Antonio Tujan, chairperson of the APRN, decried moves of the immigration department to place on blacklist foreigners who had participated in protest actions against the government, effectively lumping them together with alleged criminals and terrorists.

The APRN, which will hold its annual international conference in Cebu City, is also co-sponsoring two other conferences, such as the International Jobs and Justice Conference on December 7-8 to coincide with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council's Business and Investment Summit. The activities will bring together over a hundred members, non-member international delegates, and local participants.

Tujan said that such moves were clearly intended to block foreign delegates from attending legitimate conferences that are critical of issues to be taken up at the ASEAN summit. He added that such moves were discriminatory, given that Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez had ordered the creation of special lanes manned by immigration officials who are tasked only to process the papers of ASEAN summit delegates.

The APRN is a network of 37 leading research NGOs from 17 Asia-Pacific nations which exchanges information on international issues, and shares capacity-building support, technologies, and methods in research since 1998.

Foreigners who work with the network and attend its conferences should not be characterized as "threats to national peace and security" just because they discuss issues on neoliberal globalization and the US economic agenda, and seek alternatives to the prevailing economic system, Tujan said.

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