DOJ investigation must include all lumad killings in Mindanao and their relations to mining

Photo from Interaksyon.com

NEWS RELEASE

14 September 2015

The inter-agency probe being organized by the justice department must also include cases of lumad killings committed in other parts of Mindanao, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

The group issued the call in reaction to the announcement made by Malacanang yesterday that it is willing to conduct an investigation as demanded by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and many other organizations here and abroad. 

“The killings of Lumad leaders by alleged paramilitary forces in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, including recorded cases of lumad killings in other parts of Mindanao, should give the government the idea that these killings were rather systematic than isolated in nature as claimed by the military,” said PM Chairperson Renato Magtubo.

According to PM, aside from the horrendous killings and forced evacuations of lumad populations in Lianga, there were similar cases of extra-judicial killings against lumads in other parts of Mindanao, particularly against leaders of the Tedurays in South Central Mindanao.

Some of these cases include the killings in 2014 of Timuay Leoncio Arig and Melencio Ramugon. 

Before their deaths, Arig and Ramugon were involved in campaigns to include IPs interests in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and unite the members of the tribes to protect their territory against intrusion, including mining.

Furthermore, the labor group observes a pattern of reluctance on the part of the police and military to pursue the perpetrators despite available witnesses, indicating a double standard in dealing with heinous crimes and in effecting justice.

“What the killers have done to lumad leaders, including the brutal murder of the director of an IP school in Lianga, were clearly terroristic in nature.  But why can’t the PNP and the AFP organize a special manhunt against perpetrators in the way they did against international terrorist Marwan,” lamented Magtubo.

Partido Manggagawa likewise supports the call for the disbandment of all paramilitary units organized by the military for anti-insurgency campaigns, saying that historically, these groups are mobilized to counter legitimate resistance such as anti-mining protests.

Cebu garments firm to shed 1,000 jobs, union leader cry illegal dismissal and harassment

Press Release
September 4, 2009

Some 1,000 workers are being retrenched by a group of four garments factories in the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Cebu. The Sports City group of garments firms that includes Metroware, Mactan Apparel, Fedder Apparel and Global has sent notices to several sets of its workers and already paying separation pay to the first few batches.

Among those laid off is a Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) leader in Metroware who is accusing the company of illegal dismissal since he is being retrenched for his efforts to organize his fellow workers. Jose Pelino, Jr. went today to the office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Cebu City to receive his separation pay and also to talk to DOLE Regional Director Cayanong about his complaint.

Pelino said that he noticed being under intense observation by management for the last two weeks. Yesterday around 1:30 pm he was called by top management to a meeting where he was told that he is being retrenched. Pelino questioned his dismissal and refused to sign a document accepting his retrenchment. He demanded from management to implement a voluntary retrenchment program so that only those workers willing to go will be laid off but others still willing to work can remain in the company. He also admitted to management that he has already organized many workers in Sports City who call for the same demand of voluntary retrenchment.

After the confrontation with management, he left the factory at 4:00 pm yesterday and noticed three motorcycles tailing him. The three motorcycles followed him from the Metroware plant to the gates of MEPZ I and up to the street of his house at Sitio Gabi, Progress, Brgy. Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.

“The three men in motorcycles did not try to hide the fact that they were tailing me for four kilometers and is obviously meant to harass and scare me. The circumstances of this harassment show that it is related to my organizing activities at Metroware,” Pelino alleged.

Accompanied by other PM-Cebu leaders, Pelino reported the harassment incident to the police today. Dennis Derige, spokesperson of PM-Cebu, challenged the DOLE and PEZA to act with dispatch on Pelino’s complaint of illegal dismissal and harassment. He said that “Just several weeks ago, leaders of MEPZ workers met DOLE, PEZA and DTI officials about their grievances and the government representatives promised reforms to protect labor standards and workers rights. Pelino’s case shows that nothing has yet changed, in fact it may have gone worse.”

The Labor Dispute at Wesleyan University-Philippines

Fact Sheet and Timeline

Parties to the dispute: Wesleyan University-Philippines owned by the United Methodist Church of the Philippines and located at Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija (a provincial city to the north of Metro Manila). Wesleyan University-Philippines Faculty and Staff Association (WUPFSA-LAGMAN). The union president is Corazon Gonzales and can be reached at corazoncruzgonzales@yahoo.com

29 May 2006: Union submits CBA proposal

June to Nov 2006: No movement in negotiations. University board of trustees rejects some economic demands of the union

22 Sept 2006: Union president receives memo re serious misconduct complaint by 12 students and in the same day is handed down a preventive suspension for 30 days

Union president is subsequently dismissed. Union charges that suspension violates CBA provisions on job security and union security, and even the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools. Union alleges harassment

1 Oct 2006: Union files a case for unfair labor practice at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB)

3, 4, 20 Oct 2006: Eleven of twelve accusers successively retract their complaints. In their retraction students say the complaint was merely orchestrated by the lone remaining complainant who is a live in partner of a friend of the University legal counsel

2 Nov 2006: Union files a case for CBA deadlock at NCMB

23 Nov 2006: Union files a notice of strike

30 Nov 2006: Office of the Secretary of Labor assumes jurisdiction (AJ) of labor dispute

2 July 2007: Protest rally by the union on University’s 61st foundation day. Marching band played mournful songs while union members protested outside University campus

28 Jan 2008: University files cases vs. union president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, auditor, pro and spokesperson for violation of AJ order on the basis of the protest rally of 2 July 2007. This is two days before a scheduled local union election. Union alleges harassment and union busting

19, 20 Feb 2008: University recommends union officers be found guilty of violating AJ

3 Jan 2008: Office of the Labor Secretary decides on the labor dispute. Orders the following:

Execute a CBA for the period 1 June 2006-31 May 2008
Dismisses union complaint re unfair labor practice for refusal to bargain
Finds University guilty of union busting
Invalidates preventive suspension and dismissal of union president
Reinstates union president with full back wages and benefits

“We need not overstretch our imagination too that the acts of the University that we invalidated here were undertaken to cripple the Union’s representation at bargaining. On the whole, the totality of the University’s acts sufficiently shows the University’s interference with or restraint on the employees’ exercise on their right to self-organization.”

15 Jan 2008: University files motion for reconsideration on the 3 January 2008 decision. Starts a series of pleadings from both parties

7 Oct 2008: Office of the Labor Secretary issues an Omnibus Resolution on the all the cases arising from the labor dispute. The decision of 3 January 2008 is affirmed.

University has filed a petition for review of the Omnibus Resolution at Court of Appeals. Case is still pending.

29 Oct 2008: University holds a “peace and development seminar” for employees. Sgt. Edgar Dimalanta of the Civil Affairs Office of the 71st Infantry Division of the Philippine Army says that union can suffer the same bloody fate as the Hacienda Luisita workers if they insist on presence of the union president in the CBA negotiations. He also declares that the military has received reports the union is infiltrated by communist guerillas

25 Nov 2008: Sgt. Dimalanta tells the union vice-president that military men will visit their homes after the latter refused the former’s invitation to meet the union executive committee

2 Dec 2008: Union files complaint at the Commission on Human Rights against the Armed Forces of the Philippines for harassment

University union in labor dispute decry military harassment

Press Release
December 2, 2008

Just days before the commemoration of human rights day, the faculty and staff union of the Wesleyan University in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija denounced today in a press conference the interference and harassment by the military in their labor dispute. “We appeal to the government and the AFP to stop the use of military personnel in the harassment of workers involved in a labor dispute. Labor rights are human rights. This violation of labor rights becomes more glaring with the coming observance of human rights day,” declared Corazon Gonzales, the union president.

According to the Wesleyan University-Philippines Faculty and Staff Association (WUPFSA-LAGMAN), a certain Sgt. Edgar Dimalanta of the Civil Affairs Office of the 71st Infantry Division of the Philippine Army has been issuing veiled threats, and pressuring union officers and even some union members to sit down with him for a meeting. In a recent incident last November 25, Sgt. Dimalanta told Engr. Melquiades Guevarra, the union vice-president, that military men will visit them in their homes after the latter refused the former’s invitation to meet the union executive committee. “The circumstances clearly show that Sgt. Dimalanta is being used by the university administration headed by Atty. Guillermo T. Maglaya in his effort to bust the union and sabotage negotiations for a CBA,” Gonzales added.

After the press conference, the union officers of WUPFSA-LAGMAN trooped to the office of the Commission on Human Rights. Gonzales stated that “The union officers fear for our lives because of the blatant interference and intimidation by the military.” The union has also sent letters to the offices of the President of the Philippines, Chief Justice and Labor Secretary among others. They are also appealing for solidarity from the labor movement and human rights advocates. Officers of the labor federation LAGMAN to which the union is affiliated and the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) expressed their support for the workers.

The harassment started with a “peace and development seminar” that was called by the administration for its employees last October 29. In the seminar, Sgt. Dimalanta, shrewdly threatened the union by saying that they can suffer the same bloody fate as the Hacienda Luisita workers if they insisted on the union president sitting in the CBA negotiations and that the military has received reports the union is infiltrated by communist guerillas.

In the past three years the union has charged the administration with unfair labor practices and violations of the collective bargaining agreement. On two occasions the Department of Labor and Employment has handed down decisions in favor of the union, finding the management guilty of union busting and ordering the reinstatement of the union president who was illegally dismissed. The administration of Wesleyan University, which is owned by the United Methodist Church, has refused to implement the orders and has rejected negotiations for a CBA on the alibi that the union president has been dismissed.

Military: Hands off the unions!

Press Statement
December 2, 2008
Judy Ann Miranda
Secretary General
Partido ng Manggagawa

The Partido ng Manggagawa supports the Wesleyan University-Philippines Faculty and Staff Association (WUPFSA-LAGMAN) in its fight against the vicious labor repression by the military and in its struggle against the virulently anti-labor management at the helm of Wesleyan University.

Aside from Colombia, the Philippines is the worst country for trade unionists, who are routinely killed or harassed by agents of the government and the military. We call on our brothers and sisters in the labor movement to close ranks in defense of the union leaders of WUPFSA-LAGMAN and other victims of labor repression.

The harassment suffered by the Wesleyan union is no different from two cases of unions right here in Metro Manila who were similarly intimidated by military personnel. In September 2006 military men held an anti-communist teach-in for the union leaders of Manila Bay Spinning Mills in Marikina. Before that, they held the same seminar for the union of Armscor also in Marikina.

The vicious agenda of labor repression is clear—to strike fear in the hearts of workers and terrorize them against political involvement. With a terrorized and docile labor, it will be easier to cheapen the price of labor power. Labor repression is bound to intensify with workers discontent at the impact of the global crisis erupting into struggles and strikes.

We hold the administration of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ultimately accountable for the deaths and harassment of labor leaders for even granting that it is not the mastermind behind the death squads running amok, its inaction on political killings and labor repression is goading the enemies of labor to act with impunity.