The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) today calls for the immediate surfacing of all desaparecidos as it marks the International Day of the Disappeared, saying the continued abduction of activists shows that state forces still use enforced disappearance to silence dissent.

CTUHR highlights four cases of labor activists who were abducted and remain missing: labor organizer Elizabeth “Loi” Magbanua, agricultural organizer William Lariosa, urban poor leader Iver Larit, and former labor information officer James Jazmines.

Magbanua was abducted in Metro Manila in May 2022. Lariosa was abducted in Bukidnon in April 2024, while Larit and Jazmines were abducted in Negros and Albay in April 2022 and August 2024, respectively.

“These cases show that abduction remains a tool to silence workers, activists, and community leaders. The state cannot claim to respect human rights while people who speak up for their communities continue to disappear,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

CTUHR says the four cases also show how families are left without answers while state institutions fail to provide effective remedies or accountability.

In Magbanua’s case, her family continues to seek answers despite the Supreme Court’s issuance of a writ of amparo (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CoHK3MnoB/). In Lariosa’s case, local courts have dismissed petitions filed by his family seeking information on his whereabouts (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CKnrjk7hN/).

Larit was subjected to red-tagging and legal harassment before he disappeared, while Jazmines had faced surveillance and threats before his disappearance. His wife had also been publicly red-tagged.

“The labor sector has long faced this form of state violence. From Cory Aquino to the present, successive governments have failed to dismantle the system that allows activists and labor organizers to be abducted and disappeared,” Deligente said.

The Marcos Jr. administration has a responsibility to end this continuing pattern of enforced disappearance instead of allowing it to become part of another administration’s record of human rights violations.

The group notes that the Marcos Sr. dictatorship was responsible for the disappearance of 1,000 people. Under Marcos Jr., at least 15 activities have reportedly disappeared.

“From father to son, the machinery of abduction remains. Marcos Jr. must not allow his administration to inherit and perpetuate the practice of using state power to silence those who challenge the injustice,” Deligente added.

CTUHR highlights that enforced disappearance violates fundamental rights protected under the 1987 Constitution, including the rights to life, liberty, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly.

The group also calls on the government to sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), which provides an international framework for preventing and addressing enforced disappearances.

CTUHR expresses its solidarity with the families of victims and joins the call to surface all desaparecidos and hold accountable all those responsible for disappearance of thousands of rights activists.