Gen. Danilo Lim visits hunger strikers at NBP, joins call for release of political prisoners

PRESS RELEASE

16 August 2011

Former Scout Ranger commander and an ex-political detainee himself, Gen. Danilo Lim, is joining the human rights community led by the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), representatives of the Commission on Human Rights, and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines - National Secretariat for Social Action –Justice and Peace (CBCP-NASSA) in a visit this afternoon to political prisoners at the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) who are now on their 23rd day of hunger strike.

Joining Lim is another ex-political detainee, Nilo Tayag, who is now a bishop of the Philippine Independent Church (IFI).

On Saturday, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged President Benigno Aquino III to free political prisoners through an executive clemency especially for those who have already served their long and unjust sentences.

Partido ng Manggagawa renewed its call for President Aquino to end the sufferings of the remaining political prisoners as many of them had been convicted on false charges of common crimes.

One of the hunger strikers, Juanito Itaas, was in jail since 1989 for the assassination of US Col. James Rowe, a charged he vehemently denied.  In prison for 22 years, Itaas is now considered one of the longest serving political detainees in the world, next to Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned for 27 years for sabotage and high treason. According to reports, Israel is holding the longest serving political prisoner, a Palestinian, who is serving his 34th year in prison.

According to Gen Lim, he and Itaas once shared the same prison compound as he was also detained in connection to the 1989 coup.  Itaas is now leading the hunger strike for freedom at the NBP.

On Sunday night, two more hunger strikers, Diony Sarad and Tendero Fuentes, were brought to the NBP Infirmary for severe abdominal pain.  Doctors from the Medical Action Group (MAG) who joined today’s visit are looking into the health condition of the hunger strikers.

The groups were still hopeful that President Aquino would finally heed their appeal for clemency since political prisoners are not hardened criminals who warrant continued imprisonment for life.

Human rights groups were also set to have a dialogue with the Presidential Human Rights Commission (PHRC) at Malacanang earlier this morning.  Another dialogue with the Department of Justice is scheduled this coming Friday.

PAL union ask Noynoy for intervention in dispute

Press Release
June 23, 2010

Some 500 members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) trooped to the Times St. residence of President-elect Noynoy Aquino this morning and submitted a letter asking him to intervene in the brewing labor dispute at Philippine Airlines. The PAL employees rode in motorcycles and vehicles that were festooned with yellow ribbons.

“The PAL workers’ petition is in pursuit of Noynoy’s campaign platform of good governance and the people’s hope for social reform,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) vice-chairperson.

In the letter addressed to President-elect Aquino, the PAL union asked him three things: presidential intervention in the PAL-PALEA dispute, cleansing of corrupt officials in the Department of Labor and Employment, and reform of the policy regarding contractualization.

In a decision dated June 15, 2010, Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman found the planned mass layoff of some 3,000 Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees to be a “valid exercise of management prerogative.” PALEA argues that the order is a “midnight decision that is faulty on both substantive and procedural grounds.”

“We insist that the incoming Labor Secretary be given the right to study and decide on the labor dispute according to procedure and on a just basis. We believe that the PAL-PALEA dispute deserves Noynoy’s intervention given that it is imbued with national interest. More than half of the PAL workforce will be retrenched and the airline industry in no doubt of strategic value to the economy,” stated Rivera.

The PALEA petition submitted to President-elect Noynoy included endorsements from labor groups such as PM, Alliance of Progressive Labor, the unions at PLDT and Fortune Tobacco and from scores of leaders of various people’s organizations, including former General Danny Lim.

In the PALEA letter, the union contends that “Acting Sec. Lagman’s order was released with indecent haste given that the case has not been submitted for resolution and mediation proceedings are still ongoing. Moreover the decision failed to consider the PAL-PALEA collective bargaining agreement’s provision prohibiting the outsourcing of jobs that are being performed by regular employees.”

Yesterday hundreds of PALEA members held a motorcade from its office in Tambo, Paranaque and a rally at the Department of Labor and Employment office in Intramuros to protest the order. In the rally Rivera announced that PALEA will file a motion for reconsideration and “exhaust all the means provided by law to protect the job security of PAL employees.”

Security guards challenge Mikey Arroyo on platform and track record

Press Release
April 11, 2010

A group of security guards is planning to invite Rep. Mikey Arroyo to a forum and are challenging him to present his electoral platform and track record. Pilo Rosete, a licensed security guard with more than 15 years of work experience in the field, said that “We wish to hear what Mikey Arroyo can say as a supposed advocate of security guards. And we want him to face-off with Renato Magtubo of Partido ng Manggagawa and ex-General Danny Lim who we know have both an electoral platform and track record of advocacy for security guards.”

Meanwhile Magtubo, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chairperson, accepted the proposal to meet Arroyo in a forum to be organized by security guards. “We accept the challenge to a debate with Mikey. The security guards as a subsector of the working class with their own workplace grievances surely deserve to have representatives in Congress who share their concerns and not impostors just out to use them.”

Rosete explained that they are already organizing the security guards forum although they have not firmed up details such as date and venue. He asked for the help of the media in informing Arroyo of the forum but they plan to send a formal invitation once the details of the forum are finalized. They have already sent feelers to Magtubo and Lim about the planned forum.

He said that security guards are very much concerned about the issue of Arroyo’s party-list bid as a supposed representative of their sector. “We know that Mikey has never experienced the grueling 12-hour shifts that we normally do and surviving on minimum wages. We have also learned that he did not file any document proving a track record of advocacy for security guards. Moreover no security guard I have met has any knowledge of Mikey’s group Ang Galing Pinoy. Our work as security guards usually involve protecting property from being stolen by thieves thus we also do not want our voice to be robbed by frauds.”

Rosete also clarified that the organizing committee for the forum is not a formal group but just an adhoc caucus of employed security guards and some recently laidoff. He elaborated that the freedom to organize is actually one of the major issues of security guards since many attempts to unionize guards in order to protect their rights and welfare have met fierce opposition from security agencies.

“Our group remains an adhoc caucus but our vision is to form an association of security guards for mutual aid and protection. Many of the owners of security agencies are former generals and officers in the armed forces with connections among influential people thus it is easy enough to intimate union organizers. Probably Mikey’s only tenuous connection with security guards is his friendship with our employers, owners of security agencies, who are in no way a marginalized sector,” Rosete argued.

Party-list group pickets Comelec against disqualification of Danny Lim

Press Release
December 28, 2009

The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) joined other supporters of Danny Lim in a rally in front of the Comelec main office today. PM and other groups are protesting the Comelec’s disqualification of senatorial candidate Danny Lim.

“We ask the Comelec to reconsider its decision since it is simply not true that Danny Lim is a nuisance candidate. Gloria Arroyo is more of a nuisance candidate than Danny Lim if we base it on public opinion,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM, one the groups that have openly endorsed and are supporting the rebel general’s electoral bid.

Members of PM trooped to the Intramuros, Manila office of the Comelec at 8 am for the rally. “Danny Lim is not a decoration in this election; he is instead a decorated officer. While Danny Lim is not a candidate of the elite, he is the leader of the elite group of the armed forces,” argued Miranda.

The labor group is appealing to the Comelec to give due recognition to Lim’s motion for reconsideration and reverse its decision “lest the poll body be charged of politically motivated decisions and being an apparatus of the GMA regime in suppressing its political enemies.”
Miranda added that “Danny Lim is not adopting to trapo politics that is why he ran as an independent, and he is being adopted the mass movement and the forces fighting for social change.”

PM was one of the several national groups that accompanied Lim when he filed his certificate of candidacy last November 27. The labor group also filed on the same day its manifestation to participate in the party-list elections.

Labor group protests Danny Lim’s disqualification

Press Release
December 17, 2009

The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) declared its opposition to the Comelec’s disqualification of senatorial candidate Danny Lim. “We ask the Comelec to reconsider its decision since it is simply not true that Danny Lim is a nuisance candidate. Gloria Arroyo is more of a nuisance candidate than Danny Lim if we base it on public opinion,” asserted Renato Magtubo, chairperson of PM, one the groups that have openly endorsed and are supporting the rebel general’s electoral bid.

The group revealed that it is considering launching mass actions to protest Lim’s disqualification. “Danny Lim is not a decoration in this election; he is instead a decorated officer. While Danny Lim is not a candidate of the elite, he is the leader of the elite group of the armed forces,” argued Magtubo.

The labor group is appealing to the Comelec to give due recognition to Lim’s motion for reconsideration and reverse its decision “lest the poll body be charged of politically motivated decisions and being an apparatus of the GMA regime in suppressing its political enemies.”

Magtubo added that “Danny Lim is not adopting to trapo politics that is why he ran as an independent, and he is being adopted the mass movement and the forces fighting for social change.”

PM was one of the several national groups that accompanied Lim when he filed his certificate of candidacy last November 27. The labor group also filed on the same day its manifestation to participate in the party-list elections.

Labor party-list group warns Pampanga will be next Maguindanao if GMA becomes Speaker

Press Release
December 4, 2009

The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) warned that Pampanga will be the next Maguindanao where political dynasties rule with impunity should President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wins a congressional seat in the second district of the province and later becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives.

"We ask the voters of the second district of Pampanga to be vigilant in choosing their next congressional representative. Moreover we call on the people to vote for militant party-list groups and proven anti-GMA congressional candidates so that Arroyo will not be able to control the next House of Representatives," explained Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson

The group said that the discovery of a cache of AFP-issued high powered firearms near the compound of the Ampatuans reveals how the administration-allied political dynasty has been able to rule by force with the full backing of the government including the army. "In Maguindanao, the AFP serves as the not-so-private army of the Ampatuans with the apparent blessing of Camp Aguinaldo and Malacanang. That is GMA's way of paying back her heavy debt of gratitude to the Ampatuans for her incredible landslide victory in Maguindanao in the fraudulent 2004 elections," Magtubo added.

The PM leader furthered that while anti-GMA congressional bets maybe trapos themselves, voting for them in so that GMA is thwarted in her bid to be the next House speaker will be a fair warning to all politicians. Magtubo insisted that "The voters must send a message that they have zero tolerance to impunity and that a decade of GMA in power is already too much. Thus a crucial step in blocking GMA’s backdoor entry into Malacanang as Prime Minister is to ensure she does not become House Speaker."

PM is also calling on voters to use the party-list ballot as an opportunity to place non-trapos in Congress who will not just oppose GMA's bid for speakership but also fight social change in the counrty. PM is running for the party-list elections on a platform of protecting workers welfare and reversing the pro-globalization policies. The group has already endorsed the senatorial candidacy of detained ex-general Danny Lim for being a "rebel with a cause."

Labor party denies support for Ebdane

Press Release
November 28, 2009

The labor party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) denied supporting the presidential candidacy of Hermogene Ebdane as alleged by news in a tabloid.

“We do support an ex-general, but not Hermogenes Ebdane. We have endorsed Danny Lim who has track record of fighting for social change. We know Lim is a determined militant for reforms to benefit the people and the workers,” explained Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

The group asserted that they have not released a statement nor has any PM leader declared support for Ebdane. PM insisted that other than the detained Danny Lim, they have not endorsed any candidate yet.

The group maintained that they do not know who is behind the distorted news but they are asking Ebdane to investigate whom in his campaign headquarters or PR group concocted the idea.

PM also clarified that they are open to endorsing candidates in the coming elections but they not made any decision yet to support a presidentiable. “What is definite is that PM will participate in the party-list elections so that the working class will have a voice and vanguard in parliament,” Magtubo remarked. Yesterday PM submitted to the Comelec its “manifestation to participate in the party-list elections” after Magtubo and other PM leaders accompanied Lim in filing his own “certificate of candidacy for senator.”

PM files intent to run for party-list, endorses senate bid of Gen. Danny Lim

Press Release
November 27, 2009

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) formally files its intent to participate in the party-list elections before the Commission on Elections this morning in a bid to regain its place as the consistently independent working class voice in Congress.

According to PM Chair Renato Magtubo, his party’s proclaimed mission of defending workers’ rights and advancing their struggles for better living conditions and broader political rights, is both an “unfinished battle” and a “pressing agenda” amidst the persisting global economic crisis where so much in the world of work are at stake.

“Today’s crises call not for the usual prescription but a thorough overhaul of our economic fundamentals, and therefore the need for a new breed of representatives who will fearlessly pursue pro-poor policy changes,” said Magtubo.

The first union president to become a party-list representative, Magtubo and the PM served the 11th, 12th and 13th Congress with a record of tirelessly pushing for the enactment of the living wage and other bills on legislated wage increase, and the amendments to the Labor Code to strengthen workers’ fundamental rights to organize, collectively bargain and to strike.

Support for Lim

PM also used the occasion of its filing to announce its support to the senatorial bid of Brig. Gen. Danny Lim.

Magtubo and his followers joined Lim first in the latter’s filing of his Certificate of Candidacy before proceeding to the filing of PM’s manifestation to participate in the party-list election.

“Gen. Danny Lim deserves due recognition not only for being an outstanding officer of the armed forces but also for being an icon of incorruptible and principled fighters among our workingmen in uniform,” explained Magtubo.

The group said they will also campaign for other candidates who will come out with solid platforms for labor and the poor.