This handout photo from Kilusang Mayo Uno shows labor activists picketing the Department of Justice office in Manila on July 17, 2024 to call for the release of labor organizers and unionists whom they said have been jailed on trumped-up charges. KMU Facebook page

MANILA — Labor groups under the Free Our Unionists Network protested in front of the Department of Justice on Wednesday to call on the government to release unionists and workers whom they said are facing baseless and made-up cases.

The group cited in a statement recent data by the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights that 29 workers and unionists are in jail due to various charges filed against them.

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“Napakalaking inhustisya para sa kanila, sa kanilang pamilya, at sa manggagawang pinagsisilbihan nila na panatilihin silang nakapiit,” said Kilusang Mayo Uno secretary general Jerome Adonis.

(Their continued imprisonment is such a great injustice to them, their families and to the workers they serve)

The labor activists said the DOJ should investigate and take urgent action on the charges that have been filed against workers and unionists and that remain unresolved.

'ATTACKS ON TRADE UNIONISTS, LABOR ORGANIZERS'

They also called for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which they said contribute to the persecution of trade union political prisoners.

Rights group Human Rights Watch notes in its country report on the Philippines that "the targeting of unions and labor activists was the focus of a high-level mission of the International Labour Organization" in 2023.

In its report, the ILO High-Level Tripartite Mission said that the government's claim that red-tagging is not a policy, "this was belied by the broad statements made by some of the government agencies repeatedly referring to connections between the [Communist Party of the Philippines] and workers and their collective representation, including harking back to the 1974 CPP manifesto."

It said that while the government has the right to protect its citizens, "free thought and expression in defense of workers’ occupational interests also forms the basis of those civil liberties necessary for democracy, human rights,social justice and economic progress."

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“Dapat labanan at ibasura ang EO 70 at buwagin ang NTF-ELCAC. Dapat ubos-kaya nating biguin ang Anti-Terror Law na sumasagasa sa ating karapatan na malaya at kritikal na makalahok sa mga usapin ng bayan kung saan apektado tayong lahat," Adonis said Wednesday.

(We should oppose and junk Executive Order 70 and abolish the NTF-ELCAC. We should exert all efforts to defeat the Anti-Terror Law, which violates our right to freely and critically engage with national issues that affect us all.)

EXECUTIVE ORDER 23

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in April 2023 issued Executive Order 23 in response to the ILO visit and the High-Level Tripartite Mission's recommendations.

EO 23 creates the Inter-Agency Committee for the Protection of the Freedom of Association and Right to Organize of Workers, which is tasked with "[ensuring] speedy and impartial investigation, prosecution, and resolution of cases with respect to the exercise of the right of workers to freedom of association and their right to organize."

Labor groups have criticized the committee for not having representation from workers' groups and labor unions.

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