Three unionists arrested in Compostela Valley

Union president Esperedion Cabaltera and vice president Richard Genabe were arbitrarily arrested and detained in the Municipality of Mawab. Meanwhile, the union’s secretary general, Ronaldo Rosales, was being held against his will by the Armed Forced of the Philippines (AFP) in Pantukan. The three are officers of Musahamat Farm Workers Union, affiliated with militant labour centre Kilusang Mayo Uno. The union, representing more than 200 banana plantation workers, complained to DOLE in March 2016 about unfair labour practices committed by the management of the Musahamat Farms Inc. including union busting, illegal suspension and termination of union officers and members, and withholding of union dues.
“We received initial reports that the three union officers were illegally arrested based on dubious allegations that they are communist leaders. We strongly condemn the red-tagging and illegal arrests of unionists under the Duterte administration. The extension of martial law in Mindanao only refuels the red-tagging by the military resulting to gross trade union and human rights violations,” Rochelle Porras, executive director of the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER), said in a statement.
Documentation from fact-finding missions of independent human and trade union rights organisations reveal that AFP members were also responsible for the torture and bloody attempt to burn two small-scale miners in 2017. The young workers, namely Janry Mensis, then 22, and then 16-year old “Jerry”, are members of Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Maco and were wrongfully accused of being members of the New People’s Army (NPA). They were forcibly taken to the camp of AFP’s 71^st IB, where for several days they endured torture and eventually escaped being burned alive.
EILER also condemned the stigmatisation of trade unions as a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the subsequent declaration as a terrorist organisation under Proclamation 374 and AFP’s whole-of-nation approach. The action is a clear attempt to criminalise the legitimate work of unionists in advancing their socio-economic interests.
EILER emphasised that the right to freedom of association and the right to peaceably assemble are enshrined in the 1987 Constitution and are recognised under fundamental ILO Conventions ratified by the Philippines. The military and police should respect these rights at all times.