Solon expresses support to ILO Mission

Anakpawis Rep. Joel Maglunsod today expressed full support to the first-ever International Labour Organization (ILO) High-level mission to the Philippines on September 22 to 29, 2009.

Maglunsod, as then Secretary General of Kilusang Mayo Uno, was the signatory of the complaint filed by the labor center before the ILO Committee on Application of Standards in 2006.

“This mission is crucial in giving justice to 91 labor leaders and labor advocates killed since 2001 under the Arroyo administration, in upholding of workers’ rights and welfare and in prosecuting those who are behind systematic human rights violations in the Philippines.”

He said, “it is very unfortunate that the current administration has very little respect for workers who are the lifeblood and prime movers of the national economy.”

He said, “the Philippines’ systematic violations of ILO’s core Conventions 87 and 98, as well as other ILO conventions which the Philippine government is a signatory, have given rise to gross abuses such as intimidation, harassment, enforced disappearance, abduction, arrest, detention and worse, killings of trade unionists, informal workers and labor rights advocates in the country.

The solon will file a resolution before the Lower House, expressing support to the ILO Mission. He urged House Speaker Prospero Nograles to also support the goal of the ILO Mission.

“It is only just that the House of Representatives express its full support to the upcoming ILO High Level Mission to the Philippines to help in creating a pro-worker environment in the Philippines, and more so, in achieving social justice where workers and people can enjoy their fundamental rights to speak, to be heard of, to associate, to collectively bargain and to conduct concerted actions.”

He said the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) claim of continually declining trend in the occurrence of industrial disputes is due to the fact that the government, either through labor laws and agreements with managements, made the conditions too rigorous for workers to exercise their basic rights. “In this country, trade unionists are killed.”

“The government must recognize the seriousness of the problem of trade union rights violations and take effective steps to end extra judicial killings, conduct independent and impartial investigation and put into place proper social dialogues; establish permanent monitoring mechanisms for trade and human rights abuses and restore a climate of freedom and security,” he concluded. ###