OVER 200 additional alleged labor rights violations were included in the updated report sent by local labor groups to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
This was on top of the 380 cases in the preliminary Joint Report of Trade Unions to the ILO High Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM) submitted by organized labor to the mission last month.
Under the final version of the report, the number of trade unionists killings documented by the Philippine affiliates of the Council of Global Unions rose from 16 to 68.
Most of the fatalities are agricultural workers.
The report also contains details on 3 cases of forced disappearances; 41 cases of arrests and detention; 111 workers arrested during strikes and protest actions; 90 cases of forced disaffiliation, state interference with the right to self-organization, through threats, harassment and intimidation; and 58 cases of red-tagging/terrorist tagging.
Also included in the report are 127 cases of intimidation/threats/harassment of union leaders and members; and 19 cases of “other non-union activities.”
“After much Internal vetting and verification of all reports, we are pleased to submit through your office, the final version of the Joint Report of the Philippine Trade Unions to the ILO High Level Tripartite Mission to the Philippines,” FFW president Sonny Matula said in his letter, which he sent to the ILO Regional Office in Bangkok last Friday.
He said they decided to update their report after they secured supporting documents for the additional cases as well as edit some of its other parts.
Report impact
FFW Vice President Julius Cainglet said the final version of the report is unlikely to affect the existing recommendations of the ILO-HLTM.
“But it can emphasize the extent of FOA [freedom of association] violations which would only reaffirm the conclusions already made,” Cainglet told BusinessMirror in a SMS.
Among the recommendations was the review of the anti-insurgency campaign of the government to ensure that such campaign will not undermine FOA and the creation of mechanisms that will investigate past violations of FOA among others.
Cainglet said the ILO-HLTM proposal will also lead to an overhaul of the FOA roadmap, which was drafted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“If there is any roadmap towards the realization of full recognition of FOA, it has to be anchored on the ILO HLTM recommendation,” Cainglet said.
The ILO-HTLM report was initially expected to come out with its report by the end of the month, but it was later moved to March.
The HLTM is a fact-finding body, which was deployed by ILO’s Committee on the Application of Standards to look into the reported string of killings of trade unionists and mass violations of FOA in the country.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
