Arroyo regime’s approval of UN convention on refugees mere deodorizer

The Arroyo regime is merely trying to “deodorize” its image and human-rights record in signing a United Nations (UN) convention on human refugees, the militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno said today in a statement.

The KMU is reacting to news reports that the UN has praised the Philippines for signing the 1951 Refugee Convention and for setting in place a national asylum law and procedure. With this convention, the Philippines has become the second country in the world to agree to becoming a transit point for refugees going to a safe third country.

“The human rights record of the Arroyo regime simply stinks. That’s why it has to deodorize this by signing international conventions that seek to uphold the human rights of citizens of other countries,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

Labog said because its human-rights record – which includes more than a thousand cases of extra-judicial killings – has been thoroughly exposed and vigorously condemned internationally and locally, the Arroyo regime has no option but to become a hypocrite.

“Even here in the Philippines, it is reported that 430,000 people have become refugees, as of July 2009, in conflict-striken areas because of the militarization campaigns of the Arroyo regime.
“As they say, for the ruling classes, it’s better to be a hypocrite than to pull the rug under one’s feet,” Labog said.

“The Arroyo regime would rather appear as respectful of other citizens’ human rights and disrespectful of Filipinos’ human rights than appear as disrespectful towardshuman rights of any citizen at all,” Labog explained.

First ILO Mission to the Philippines

Labog also warned that more international condemnation awaits the Arroyo regime as the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN’s labor arm, is set to conduct its first-ever mission in the Philippines this Sept. 24-25.

“The ILO High-Level Mission will look into repression of trade-union rights in the country in response to a complaint submitted by the KMU two years ago. We don’t think its members will be amused with what they will be seeing,” he said.

Included in the complaint submitted by the KMU are violations of ILO Conventions 87 and 97, about workers’ freedom of association and right to organize and collectively bargain, respectively.

The KMU complaint details cases of extrajudicial killings, militarization of factories and communities, dispersal of picketlines through the Assumption of Jurisdiction order, and filing of trumped-up charges against worker activists and leaders. ###