PM pays respects to slain forest guard

Press Release

May 13, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) expressed its condolences to the family of slain Mt. Makiling forest guard Elpidio “Jojo” Malinao and paid its respects to a “fallen comrade.” Renato Magtubo, PM national chair, stated that “Jojo Malinao was not only an advocate for environmental protection, he was also an activist for workers rights. In Jojo’s case, in the line of fire is the place of honor. The University of the Philippines has loss a loyal employee and the working class movement, an able leader.”

Magtubo revealed that Malinao was the vice president of the UPLB chapter of the Organization of Non-Academic Personnel of UP (ONAPUP) and also a national council member of the union aside from being a leader of PM in Laguna.

He called on the authorities to investigate the motive behind Malinao’s killing and find the mastermind. “We demand justice for Jojo. The government must exhaust all means to find the perpetrators of thee crime. Jojo is not the first but hopefully the last trade union leader to be killed in Calabarzon,” Magtubo declared.

The group said that Malinao is the third PM leader killed in Calabarzon since its founding in 2001. Andrew “Bok Inoza, union president of Alaska Milk in San Pedro Laguna and chairperson of PM-Laguna, was shot to death in November 2006. Earlier Emmanuel Cosme Ibe, union president of Liwayway Manufacturing Corp. in Imus Cavite and a founding member of PM-Cavite was also shot to death in April 2001 at the height of the party-list election campaign.

Ibe’s killing came just three months after the assassination of Felimon “Popoy” Lagman, whose brainchild was the formation of PM. According to international human rights groups, the Philippines is second only to Colombia in the number of trade union leaders killed.