The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) marks the first year of veteran labor organizer William Lariosa’s disappearance by condemning the Philippine courts’ inaction on his case and by calling for his immediate surfacing by the Philippine military.

We also express our solidarity with Lariosa’s family and colleagues and various organizations in southern Mindanao who launched the Surface William Lariosa Network on Saturday, April 5. We wholeheartedly support the network in continuing the fight for the surfacing of, and justice for, the veteran organizer of national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

According to witnesses, Lariosa was abducted by elements of the Philippine Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion on April 10, 2024, in Purok Sunny Day, Barangay Butong, Quezon town, Bukidnon province, while he was working with agricultural workers who want to fight for their labor rights and form their organization.

In May 2024, the Commission on Human Rights released a statement expressing its alarm over Lariosa’s disappearance and vowed to conduct an independent investigation into his case. In contrast, the Malaybalay Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals both turned down petitions for a writ of habeas corpus for Lariosa, while the Supreme Court is yet to take action on the case.

Lariosa’s family has revealed that military agents visited their house four times from June 20, 2022 to the time of his disappearance. Lariosa’s wife Rosiele, a former peasant organizer, said the military agents asked about William’s whereabouts and threatened the entire family with abduction.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte is being tried by the International Criminal Court or ICC because Philippine courts are not working to prosecute police elements and officials responsible for extrajudicial killings perpetrated under his murderous war on drugs. As Lariosa’s case clearly illustrates, the same has been the situation with military elements and officials who are responsible for grave violations of labor activists and leaders’ human rights.

The inaction of the country’s courts in Lariosa’s disappearance is deeply alarming, as no less than military agents are involved. The Philippine government, as the International Labour Organization’s High-Level Tripartite Mission to the country in 2023 observed, continues to conflate unionism with support for the armed insurgency in the country, and the courts are not providing any refuge.

We reiterate that unionism is a right that is in fact crucial to claiming other labor rights. It is neither a crime nor terrorism. The Philippine government should not attack labor organizers but protect them. It must ensure that its objectives of attracting foreign investors and countering the armed insurgency does not diminish but instead promotes labor and human rights.