MANILA, Philippines?Filipinos in Japan have written lawmakers, particularly Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who heads the Senate committee on foreign relations, and Alan Peter Cayetano to ask their help in stopping the sale of an historic Philippine property in Japan, it was learned Monday.
The sale of the official residence of the Philippine ambassadors in Japan, built during the Tokugawa era and located at the upscale part of Tokyo in Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, is underway as the bids are set to be awarded on November 11, said Cayetano in a text message.
?We are appealing to preserve the shared cultural and historical rights of the Filipino and Japanese people. Our concern is [that] the historic building in Tokyo?will be torn away by the Arroyo government to give way to a planned 21-story building,? the Save Fujimi Property International Network said in their letter to the senators, a copy of which was provided INQUIRER.net.
?We call on the Senate and House of Representatives to look into the impending sale of the Fujimi property in the name of transparency and accountability, and the preservation of our national patrimony. The Department of Finance must publicly justify and clarify the reasons behind the bidding of the Tokyo property and its intentions regarding other properties owned by the Filipino people overseas,? the group said.
On Sunday evening, the same group staged a two-hour protest rally outside the property, denouncing the plan. The rally of some 30 Filipinos addressed the Arroyo administration and the bidders ?to keep off with shared historical and cultural rights of Filipinos and Japanese.?
?This property should be preserved as a reminder to the Filipinos people who are unaware of how much we have lost and have been cheated out of deceptive 50 years of build-operate-transfer scheme used in developing the Roppongi property. We believe our people are being subjected once again to the same deception in a desperate move by the Arroyo government, which is expiring in six months? time, to capitalize on the Fujimi property.?
At the same time, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center joined the campaign to stop the Department of Finance?s call for bids in relation to the Fujimi property in Japan.
?This historic property is part of our patrimony, and is known throughout Japan as the residence of Philippine ambassadors, past and present. To sell this, in the name of deficit-reduction, is a major embarrassment to the country, and an irretrievable loss to future generations,? the center said in a statement.
The planned sale also highlights the government?s lack of concern for the Filipinos in Japan who have to endure the cramped space reserved for them in the Philippine embassy in Tokyo when they go there for consular services, said Yuko Takei, a Filipino-Japanese who helped organize the protest rally.
Takei also criticized the secrecy that surrounded the planned sale of the property. the highly secretive Fujimi development deal between Arroyo government and bidders.
?Any major decision related to this historic Filipino-owned property must be done with full public hearing, both in the Philippines and Japan, backed up by thorough studies and with utmost transparency,? the group said in a statement released after the rally.
An estimated half a million people (200,000 Filipinos in Japan and 300,000 Japanese-Filipino children) who have been neglected by the Philippine government would ?engage Arroyo and the private bidders in legal suits in courts of law, parliaments, as well as on streets where they can voice out aloud the protest once the Fujimi development plan pushes through,? warned Cesar Santoyo
Josie Aranjuez Nistal, president of Samahang Filipino, and Angelique Shimo, chairperson of Anakbayan-Japan, vowed to continue the protest until the planned sale is stopped and until a ?legislative measure [is] in place to protect Philippine properties in Japan.?
?We strongly believe that any major decision on this issue be done by a more legitimate successor government with the people's mandate,? the network said.
