NEWS RELEASE
NAGKAISA!
09 December 2014
A culture of impunity
translated into extra-judicial killings (EJK) and other forms of human rights
violations against leaders and labor organizers continue under the ‘tuwid na
daan’, a coalition of major trade unions and labor organizations in the country,
Nagkaisa!, said in a statement on the eve of the celebration of International
Human Rights Day.
Since 2011, Nagkaisa! is
engaged in dialogues with the Aquino administration on several labor issues,
including some 62 unsolved cases of EJKs involving labor.
Nagkaisa! said the most
recent in the cases of unsolved EJKs was the murder of a labor organizer
in Negros Occidental. Rolando Pango, a full time organizer of Partido
Manggagawa (PM) was gunned down in Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental on Novermber
29, 2014.
“Prior to his death, Pango
was deeply involved in both the agrarian and labor disputes in Hacienda Salud,
a 135-hectare sugar plantation in Barangay Rumirang, Isabela leased and managed
by Manuel Lamata,”said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.
Aside from EJKs, Nagkaisa! is
also alarmed at the resurgence of other forms of human rights violations.
Last October, Antonio
Cuizon, president of the Panaghiusa sa Mamumuo sa Carmen Copper, was arrested
on trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
The union and the management were then in the thick of labor dispute when the
case was filed against Quizon.
Pango was instrumental
in organizing the plantation workers in Hacienda Salud who in June applied the
land under CARPER coverage. Salud workers has also filed of a case of
illegal dismissal before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) against
Lamata for unlawful termination 41 workers.
PM and Nagkaisa is calling on
both the national and local governments to render immediate justice to this
case.
Josua Mata, Secretary General
of Alliance of Progressive Labor–Sentro, said Nagkaisa will be raising this
issue before the Tripartite Industrial Council (TIPC) and the DOJ panel
investigating the EJKs.
“Like Ruby, solving cases of
EJKs in the country is a slow-grind,” said Mata.
Before Pango, another PM
organizer, Victoriano Embang, leader of Maria Cecilia Farm Workers
Association (MACFAWA) in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental was also killed
on December 29, 2012. A failed assassination attempt against his
brother, Anterio Embang, followed few months later, February 28, 2013.
A Negrense himself, Magtubo
said Negros remains a ‘labor hotspot’ because
of strong resistance by landlords to agrarian reform and their outmoded serf-type
treatment of their laborers.
“Perhaps this regional feudal
context has escaped the eyes of the labor department and the national government.
Or they simply don’t care” added Magtubo.
But the most widespread of
human rights violations, Nagkaisa! said, is the violation of labor’s right to
freedom of association and collective bargaining.
“The onslaught of
state-sanctioned contractualization schemes have effectively disarmed workers
of their ability to defend themselves, through their unions, against many forms
of abuse and exploitation” concluded Magtubo.
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