The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the surveillance and intimidation that were experienced by national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s (KMU, May First Movement) Davao office. We are calling on the government to investigate the latest and previous incidents of surveillance and intimidation against KMU-Southern Mindanao Region.

CCTV footage shows that on October 23, at around 11:30 am, two unidentified men who were riding in-tandem on a motorcycle passed by KMU-SMR’s office and the back rider took photos or videos or both of the office premises. KMU-SMR reports that a similar incident occurred on September 22.

These incidents follow the harassment experienced by KMU organizers Marvin Dacanay and Jeffrey Uypala in the hands of the military and the police in July and August this year. https://ctuhr.org/releases/davao-labor-organizers-harassment-attack-on-union-rights/ We support KMU-SMR’s efforts to report these incidents to the Region 11 office of the Commission on Human Rights and to the Department of Labor and Employment’s Regional Tripartite Monitoring Board.

KMU-SMR has experienced non-stop harassment from state agents in recent months. This is nothing less than an attack on workers’ freedom of association and should stop. We have documented many cases that show that cases of surveillance, intimidation and harassment like these have served as prelude to even worse forms of labor and human rights violations.

The forms of intimidation, surveillance and harassment that were experienced recently by KMU-SMR were similar to those criticized by the International High Level Tripartite Mission to the country in 2023. There is no doubt among the labor movement in the country and the ILO that these cases have no place in a country that claims to uphold human rights and democracy.

The cases of harassment that were experienced by KMU-SMR are the very forms of attacks on workers’ freedom of association that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s Executive Order 97, which was issued in September, seeks to stop. These incidents are a direct challenge to the commitment of the Marcos Jr government to upholding workers’ freedom of association.

It is observable that the chapters of KMU and other labor groups in other regions do not experience the sustained harassment that KMU-SMR faces. Are the Dutertes continuing in Davao what they have been stopped from doing at the national level? Or are the Dutertes and the Marcoses colluding to stifle workers’ right to freedom of association in the interest of big foreign and local capitalists? Investigations should lead to answers to these questions.