Erap sheet

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About two-dozen Filipino activists demonstrated outside the Consulate General of the Philippines on University last Monday, in protest of the State of the Nation Address by Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who is known familiarly as "Erap." It was a tiny echo of the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of Manila and were met by police wielding truncheons and water cannons. According to Tony de Jesus, one of the Montreal protest's organizers, Filipinos in about 100 countries marked July 24 as a protest day.

"There are Filipinos in 186 countries around the world. It is the policy of the Philippine government to make people go outside their country to work," says de Jesus. "And last year we sent back $12-billion [U.S.]."

De Jesus--and leftist groups back home and abroad--blame Estrada for the south-east Asian archipelago nation's litany of problems, including the war against Islamic separatist rebels, rampant corruption, low investor-confidence and high unemployment.

But with approximately 20,000 Fililpinos in Montreal, and the rap sheet de Jesus ascribes to Estrada, why only two-dozen protesters?

"Most of the people were working and couldn't get away," de Jesus says. : --John Edmonds