Protest letter: violations of trade union rights in the Philippines
HE Mr Edgardo B Espiritu
Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines
9A Palace Green
London W8 4QE
Alarming increase of violations of trade union and human rights in the Philippines
Following our letter of 10 March and the subsequent meeting of one of our officials with Ms Ong-Jimenez from your embassy I am writing again to protest against the alarming deterioration of human and trade union rights in your country. The Trades Union Congress is the British affiliate of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which represents 155 million workers worldwide. We are the voice of Britain at work and have 65 affiliated unions with over 6.4 million members. Since writing in March we have received further worrying information about the situation faced by trade unionists in the Philippines.
On 6 July 2006, the chair of COURAGE, an umbrella organisation for public sector unions, was shot dead by assailants outside his home. This was just the latest in a long series of very severe violations of trade union rights in the Philippines. Many of these violations are detailed in a report from the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), a Filipino organisation involved with monitoring workers' rights issues, which covered the year of 2005. This report describes numerous cases of mass dismissals, threats, torture, disappearances and killings of workers, social activists and trade unionists.
On 7 June 2006, the ICFTU published the 2006 edition of its Annual Survey on the Violations of Trade Union Rights. The Annual Survey showed that, in the Philippines, violence against labour leaders and activists occurred with impunity. Since then, the ICFTU has received many more reports of trade union rights violations in your country from various respected local and international organisations.
As you will know, by 31 March 2006, 39 British MPs had signed an Early Day Motion that was issued after they received alarming reports concerning trade union and human rights' violations in the Philippines.
Amnesty International, issued a press release on the lifting of the state of emergency in March 2006, which urged your government to reassert respect for human and trade union rights. From 30 April until 8 May, an international fact-finding mission was organised by the Philippine Ecumenical Institute for Labour Education and Research (EILER), in order "to investigate the on-going spate of killings of workers and trade union supporters". In the summary of its assessment, the ILSM stated that it was very concerned by the gravity and the seriousness of the situation.
Apart from the killing of the Chair of the COURAGE umbrella organisation described above, the TUC has been informed of many more cases in the last nine months alone. Since 30 September 2005, one Filipino trade union leader was arrested and freed on bail; one was threatened together with his entire family; two remain in detention to date; nine were abducted; and no less than sixteen killed. Also, on 25 February 2006, 73 year old Crispin Beltran, Chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), member of Congress, and union organiser, was arrested under sedition charges. Although at the beginning of March the courts had ordered his release, he remains in detention at the Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hospital in Camp Crane to date.
Your Excellency, the image of the Philippines depicted by this long series of violations of basic human and trade union rights is deeply disturbing and of very grave concern to trade unions in Britain and around the world. The number of labour related killings in the Philippines now places it in a similar category to Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest number of assassinations of trade unionists in the world. The Philippines appears to be heading rapidly towards second place.
Unfortunately, it appears that your Government has neither systematically investigated these allegations nor taken the legal action required to properly address these crimes in order to ensure that those found responsible are brought to justice. The TUC urges you to pass on our request to your government to take convincing measures aimed at guaranteeing the safety of trade unionists in the country. Such measures could include the establishment of independent judicial bodies to investigate all cases of trade union rights' violations as described in the list above.
I would be very grateful for your views on this matter.
Yours sincerely
Brendan Barber
General Secretary
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