The New York Regional Council of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-U.S.A. staged a protest action outside of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s hotel, the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, to denounce the world leader’s failed human rights record, call attention to the plight of the trafficked Sentosa 27 ++ nurses, and denounce business scams such as the ZTE-NBN scandal, an economic failure driving the country into dire poverty.

Mrs. Arroyo joins world leaders around the world attending 62nd general assembly of the United Nations.

Approximately 40 protesters, young and old, donning Statue of Liberty headgear and mini-candle torches reading: “N.Y.C. Sez Oust Gloria!” trooped the hotel’s Park Avenue block amidst what it called a “tight and intimidating New York Police Department (NYPD) presence that tried to prevent them from doing so.”

They also chanted Papet, Pasista, Pahirap Sa Masa, Pataslikin Si Gloria! (Puppet, Fascist, Burden to the Masses – Oust Gloria!) and “Gloria Resign!”

Rows of the NYPD also tried to block the protesters from trooping through the front of the hotel, and threatened to arrest the chant leaders using the bullhorns, before pinning the marching protesters into a barricade.

Meanwhile, inside the hotel, Mrs. Arroyo was addressing Filipino-American community leaders in a coffee gathering and discussing economic prospects for the third world nation, exalting a so-called “economic renaissance.”

This was in stark contrast to the messages of protesters outside, which included members of the Sentosa 27 ++, healthcare professionals from the Philippines trafficked to New York under the collusion of the U.S. and Philippine governments.

“We’re on our last hope of the American dream,” cried former Sentosa nurse Harriet Avila, who was also criminally charged, along with nine others, when she resigned after working months under violated contracts and subject to abusive conditions.

Organizing protesters also included Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) Anakbayan-NY/NJ, the N.Y. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON).

They were joined by members of the Malcom X Grassroots Movement, and CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, all of whom have sent representatives to the Philippines to see the human rights crisis first-hand.

“Arroyo arrogantly boasts of a first-world Philippines in 20 years, but as overseas Filipinos, what is more important to us is a genuinely sovereign and corruption-free Philippines, safe for human rights defenders. This means it must be Gloria-free first,” stated BAYAN U.S.A. secretary-general Berna Ellorin.

Mrs. Arroyo will also subject her administration to a review by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Earlier this year, U.N. special reporter to the UNHRC Philip Alston traveled to the Philippines on a fact-finding mission, to produce a report that exposed the hand of the Philippine military – trained by U.S. troops in anti-terror exercises – in committing the nearly 900 killings and 200 abductions in the Philippines, mainly those from the ranks of the broad Arroyo opposition, including BAYAN U.S.A.’s mother alliance BAYAN Philippines.