Press Release
December 10, 2014
On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the
Partido Manggagawa asked UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights
Defenders Michel Forst to inquire on the killings of labor activists in Negros
Occidental. “The culture of impunity and extra-judicial killings of labor
activists persists under the administration of Benigno Aquino III. In the last
two years, two farm worker leaders have been killed while another survived an
assassination attempt, all in Negros where agrarian and labor disputes simmer,”
stated Renato Magtubo, PM national chair.
Forst is in the Philippines and has expressed
interest in requesting the government for an official visit and investigation after
meeting with human rights groups over the past several days. Two predecessors of
Forst were unable to obtain invitations from the government to inquire into reports
of attacks against human rights defenders in the country.
The spate of killings against worker and land rights
defenders in Negros happened amidst agrarian
and labor disputes between farm workers and sugar planters. Last November 29,
Rolando Pango, a PM member, labor leader in Binalbagan town and an organizer in
neighboring Isabela town died after being shot in the head by two men. Pango had
previously received death threats while he was assisting workers of Hacienda Salud
in Isabela town in processing for coverage under land reform and in filing illegal
dismissal charges against landlord Manuel “Manolet” Lamata. Lamata heads the
powerful Negros sugar planters association.
PM also called on the Department of Labor and Employment,
the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council and the Department of Justice
to take cognizance of Pango’s case as they have a mandate to act on labor-related
extra-judicial killings.
Since 2011, the labor coalition Nagkaisa!,
of which PM is an affiliate, has been engaged in dialogue with the Aquino
administration on key labor issues, including some 62 unsolved cases of labor-related
extra-judicial killings.
Magtubo added that in December 29, 2012, Victoriano Embang, president
of the Maria Cecilia Farm Workers Association (MACFAWA) in Moises Padilla town,
was killed amidst another agrarian and labor dispute with the influential Montillano
clan. His brother, Anterio, also a leader of MACFAWA, later survived an ambush in
February 28, 2013.
Still PM insisted that the most
widespread infringement of human rights in the labor front is the violation of workers’
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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