Philippine Groups Celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi Birthday and Women of Burma Day

By Free Burma Coalition - Philippines • June 18, 2010

About a hundred activists, mostly women, representing different Philippine organizations read poetry and sang songs dedicated to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the women of Burma in front of the SPDC Myanmar Embassy in Makati City. This is in celebration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday (June 19) and the “Women of Burma Day”.

The program started with songs rendered by Teatro Pabrika, a cultural group of workers. “In a Quiet Land,” a poem written by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was the first to be read. Representatives from Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bagong Kamalayan – Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacififc (CATW-AP), Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM – Workers’ Party), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP-Filipino Workers’ Solidarity) and the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) took turns delivering poems and singing songs – all totaling to 65 verses to celebrate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday.

People chanted slogans calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all women political prisoners as the women rallyists, donning fresh yellow chrysanthemum flowers in their hair the way Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wears them, cheered to express their solidarity with the women of Burma.

Book Launch. In the middle of the program, Yuen Abana, coordinator of the Women’s Committee of the Free Burma Coalition -Philippines (FBC-Phils Women) introduced to the public a book of poetry and short stories written by the women of Burma entitled “Burma Women’s Voices”. The book, according to Abana, delivers messages and aspirations for peace by women of Burma, expressed in prose and poetry. The women activists – some of them wearing ethnic clothes – took turns reading poems and excerpts from the book as the Teatro Pabrika sang a Filipino song for women, “Babae Ka” (You are a Woman).

At the close of the program, more songs were rendered as the rallyists partake of Daw AUng San Suu Kyi’s birthday cake.

The rally was organized by the Free Burma Coalition – Philippines (FBC-Phils).

Read the press release. See more photos.