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USP4GG join global protest against China
Members of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance in various parts of the world staged a protest rally against China’s “invasion, occupation, and militarization of West Philippine Sea” last July 24.
On Saipan, USP4GG members gathered on Beach Road across the Sunleader store, holding banners and flags against China’s government and calling for a boycott of its products.
“I don’t like what the Chinese government is doing trespassing in the Philippines. If we go there and do the same to them will they like it? I don’t think so,” Teddy Guiao said, adding that he will encourage Filipino workers on Saipan to boycott Chinese products as well.
Members of the USP4GG on Saipan hold banners and flags in Garapan last Friday to protest what they described as China’s “invasion, occupation, and militarization” of the West Philippine Sea. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)
Motorists passing by honked in support of the group.
According to Dr. Celia Lamkin, chairperson of USP4GG CNMI and Guam, Marianas Chapter, July 24 marked the third anniversary of the creation of China’s Sansha prefecture that supposedly administers the whole South China Sea, including West Philippine Sea.
This is the third year that USP4GG has been holding the protest rally.
“USP4GG initiated this global protest, then some coalition in the Philippines also followed to do the global protest,” Lamkin said.
Lamkin, who was in Guam, said that their handful of members were also able to reach out to many motorists.
“So far, we are getting bigger because of the newly formed movement and alliance called MARCHA or the Movement and Alliance to resist China’s Aggression in the Philippines,” Lamkin said. “We have reached out to more countries now than in the past years.”
In New York, USP4GG national chair Loida Nicolas Lewis led the protest rally in front of the Chinese Consulate General. In San Francisco, the protest rally was attended by the Filipino-American veterans of World War II and the U.S. Pinoys in San Francisco and the Bay Area. There were protests also in Los Angeles as well as in Canada, France, London, and Ireland.
“In the Philippines, different towns and provinces now are more involved because in the past, the rally was only held in Makati,” Lamkin said.
She reported that more than 500 gathered to protest at the Chinese Consulate in Makati, Manila. Rallies were also held in various places such as Rizal, Cagayan de Oro, Olongapo City, and Tarlac.
