Labor Center warns of increase in human rights violations in urban areas

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center warns of an increase in human rights violations as soldiers pour into urban areas under the guise of “civic-military operations” and “crime prevention”.

“The deployment of soldiers in Metro Manila and other urban areas will worsen the already deplorable rights situation in the country. The counter-insurgency terror being spread in countryside will be replicated in the urban areas. Expect zonings, hamletting, illegal search and seizure, warrantless arrest and more extra-judicial killings,” said Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the KMU.

“This is clearly an undeclared martial law. Police functions like crime prevention have been passed on to the military, just like what happened during the 1970’s. Marcos justified martial law as a peace and order matter, and now Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon is justifying the present deployment supposedly as mere civic-military operations but this is clearly part of their counter-insurgency master plan dubbed Bantay-Laya 2,” clarified Labog.

“With the record of the military killings civilians, as has been stated by the Melo Commission and the Alston report, ordinary Filipinos in urban areas are now at the end of the barrel of the gun. The military made it clear that the extra-judicial killings are under the context of counter-insurgency operations of the AFP. Last week despite international and local clamor for an end to the bloodbath, Renato Torrecampo Pacaide, a coordinator of Anakpawis partylist was gunned-down in highly populated area in Davao City,” stated Labog.

Labog said that with military deployment, labor disputes can turn into bloody confrontations like what happened in Hacienda Luisita wherein a composite of police and military murdered 7 strikers and wounding hundreds more. They accused the strikers of having been infiltrated by the New Peoples Army (NPA) to justify the murder. “What is stopping the AFP to use the same justification to break labor disputes,” opined Labog.

“We are going back to the dark days of Martial Law. But the difference with Marcos is that Arroyo is using ‘gradual constriction’ against the remaining democracy in the country. Our rights are under the vise of a political anaconda which entangles it target, then slowly squeezes the life from its prey, waits for the last breath to expire then swallows everything. If we allow the militarization to continue, will wake up one day with all our rights swallowed up and taken away from us,” ended Labog.