ILO should hold accountable NTF-ELCAC and state security forces

ILO should hold accountable NTF-ELCAC and state security forces

The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), today called on the International Labor Organization (ILO) to hold accountable the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for grave violations of the freedom of association (FOA) of agricultural and other workers in the country.

The ILO is in the country for a High Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM) on allegations from different labor groups of gross violations of the FOA on Filipino workers. It met representatives from the labor sector yesterday and would be meeting government representatives including from the NTF-ELCAC and AFP/PNP today.

UMA and NFSW filed a joint submission of complaints to the ILO in June 2021, which the ILO reported in November of the same year.

Of the 68 extra-judicially killed (EJK) workers during the Duterte regime, 37 are agricultural workers, of whom 17 are members of the NFSW alone. Other than that, thousands were tagged by the NTF-ELCAC, AFP, and PNP as New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and many of whom were forced to “surrender” to the government. Many of them were also forced to disaffiliate from their organizations and join bogus ones formed by the military and NTF-ELCAC, especially in Negros, Isabela, Hacienda Luisita, Batangas and in Bukidnon.

On the other hand, John Milton “Ka Butch” Lozande, NFSW’s secretary general and UMA’s spokesperson has received several death threats even after his case was dismissed by the Bacolod Regional Trial Court on March 9, 2021. Ka Butch was arrested with 55 others on the night of October 31, 2019 and detained for trumped up charges.

Even UMA’s national office and some of its former staff and volunteers have been red tagged by the NTF-ELCAC. This includes Sr. Patricia Fox who was forced to leave the country after earning the ire of then President Duterte.

Locally, UMA and the NFSW, are one with the calls of all labor and progressive organizations in the country for the NTF-ELCAC to be abolished and for the AFP and PNP not to interfere with the legitimate grievances of agricultural workers. These include the struggle for land, wages, benefits, and rights.

In the first place, Ka Butch, stated that the AFP and PNP are not mandated to assist agricultural workers in asserting their land, labor, and human rights. In fact, what they are doing is the exact opposite and the ILO should hold them accountable together with the NTF-ELCAC for violations of the Freedom of Association in the country.

(PRESS RELEASE)