Rep. France Castro —PHOTO FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Activists and labor organizers are coming under increasing attack so close to the annual observance of Labor Day on May 1, an opposition lawmaker said on Thursday, following the reported April 10 abduction of a Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) leader in Bukidnon province.
ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro sounded the alarm on the rising number of attacks on labor leaders and progressives, calling for an “immediate end” to what she called repressive practices against the workers’ sector, including the attack on William Lariosa, 63.
READ: 2 activists ‘traumatized’ after abduction, says group
“These increasing attacks against activists have really become more alarming and must stop,” Castro said.
“These incidents also show that the Marcos administration continues to violate human rights,” she added.
Lariosa, an organizer of the KMU’s southern Mindanao regional (SMR) chapter, was allegedly seized by suspected members of the 48th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay Butong, Bukidnon, last Wednesday.
But details on how he was kidnapped were still unclear.
According to KMU-SMR, Lariosa’s family and friends were not aware of where his captors had taken him.
24th disappearance
Based on reports, the victim had sought refuge in Butong village after receiving threats and harassment from suspected state agents over his organizing work.
KMU called on the military to immediately surface Lariosa and to stop the attacks against labor organizers.
“As Mayo Uno 2024 (Labor Day 2024) draws near, we have seen intensifying attacks by the Marcos administration against labor organizers and trade unions,” it said in a statement.
READ: Environmental activists say they were abducted by soldiers
Rights groups count Lariosa as the 24th victim of enforced disappearance in the Philippines and only the second one in Bukidnon since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022.
Lariosa’s disappearance follows that of environmental activists Francisco “Eco” Dangla III and Axielle “Jak” Tiong, who were abducted in San Carlos City, Pangasinan province, on March 24.
Dangla and Tiong, who led campaigns against black sand mining and nuclear plants in their province, surfaced three days later, “bruised but alive,” according to activist groups. The pair took refuge in the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese and stayed out of the public eye.
Broader pattern
In September last year, labor organizer Jude Fernandez was gunned down by police operatives in Binangonan, Rizal province, for allegedly trying to “fight back” as they served a warrant for his arrest.
Human Rights Watch said Fernandez’s killing “fits into a broader pattern of harassment and violence against labor leaders in the Philippines.”
In January 2023, the International Labor Organization (ILO) sent a high-level mission to the Philippines to investigate the killings of at least 56 union leaders and numerous incidents of violence and intimidation by state forces against workers during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The ILO mission prompted Mr. Marcos to issue an executive order creating a presidential body to “look into the complaints of labor leaders and other workers with regard to freedom of association,” Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said in May last year.