On a cold March night in 2004, Burnaby resident and retired architect Ted Alcuitas joined about 35 concerned activists at a panel discussion at the Kalayaan and Filipino Women's Centre on Powell Street.

The subject that night was the impending fate of murder suspect John Graham, a member of the Southern Tuchone First Nation. Yukon-born Graham is appealing an extradition order to the United States, where officials want him to stand trial for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, a Nova Scotia Micmac, in South Dakota in 1975. Graham and Aquash belonged to the American Indian Movement.

Alcuitas is not of First Nations descent, but that night at the Kalayaan centre””where his daughter, Hetty, is also active””he stood up and told the audience that he shared many of the concerns of the First Nations community. American Indian Movement activists in South Dakota in the 1970s claimed that untapped mining resources on Indian land led to killings and subterfuge.

Alcuitas, born in Cebu in the Southern Philippines, is also a long-time journalist who reports on issues pertaining to his community. He recently told the Georgia Straight that he thinks mining interests are destabilizing the Philippines. Along with 20 or so other local Filipinos, Alcuitas protested outside the Philippines consulate on West Pender Street on July 24.

The main aim was to raise enough noise to bring pressure upon Philippines President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo to stop extrajudicial killings. A mock funeral took place downtown, and pictures of the dead were displayed on the sidewalk.

According to the Philippines human-rights group Karapatan, since Arroyo came to power in 2001, there have been 690 extrajudicial killings. Amnesty International stated in its last annual report that there were at least 66 fatal shootings of leftist activists and community workers in the Philippines in 2005, mostly by unidentified assailants on motorcycles.

Alcuitas raises his voice a fraction as he talks about the militarization that is ingrained in the society of his home country. After 400 years of Spanish colonial rule, American expansionism came to the Philippines in 1898, and a bitter colonial war ensued. Alcuitas believes U.S. hegemony is prevalent in the Philippines to this day, despite the fact that the country has been independent since 1946.

He also noted that the Philippines has tremendous mineral resources. As part of ongoing globalization, he added, Arroyo has helped open up the Philippines to mining companies. Alcuitas said that Canada, along with the U.S. and Australia, is one of the three countries with the largest interests in mining in the Philippines.

“Mining displaces people,” Alcuitas said. “It is usually done in the backcountry areas, where the villagers are displaced, and mining companies hire their own armies or else call on the government directly.”

Alcuitas claimed that the Philippines is the new “Killing Fields of Asia”. He alleged it is the second-most dangerous country in the world for journalists””after Iraq. “And we're not at war.”

Robespierre Bolivar, Philippines consul in Vancouver, told the Straight that he wouldn't comment on Alcuitas's claims, “especially since the allegations do not affect the consulate and its services directly”.

Bolivar encouraged the Straight to send any related questions via e-mail. However, no reply came to questions sent the same day on mining and human-rights issues.

Meanwhile, Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation address on July 24. In literature distributed outside the consulate, the BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines claimed that the real state of the nation is one “marked by an ever-worsening economic crisis”.

Some demonstrators also expressed frustration about the Canadian government's live-in caregiver program for Filipino immigrants. On Pender Street, Vancouver resident Debra Gawne told the Straight she is “very concerned” for Filipino families that are broken up because of the policy.

“I'm concerned that mothers have to leave their children at home,” she said. “They're not allowed to do anything but be servants, and the fact that Canada encourages this is quite disgusting.”