Untitled Document

Emergency in the Philippines: trade unions under attack!

The labour rights situation in the Philippines has been subjected to strong criticism from the international trade union movement for many years. Recent editions of the ICFTU’s Annual Survey of Violation of Trade Union Rights have been fiercely critical of an anti-union climate manifested in harsh legislation, mass dismissals, serious and repeated police violence, and the arrest of union organisers.

During 2005 international agencies began to receive reports indicating a sharp increase in violence and serious human rights violations against trade unionists. Dozens of trade unionists were subjected to arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, threats, murders and assassination attempts.

See below for information resources and for ICTUR's report on the situation.

Information resources

1) Trade unionism in the Philippines (background report from Trade Unions of the World 2005): www.ictur.labournet.org/PhilippinesTUW.htm

2) ICFTU Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights: www.icftu.org/survey

3) Amnesty International 2006 report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGASA350062006

4) International trade union solidarity mission to the Philippines 2006: http://www.ilsm.eilerinc.org/

ICTUR report (from IUR 13.3) Union leaders murdered, threatened and kidnapped

‘The law prescribes heavy penalties for participation in an illegal strike. Trade union leaders are liable to prison terms of up to three years. Anyone who organises or directs any ‘meeting for the purpose of spreading propaganda against the government’ is liable to life imprisonment or the death penalty. The term ‘meeting’ covers picketing during a strike’ (ICFTU Survey 2006).

Particularly problems cited by the ICFTU have included the provision that allows the Labour Minister to ban strikes by declaring that the industry is of ‘national interest’ and a series of unnecessary obstructions and legal barriers to the legal establishment of trade unions. Last year Filipino union leader Jose Pete Pinlac told IUR journal how this legislation had been abused, pointing to a case in which the Minister had declared even a noodle factory to be ‘an industry of national interest’ in order to break up a strike there. Coupled with this legislation, union organisers have struggled to maintain their organisational strength under a continuing privatisation process that has broken up the unionised state sector employers to create hundreds of small and fiercely anti-union companies.

But although workers have struggled to defend their livelihoods under repressive laws, and have faced violent attacks by police and security forces, violations of trade union rights in the Philippines in recent years have not frequently involved the murders of union activists. During the period 1998 to 2004 there were just two internationally reported attempts on the lives of trade unionists in the Philippines. The first of these being the (non fatal) shooting of an agricultural leader in November 2001, followed by the attempted murder of union leader Rey Viovicente in April 2003.

The horrific attack at Hacienda Luisita
In late 2004 the situation changed dramatically. On 6 November State police and security forces attacked a picket line at the Hacienda Luisita sugar mill on the first day of a strike, following a declaration by the Department of Labour and Employment that the strike was ‘illegal’. Dozens of people were injured in the police raid. On 16 November the security forces attacked the picket line again (see IUR 11.4, p15). This time the security forces were heavily armed and using live ammunition. Fourteen people were reported killed.

The brutality of the Luisita action shocked human rights agencies and trade unionists around the world. It also marked the beginning of a period of extraordinary violence against trade unionists in the Philippines. Following Luisita, and continuing up to the present day, trade unionists in the Philippines have been subjected to shocking levels of violence, arrests, detentions and harassment.

Political developments
In May 2004 President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won a second six-year term as President and unveiled an intention to tackled the serious and widespread problem of unemployment in the Philippines. It soon became clear that the proposed action on unemployment would be used to justify a policy of protecting employers in labour disputes. Shortly thereafter Labour Minister Patricia Sto. Tomas announced that she would do ‘everything legally possible to protect employers’ interests in labour disputes’.

The general political climate in the Philippines during this period was one of increasing instability and security fears as protesters accused the President of rigging the 2004 elections amid rumours of a possible coup attempt.

During 2005, international agencies began to receive reports indicating a sharp increase in violence against trade unionists, and the ICFTU’s 2006 Survey reported numerous cases of serious human rights violations against trade unionists in the form of murders and kidnappings carried out during 2005.

2005: reported human rights violations against trade unionists
30 September, two members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), named Perseus Geagoni and Junson, were abducted and have not been heard of since. ICFTU reported that a copy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' 2005 order of battle indicated that Geagoni's name was on the roster of those considered rebels or enemies of the state.

22 September, Diosdado Fortuna, President of the Nestlé workers’ union in Cabuyao was murdered by two unidentified gunmen. Fortuna had just left a picket line at the Nestlé factory, where workers had been in dispute with their employer for two years, when he was shot.

7 October, Rolando Mariano, former President of the TARELCO Employees' Union, was shot dead in Gerona, Tarlac.

15 October, Florante Collantes, General Secretary of the Bayan Muna Tarlac union, was killed in Camiling, Tarlac.

15 October, Ramon Namuro, member of the United Organisation of Drivers and Operators Nationwide (PISTON), was shot dead in Pio Valenzuela, Caloocan City.

25 October, Ricardo Ramos, President of the United Luisita Union was killed by an unknown assassin. The KMU federation described the murder as the work of an expert marksman.

26 October, Federico de Leon, President of PISTON, was shot dead.

25 December, 22 year old worker Noel Daray was shot dead by a guard when he wanted to file a dismissal case against WL Foods in Valenzuela.

30 September, Vitoria Samonte, national council member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), was murdered.

State of Emergency
On 24 February 2006 President Arroyo declared a national State of Emergency, citing an alleged coup plot against her, and amid a wave of arrests of leftist political groups and trade unions. The State of Emergency was lifted on 3 March, but during this two week period many trade union and political organisations suffered interference in their affairs, political and union leaders were arrested, public assemblies were banned, and media outlets were told they would be shut down if they did not respect guidelines on what the government called ‘responsible reporting’. The authorities also made a series of public statements purporting to link legal political organisations with revolutionary armed groups.

It was during the State of Emergency that the well-known union leader and Congress representative Crispin Beltran was arrested and the leader of a teaching union was murdered. In early March 2006, in the immediate aftermath of the State of Emergency, three other union leaders were murdered and several others were arrested and detained. Amnesty International warned of ‘apparently political motives’ behind what it described as a series of ‘selective arrests’.

2006: reported human rights violations against trade unionists
25 February, 73 year old Crispin Beltran, Chair of the KMU trade union and member of Congress, was arrested and has since been detained in a police hospital. According to Amnesty International, one of the charges in relation to which Beltran is being detained is at least 20 years old. The courts ordered Beltran’s release in early March but the order has apparently been ignored by police who continued to detain him.

27 February, Napoleon Pornasdoro, General Secretary of the Southern Tagalog Teachers for Development (STATEMENT) and national council member of the ACT, was murdered.

Early March 2006, Dennis Maga and Marcial Dabela, from the General Workers' Federation (ANGLO), were arrested and detained for several days before being released.

Early March 2006, Robert De la Cruz, from the Tritran Bus Lines' Union, was murdered.

6 March, Rogelio Concepcion, from the Solid Development Corporation Workers' Association (SDCWA) was abducted and subsequently murdered.

8 March, Joshua Mata, General Secretary of the Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL), which has the ITF-affiliated National Union of Transport Workers among its members, was arrested. He was later freed on bail.

17 March, Tirso Cruz, a leader of the United Luisita Workers' Union (ULWU), was killed at the Hacienda Luisita.

On 10 June 2006, a man carrying a long firearm forcibly entered into the house of Vicente Barrios, President of the United Workers of Suyapa farms (NAMASUFA) in Barangay New Alegria, Compostela Town, and threatened him. In September 2005, Mr. Barrios had been called for questioning by elements of the 28th Infantry Batallion who accused him of organising a rebel group. On another occasion, according to ICFTU reports, the military told workers at the Compostela Town packing plant that the company would be closed if they organised a union.

On 3 July 2006, seven leaders of PISTON and KMU were abducted by a group of heavily armed men. Emerito Gonzales Lipio, Jose Ramos, William Aguilar, Jav Francisco Aquino, Fernando Poblacion, Jose Bernardino and Archie De Jesus were forcibly taken just before midnight from Hensonville in Central Luzon.

On 6 July 2006, the chair of COURAGE, an umbrella organisation for public sector unions, was shot dead by assailants outside his home.

On 2 August 2006 Benigno Mateo, President of the union at the Magnolia factory in San Fernando, Central Luzon, was abducted from the plant and in front of his co-workers.

The murders of Romeo Legazpi, President of the Honda Workers' Union, and at least four leaders of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, have also been reported by the ICFTU.

Amnesty International calls for government to act
Amnesty International has taken a strong position on the situation unfolding in the Philippines, which concerns not only trade unionists but also many organisations on the political left. In a 2006 report, Amnesty argued that it continued to be ‘gravely concerned at reports of an ongoing pattern of political killings of members of legal leftist organisations’, and called on the authorities to ‘fulfil their obligations to protect the right to life, not least by conducting prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations of all such killings’. Such investigations, Amnesty argued, ‘should then lead to the prosecution and punishment of those responsible’. In order to combat impunity, the report continued, ‘the authorities must also send a clear, unequivocal message to all members of the police, military and other security forces that involvement in or acquiescence to such unlawful killings will never be tolerated’.

Impunity
One of the grave concerns held by trade unionists and human rights activists is the fear that a climate of impunity is being created or encouraged and that those responsible for the murders either will escape, or expect to escape, prosecution. Commenting on steps taking to investigate the violations in a letter to President Arroyo, ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder said ‘it appears that your Government has neither systematically investigated these allegations nor taken the legal action required to properly address these crimes’.

The Hacienda Luisita case demonstrates the failures in accountability for police brutality. The National Chief of Police announced that he had sacked two police commanders after the event and ordered an investigation. President Arroyo ordered that the troops and police deployed be removed from the area. But sacking police officers or moving commanders from one area to another falls far short of the kind of effective criminal investigation demanded by Amnesty International. Trade unions were similarly appalled:

‘The Philippines National Police’s own investigation, released in December, was a whitewash. It found no police officers guilty, stated that police had used ‘maximum tolerance’, and blamed unidentified communist provocateurs for the violence’ (ICFTU Survey 2006).

Amnesty International’s report acknowledged the creation in May 2006 of a special unit Task Force Usig to coordinate investigations in to political killings, but noted that the Philippines police forces ‘routinely’ hold investigations into political and other killings ‘the majority’ of which ‘do not meet international standards as set forth in the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions’. Amnesty also noted that ‘these investigations have reportedly not led to the conviction of any of the perpetrators of the hundreds of killings of leftist activists since 2001’. Amnesty has insisted that the onus is on the Government of the Philippines to make ‘a public statement to make it crystal clear to all – including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and other security forces – that involvement in such killings will not be tolerated’.

With specific reference to the problem of impunity, the murders of three labour activists involved in the Hacienda Luisita dispute have been referred to the Special Rapporteur for the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Rapporteur’s March 2006 report noted that his office had received ‘no response’ from the Government of the Philippines in relation to this case.

Background – insurgency
The Philippines has experienced an armed conflict throughout the past 37 years. The primary combatant groups during this period have been the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, an armed group controlled by the Communist Party of the Philippines. Amnesty International identifies ‘widespread poverty and economic inequity, poor governance including weaknesses in the administration of justice, violations of human rights and impunity’ as the main causes of the conflict.

In June 2006 President Arroyo introduced new funds to support efforts by the armed forces against the communist insurgency. At the same time Arroyo suggested that a previous ten-year timetable would be brought forward and that the insurgency would be ‘crushed’ within two years.

Creating the climate in which unions can be attacked
One problem raised consistently by human rights organisations throughout the history of the conflict in the Philippines has been the practice of ‘red-labelling’, the public linking by government authorities of legal left wing organisations, political leaders, human rights activists and trade unions with armed groups. Once publicly labelled in this way, Amnesty says that people are ‘at sharply increased risk of grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, ‘disappearances’, arbitrary arrest and torture’. In August 2002 President Arroyo railed against ‘those who terrorise factories that provide jobs’. The reference was clear: the President of the Philippines was likening union activities to terrorism. Since then, Amnesty International has quoted military officers of the Northern Luzon Command in January 2005 describing the Hacienda Luisita strike as ‘a matter of national security’, and calling Luisita union members ‘enemies of the state’. Two union leaders from Luisita were subsequently murdered (see above).

Responding to the problems
Trade unionists in the Philippines are experiencing a wave of human rights violations. There is a clear need for the international trade union movement to take action in support of colleagues in the Philippines, but a multiplicity of unions and labour NGOs, and the background of relationships between unions and religious or political groups can make the process of evidence gathering from the Philippines difficult. Fortunately there are already a number of well established resources to provide the basis for union campaign work (see links provided above).

Daniel Blackburn, Director, ICTUR (from International Union Rights, 12.3)