By Aries Rufo

In the last four years, the government’s counter-insurgency drive had 70 collateral victims in the labor sector

Three years after her husband Rogelio Concepcion disappeared in their hometown of San Ildefonso in Bulacan, Marissa is still hoping he’s alive and will be back for good. Their four-year-old daughter has been asking when her father would join them for dinner again.

“I tell her Daddy has gone abroad for work. So every time she sees an airplane, she waves at it, thinking her father is there,” Marissa says with a sad smile.But nobody can say where he is or if he is alive.

He was last seen on the night of March 6, 2006, on his way home from the textile factory of Solid Development Corp., where he was president of the workers’ union. Marissa sought police help—to no avail.

Rogelio Concepcion’s case remains unsolved, a common fate of most of the reported killings and disappearances of labor leaders and activists since 2004, when human rights advocates noticed an upsurge.

From 2004 to 2008, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) recorded 70 killings and two cases of enforced disappearances in the labor sector.

The count is part of the more than 800 victims of disappearances and extrajudicial killings listed by the human rights group Karapatan since President Arroyo came to power in 2001.

The police, whose own count lists only 116 “slain militants,” have plenty of suspects but have not succeeded in getting anybody convicted so far.

One reason is that state security forces themselves often figure as suspects. Human rights advocates allege that the military is behind the extrajudicial killings, not just of unionists but of political activists and journalists as well. Marissa is convinced soldiers got Rogelio.

According to her, witnesses said that they saw a white van parked along a grassy and isolated area near the Concepcions’ home that night. The white van was later seen by other witnesses parked inside Camp Tecson in the neighboring town of San Miguel.

She sought the help of then Bulacan Governor Josefina de la Cruz and the National Bureau of Investigation, but was told they could not help after learning of the military’s possible involvement. “That’s difficult,” she was told.

Implications

Many people tend to dismiss the killings of labor leaders as an issue that concerns only the labor movement, the human rights advocates, or the Left. But the rising number of deaths and abductions, and the criminal justice system’s continued failure to try and punish the guilty, is undermining the Philippines’ international standing as a law-abiding country.

The cases of extrajudicial killing and forced disappearance of unionists violate two international conventions on workers’ rights that the Philippines signed.

The first, the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention (No. 87) recognizes the right of workers and employers to organize freely. The second, the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98), gives workers adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination.

The International Trade Union Confederation, one of the largest trade union federations in the world, has described the rise in deaths and disappearances of labor activists as an “orgy of killings.”

The International Labour Organization’s Committee of Experts, in response to a complaint filed by the Kilusang Mayo Uno, the militant trade union center, has recognized the killing and disappearance of workers as one of the 25 serious cases of violations of the Freedom of Association Convention.

Locally, the deaths and disappearances of labor leaders have dealt another blow to the labor movement, already weakened by sharply falling union membership and the demise of many large manufacturing enterprises, the traditional base of the country’s biggest trade unions.

Rogelio’s disappearance and the unsolved killings “sowed terror” among current and prospective union members, says Roger Saluta, human rights desk officer of the KMU.

According to the KMU, the killings were aimed at suppressing militant unionism and was part of the government’s anti-insurgency drive. The deadly strategy effectively kills two birds with one stone, Saluta says. “It neutralizes leaders of progressive labor groups while at the same time achieves the military’s aim to stamp out insurgency,” he explains.

Insurgents, Unionists

It is no secret that KMU, like many “national democratic” organizations operating openly and legally, shares some of the analytical framework, political language, and objectives of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which oversees the guerilla New People’s Army (NPA). The military commonly accuses the KMU of being a front for the Communist Party.

Does that mean that, because of these common beliefs and alleged operational links, the leaders and activists of the KMU and other allied labor groups have become targets of security forces battling the communist guerillas?

That seems to be the case, based on an analysis of the patterns in the killings of labor unionists. Most of the 70 labor activists killed and seized belonged to unions or groups allied with the KMU.

A close look at the data provided by CTUHR and Karapatan showed that disappearances and killings of workers occur in areas where insurgency is most active.

The incidence was also highest where Jovito Palparan, the retired military general accused of encouraging if not orchestrating the killings of left-leaning activists and leaders, was assigned. “He left a trail of deaths,” CTUHR executive director Daisy Arago says, noting that there was a spike in killings usually shortly after he left for new assignments.

In Eastern Visayas, eight deaths were monitored shortly after Palparan finished his tour of duty there from February to August 2005.

In Central Luzon, the region where most number of killings of trade unionists was recorded at 32 cases, 18 workers’ deaths were recorded when Palparan was head of the military command from September 2005 to September 2006. That compares to only seven the year before he arrived. The seven were all Hacienda Luisita workers who died after soldiers guarding the sugar plantation fired upon protesting laborers who were trying to barricade the gates to the sugar refinery.

Some of the labor activists killed were also local organizers of party-list groups seeking seats in Congress, such as Anakpawis and Bayan Muna, which, like the KMU, are also closely identified with the CPP.

“That’s one more reason to kill them as far as the military is concerned,” says Saluta. “By killing the labor leaders who were also our [party-list] grassroots organizers, they undermine the strength of our legal and democratic organizations.”

He blames the killings of leaders and members of Bayan Muna and Anakpawis for the sharp decline in votes that the two party list groups got in the 2007 polls compared to 2004.

Without explicitly justifying the extrajudicial killings of labor activists, the government suggests that the fatalities were “trade unionists committing rebellion and not trade unionists exercising trade union rights.”

Responding to the KMU complaint before the ILO Committee on the Freedom of Association, the government added: “The war has been waged on many fronts and labor is the most prominent of them because the communist movement is rooted in the labor movement.” It insisted that a “distinction should be made between legitimate trade union activities…and the commission of crimes against the State that the State has the right to prevent.”

Colonel Danny Lucero, commander of the Army’s Civil-Military Operations Group, was blunter. He says it is a known fact that NPA members come from the labor and student sectors. “They wear two hats—labor organizer by day and NPA by night.”

Yet, despite the government and military’s contention that the labor activists killed were not just unionists but NPA guerillas who presumably do battle with state security forces, an overwhelming majority of the fatalities—59 out of 73 cases—were assassinated by unidentified men rather than killed in clashes with the military.

Fourteen cases were blamed on soldiers while eight cases were attributed to the police. One case—that of Paquito Diaz, an officer of the government employees trade union Courage—was attributed to the NPA. Task Force Usig, which was formed by the national police to investigate extra-judicial killings, said Diaz was ordered killed by the NPA leadership in Eastern Visayas.

Labor Disputes

Though most of the labor activists killed were deeply involved in broader political concerns, a good number were leaders or members of unions that were in the middle of disputes with company owners and managers.

According to Newsbreak analysis of the data, 20 of the more than 70 workers killed or abducted belonged to unions in conflict with their employers.

Perhaps the most well-known of these cases were Diosdado Fortuna, president of the Nestlé Employees Union, and Ricardo Ramos, president of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union.

Fortuna’s union was in the middle of strike at the Nestlé plant in Cabuyao, Laguna, when he was ambushed by unidentified motorcycle-riding men. In contrast, the Central Azucarera union had just called off a strike after getting P8 million in back wages for its members. Hours later, Ramos was killed while drinking with friends in his backyard.

Similarly, Roberto de la Cruz, president of the Tritran Workers Union, was killed in January 2006 while there was a pending labor case over the alleged illegal dismissal of 1,000 of his co-workers.

On Sept. 30, 2006, six workers of Ken Dragon Inc. were abducted by unidentified men and found dead later. A fact-finding team by the CTUHR said that the workers were planning to organize a union.

The second abducted worker was “Jimmy” Rosios, a member of the Board of Directors of the Yellow Bus Lines Employees Union in Koronadal City, South Cotabato. He was abducted by unidentified armed men on Aug. 11, 2007 while he was in the bus company’s garage. He was the spokesperson of the union that was opposing unfair labor practices.

The deaths of labor leaders tend to create a “chilling effect” that could potential ly discourage unions and workers from organizing or protesting to press for their rights and better working conditions, according to Saluta.

So far, however, there is little sign of that, says Saluta. “In Nestlé, for example, the strike is ongoing. But the leaders had to take extra precautions for their safety,” he adds.

A more worrying development is the presence of armed forces units in or near factories and establishments hit by labor strife.

In the guise of conducting counterinsurgency operations, military officers summon union leaders and members to warn them against affiliating with the KMU, according to CTUHR’s Arago.

Rogelio Concepcion, the union leader from Bulacan who was abducted and remains missing to this day, was invited by military officials for a meeting before he went missing, says his wife Marissa. Soldiers had camped out near the company premises.

After Rogelio went missing, Solid Development Corp. closed down and fired its regular employees. Months later, it reopened and hired mostly contractual laborers.

KMU’s Saluta says the presence of soldiers in or near factories constitutes “militarization” and is “a form of harassment and intimidation” of unions.

Divided Response

Killings and abductions of labor leaders, no matter where their ideological or political loyalties lie, are a serious problem that demands the serious attention of the Philippine labor movement.

Unfortunately, local labor leaders are much too divided to mount an effective response to the problem.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which claims to be the biggest labor center in the country, agrees that the killings are a human rights concern but denies that the Philippines has become a dangerous place for labor unionists.

“How come we are here to represent the labor sector?” TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar would tell international labor conferences when the matter of killings of labor leaders in the Philippines would crop up.

At the height of the killings of Left-leaning labor leaders and activists, the moderate labor centers condemned the attacks but refused to cooperate with the KMU in coming up with a united response.

In varying degrees, the KMU does not see eye to eye with other labor centers such as the TUCP and the Federation of Free Workers and the Alliance of Progressive Labor. The other groups view the KMU as too militant and dogmatic, while the KMU denigrates the others as “reformists” if not “yellow unions” that do not represent the genuine interest of Filipino workers.

The TUCP also complains that the KMU was silent when some of the moderate labor group’s leaders were allegedly being killed by communist hit squads in the late Marcos and early Aquino years.

While the local labor movement stands hopelessly divided on the issue of killings, international labor forums have issued statements, resolutions, and actions pressing the Philippine government to act more forcefully to stop the killings and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The ILO’s International Labor Congress (ILC) in June 2007 included the killings on its agenda, allowing worker representatives from a number of countries such as Indonesia and Germany to ventilate comments about the issue.

Following the comments raised by the government, labor, and employer representatives, the ILO Committee on the Applications of Conventions and Recommendations issued statements that took the government to task for failing to stop the killings and prosecute the killers.

“The absence of judgments against the guilty parties creates in practice a situation of impunity which reinforces the climate of violence and insecurity and which is extremely damaging to the exercise of trade union rights,” the Committee said.

It requested the government to “accept a high-level ILO mission so as to obtain greater understanding of all the aspects of the case.” The government has rejected the request.

In last year’s ILC meeting, the ILO Committee of Experts, composed of 20 eminent jurists who assess a country’s application of international labor standards, requested the government to submit a report detailing steps on the “prompt investigation, prosecution, trial and conviction of those found guilty or murders and other violations against trade unionists.”

The pressure is coming not only from the ILO. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is also reviewing the Philippines’ record in upholding “internationally recognized workers’ rights,” a condition for qualifying for US preferential trade benefits. The US agency has rejected Manila’s request to terminate the review, which was prompted by a petition from an international labor group that was concerned about labor rights violations and killings of labor leaders in the Philippines.

Human rights and labor groups welcome such moves by the ILO and the USTR to closely watch the state of labor rights in the country. The sustained international attention helps keep the pressure on the government to investigate and stop the killings, which have gone down significantly. In 2008, only four deaths of unionists were recorded.

But Marissa Concepcion draws little comfort from the seeming improvement in labor rights. She’s expecting the worst but hoping for the best. “I’m still hopeful my husband is still alive. My children and I will be waiting.” (Newsbreak)