Funeral/protest march tom for slain Cavite union organizer as more groups call for action on killings

Slain Cavite union organizer, Dennis Sequena, is to be buried tomorrow with his family and colleagues holding a funeral and protest march. International and local labor and human rights groups have called on government for action on his killing.

Sequena, vice chair of the Cavite chapter of Partido Manggagawa (PM) and also a partylist nominee of the group in the last elections, was shot and killed last June 2 while meeting a group of workers.

The funeral march will start tomorrow 9:00 am from the community of Workersville in Brgy. Punta, Tanza where he was killed and end in the Sta. Cruz Memorial Park in the same town. Last Sunday, scores of worker activists and community leaders attended a tribute to Sequena where he was honored as a “hero of epza workers.”

Aside from local workers’ groups like PM, Sentro and the Nagkaisa coalition, international labor and human rights organizations are calling on Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to resolve the spate of killings of labor and human rights activists.

The International Trade Union Confederation representing 207 million workers in 163 countries has formally sent a letter to Bello and asked him to convene the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council to investigate the fatal shooting of Sequena. The Business and Human Rights Resource Center and the International Labor Rights Forum also issued statements condemning the killing of Sequena. The two international labor rights both worked with Sequena on issues workers rights of workers in the Cavite ecozone.

The BHRRC statement can be accessed here: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/business-human-rights-resource-centre-condemns-the-killing-of-filipino-labour-leader-dennis-seque%C3%B1a

THE ITUC letter can be accessed here: https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/ituc_letter_to_dole_on_leonides_dennis_sequena.pdf.

Photos of the tribute to Sequena can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10157187408269323?__xts__[0]=68.ARAse6d1ymGJdc2i7_QnNY7PiMHoy_2-VP-YWBmbjkOtXuIa1pFmXdt0Yw3WYE83v8GlevF5-NhxMk2bH9gEPwu5N8iu1j1RWOGdtfYU-Fi_GMc6kjWZ0-9RimVMyleMiuP8CPSPwdha2NGQLHhmxWv2FwaHLSvZK9xGTfCvDubeyxmLB9jlxs0N_dR_SmsBQ_xOF6GDQXk_Cw2Ez8BZn3uQNhY_VHY7zekIUWgFxswAVNH-vPnSGRmzO1aBk0TN4wvkvZBBeY_Mhp8o2NThrhWJKD6mWssgw_nEr8ZdafeDYG75pUSbc2JdJorCIXAW2tqNysGy8uYCP669p6Jc&__tn__=-R 

June 11, 2019