the people.

Now is the time to think with our hearts, so that we can act with compassion. The Filipino masses and others in poor and underdeveloped countries live in hunger and misery— dispossessed of their lands, stripped of their countries’ resources. Even without any formal declaration or war, they are in fact living in war-like conditions. Their faces are images of despair and uncertainty; their children’s songs are moans and cries of sufferings. Now is the time to feel with our minds, so that we can move with reason and understanding.

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) supports all rational moves to eradicate terrorism, but we reserve judgment on the identities of the WTC terrorists until a thorough investigation is undertaken.

We join the indignation over the senseless killing and violence, but will fight and resist campaigns that promote racism and discrimination against Moslems and all peoples of color. We move for justice for the victims of the WTC terrorist attacks, as we demand justice for the US government’s wars of aggression and intervention on the Filipino and the world’s peoples. Now is the time for justice, so that we can attain peace.

The CAP is for JUSTICE NOT WAR.