The labor
group Partido Manggagawa (PM) slammed the government on its response to the
European Union Parliament’s critique of inaction by the Philippines on human
rights concerns.
“Deeds do not match
words. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo
Nograles are being disingenuous when they say that the administration is acting
on the complaints. In reality, violations of human rights continue with
impunity. The recent controversial arrest of Dr. Naty Castro is a case in point.
Arrest, detention and red-tagging of critics and activists is on top of the
thousands killed in the bloody drug war and the dozens of unionists murdered
under the present dispensation,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
The group said
that the EU Parliament is not the only international body taking the government
to task. In its latest
report, the International
Labor Organization’s committee of experts on the committee of experts on the application of conventions and
recommendations averred that speedy and effective probes of the killings of trade
unionists and the conviction of perpetrators are lacking if not absent.
Magtubo added
that “Just to cite one case, the murder of union organizer Dennis Sequeña remains unsolved to this day,
almost three years after he was shot while facilitating a labor seminar for
export zone workers in Cavite. It was the outrage over the killing of Dennis
just days before the annual International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2019 that precipitated
the current complaint against the Philippine government for systematic
violations of Convention 87 and Convention 98 on freedom of association and
collective bargaining.”
“Aside from Dennis, no justice has been served
for the killings of PM leaders Orlando Abangan of Cebu, Rolando Pango and
Victoriano Embang of Negros Occidental. As the ILO report has noted, the
government keeps on repeating that investigations are happening without
providing any details,” Magtubo insisted.
The group also
stated that the government is dragging its feet on a review of the rules governing
the conduct of security personnel during disputes and the scrapping of a
program on peacekeeping in the export processing zones.
“The Philippine Economic Zone Authority in particular has been blocking progress on strengthening the freedom to unionize and the right to protest of workers in export processing zones. Their latest maneuver has been to change the name of the Joint Industrial Peace Concerns Office to Alliance for Industrial Peace and Program Office but the aim of militarizing ecozones by setting up police precincts and suppressing unionism remains in place,” Magtubo explained.
February 22, 2022
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