Rep. Renato Magtubo (Member of Parliament)
Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party-Philippines)
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) [Labor Party-Philippines] welcomes the
initiative of the Public Service International (PSI) delegation to ask
international
agencies and financial institutions to refrain from extending assistance to
the Philippines and to insist that the Gloria Arroyo government publicly
release the Melo Commission’s possibly damning report. Such forms of global
solidarity will help in pressuring the government into seriously responding
to charges of extra-judicial killings and labor repression.
We enjoin the PSI and labor groups abroad to wage a global campaign in
exposing the appalling situation of labor rights in the country especially
the unabated killings of trade union leaders. The iron fist of repression is
bearing down heavy on the working class movement.
Among the serious cases of killings of trade union leaders from our own
ranks are the following: assassination of Filemon “Ka Popoy” Lagman in
February 2001, chairperson of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino
[Solidarity of Filipino Workers] and whose brainchild was the formation of
PM; ambush killing of Manuel Ibe in April 2001, union president of Liwayway
Manufacturing Corp. in Imus [a town in the industrial belt south of Metro
Manila] and chairperson of PM-Cavite; ambush killing of Vicente Gacos in
July 2004, union president of Myers in Valenzuela [a city in northern Metro
Manila]; fatal shooting in 2005 of Timoteo Dante, board member of the union
of Schneider/Winner in Caloocan [another city in northern Metro Manila];
ambush killing of Andrew Inosa in November 2006, union president of Alaska
Milk in San Pedro [another town in the industrial belt south of Metro
Manila] and chairperson of PM-Laguna. All of these cases remain unsolved.
Castor Gamala, national council member of PM and union president of the
Eastern Visayas State University employees [in southern Philippines]
survived an ambush in June 2005 but lost his sight in one eye. Seven
unionists, including one who was paralyzed in the leg, were also hurt in the
picket line shooting by Schneider/Winner security guards. Moreover, in
September 2006 military men held an anti-communist teach-in for the union
leaders of Manila Bay Spinning Mills in Marikina [a city in eastern Metro
Manila]. 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.
We hold the administration of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ultimately
accountable for the killings of labor leaders for even granting that it is
not the mastermind behind the death squads running amok, its inaction on
political killings is goading the enemies of labor to act with impunity.
We ask the PSI and other international labor groups to highlight these
concrete cases of labor repression and other similar instances among other
Philippine trade unions in its public information and international lobby
campaign. International labor solidarity will strengthen the Philippine
workers movement’s struggle for trade union rights. ###