Demonstrators take part in a Labour Day rally in Mendiola, Manila on May 1, 2023. (Photo by JAM STA ROSA / Agence France-Presse)
MANILA, Philippines — Labor groups have lambasted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s newly created interagency committee for falling short of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) recommendation to address the spate of killings and violence against unionists under the Duterte administration.
All Philippine Trade Unions (Aptu), comprised of workers’ organizations across the political spectrum, also complained that both the employee and employer sectors were not consulted and were excluded from the presidential body.
As a signatory to the ILO Convention 144 on tripartism and social dialogue, the government is “obliged to involve workers and employers in decision-making on issues that directly affect them, especially on matters pertaining to the resolution of long-standing cases of killings of trade unionists and other violations of freedom of association,” the labor coalition said.
“The glaring absence of any worker and employer representation under the proposed interagency setup already falls far short of the ILO high-level tripartite mission (HLTM) recommendations,” said Aptu, which proposed to the ILO special team the creation of a presidential commission.
“How can this body meaningfully resolve long-standing workers’ issues, especially violations of workers’ rights, when workers, who remain subject to vicious attacks, are not represented?” Aptu said.
Labor groups also accused the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) of “cherry-picking recommendations and evading action on freedom of association concerns raised by HLTM, and will be perceived as doing [so] by the ILO and other nations.”
‘Ignored and unaddressed’ “This is a telltale sign that the government, through Dole, is not serious in addressing the issues that ILO-HLTM raised in its recommendations,” Aptu said.
The workers’ groups added that the ILO-HLTM that conducted its fact-finding mission in the country on Jan. 23 to Jan. 27 was the third such undertaking since “all previous recommendations have been left ignored and unaddressed for so long now by previous administrations.”
“The Dole will throw the Philippines [in]to the pit and ignominy of an ILO Commission of Inquiry. The ILO Commission of Inquiry may refer the Philippine case to the International Court of Justice,” Aptu warned.
The Aptu is composed of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, and various other workers’ organizations that banded in a rare show of solidarity for the ILO HLTM that looked into the killings of around 70 trade union leaders and rampant violations of the right to unionize and other workers’ rights in the country.