Progressive Filipino legislators discuss human rights with Canadian unions

Philippine House of Representative members Luz Ilagan (left) and Crispin Beltran (right) stand with PSAC National President John Gordon (centre) during a sharing with Canadian unions on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

Food insecurity has hit the Philippines hard, with the price of rice, a staple food, rising from 14 pesos to 40 pesos per kilo.  Recent corruption charges against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration blew into a storm of popular protests calling on the president to resign.  Amid this growing social unrest, extrajudicial killings continue and enforced disappearances have increased.

Philippine Congress representatives Crispin Beltran of the Anakpawis (toiling masses) Party List and Luz Ilagan of the Gabriela Women's Party presented the current conditions in the Philippines to a group of Canadian union representatives, which included the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canadian Labour Congress.

The round-table meeting with the unions was part of the Filipino legislators' three-week cross-Canada mission to raise awareness on the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.  The last leg of their tour was in Ottawa where they met with Canadian parliamentarians and appeared before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights.  A third Filipino Congress member, Rep. Satur Ocampo of the Bayan Muna (People First) Party, was meeting with Liberal MPs at the time of the meeting with the unions in Ottawa.

Representatives Beltran and Ilagan also pointed out to the unions that Canada may be unintentionally complicit in the gross human rights violations in the Philippines.  They said the Canadian government provides military and police training assistance to the Philippines and may have provided development aid to Philippine local government units that have relied on the military to “pacify” their regions.  They also raised the issue of Canadian mining companies that have been responsible for the displacement of Indigenous Peoples, the destruction of the environment and the use of military and paramilitary forces for their security.

The Filipino legislators have asked the Canadian government to put pressure on President Arroyo to end the gross human rights abuses and to review its bilateral support to the Philippine government. 
Since Arroyo's rise to power in 2001, more than 80 workers, unionists and organizers have been murdered. The most recent casualty is Gerry Cristobal of Yazaki-EMI Cavite who was killed by gunmen on March 10.  He is among the about 900 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

The three legislators themselves have been victims of political repression under the Arroyo administration. Rep. Beltran, the former chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, a progressive labour centre in the Philippines, was arrested and detained from 2005 to late 2007 on charges of rebellion and murder, which were dismissed by the Supreme Court.  Rep. Ilagan suffered from shrapnel wounds and her driver and another congress member were killed in a car bombing just outside the Philippine Congress last year.  Rep. Ocampo was charged last year with murder and rebellion, which were also dismissed by the Supreme Court. 

The Canadian unions said they will continue to do their part in pressuring the Canadian and Philippine governments to end the human and labour rights violations in the Philippines.  Resolutions to campaign for an end to human rights violations in the Philippines have been submitted for the upcoming CLC convention.  The unions are also looking into the possibility of organizing a labour fact-finding mission to the Philippines this year.

Upon their return from their visit to Canada, Rep. Ocampo found himself, along with three other members of his party, faced with another charge of murder filed by the Philippine government on April 18, 2008.  His home was also under surveillance by security forces.  Canadian unions and civil society groups have been sending letters of protest and concern to the Philippine and Canadian governments.

SJF Contribution: $ 600 April  2008