As the labor movement prepares to mark Labor Day, the third under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, we at the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) call the public’s attention to continuing violations of Filipino workers’ labor and human rights and call on the government to end these violations.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte has been placed under the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. This is a victory for the Filipino workers and people, as Duterte is being held to account for extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations that were perpetrated under his bloody war on drugs.

We consider Duterte’s detention and impending trial as also a way of holding him to account for the grave labor human rights violations that he committed as president. Despite this positive development, such rights violations continue under Marcos Jr’s presidency.

Under Marcos Jr, 4 labor activists and leaders have been victims of extrajudicial killings, 7 labor activists have been disappeared, and 20 labor activists continue to be detained as political prisoners. 46 labor activists and leaders are facing trumped-up charges, 12 of which charged with terrorist financing cases.

Trumped-up terrorist financing charges, a prominent new form of repression under Marcos Jr, have been filed against 45 labor activists and leaders.

The red-tagging of workers, unionists and labor activists has been reduced, thanks to the efforts of the labor movement and people’s and human rights organizations and recommendations of the International Labour Organization and United Nations Special Rapporteurs. Red-tagging, however, persists, with prominent cases every now and then.

While not as noisy as before, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) continues to victimize activists and leaders of the labor movement and people’s organizations. Its unwarranted intervention in the labor sector has worsened, as it now forms unions with the help of company managements and the Labor Department’s apparent consent.

The Filipino workers’ right to a living wage is not being upheld, as the meager increases previously approved by the regional wage boards have been outstripped many times by the soaring prices of basic goods and commodities amidst the cost-of-living crisis. It remains to be seen whether the Marcos Jr government’s move to legislate a significant wage hike will push through, though the wage hike’s amount and mode of implementation must be improved.

While Duterte made a big fuss out of ending contractualization during his term, the Marcos Jr government is as silent as a cemetery on the issue, to the detriment of Filipino workers’ right to security of tenure.

We call on Filipino workers to learn about their rights, fight for these and join the Labor Day protests. We call on the Marcos Jr government as the duty bearer in relation to workers’ labor and human rights to address and end labor and human rights violations. Sending Duterte to the ICC is not enough; more needs to be done for the Filipino workers and people.