Today, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) unites with the Filipino farmworkers, workers and people in commemorating the 20 years of the Hacienda Luisita massacre, a flagrant violation of labor and human rights.

We remember and pay tribute to the farmworkers who were killed when the police and military opened fire on their strike: Jhaivie Basilio, Adriano Caballero, Jhune David, Jesus Laza, Juancho Sanchez, Jaime Pastidio and Jessie Valdez.

Filipino workers continue to be haunted by the Luisita massacre. Those responsible for the crime were not punished and continue to be powerful and influential in the country. Laws that served as license for the massacre are still in place.

The 2004 strike in Hacienda Luisita was just. The farmworkers were taking home as low as Php9.50 per day as a result of a stock distribution scheme that supposedly makes them part-owners of the hacienda, which is actually a ploy to avoid land reform.

The farmworkers were protesting the mass retrenchment of union leaders and members who were asserting workers’ rights, seeing this as an attempt to bust their union. They were ultimately demanding that genuine land reform be implemented.

While seven farmworkers were left dead, no police, military or government official was punished and placed behind bars. The massacre and its aftermath show just how cheap workers’ lives are considered by landlords and the government.

The leading members of the wealthy and powerful Cojuangco landowning family were not held liable for the massacre. They have successfully maneuvered to prevent genuine land reform from taking place in their hacienda.

Top government officials responsible for the massacre were likewise spared from accountability: former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her favorite general Hermogenes Esperon Jr, and erstwhile Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.

The Hacienda Luisita massacre is part of the labor and human rights crisis under the Arroyo regime, which oversaw the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of activists, the disappearance of many activists across the country, and trade-union repression.

The license for the massacre remains in place – the Labor Secretary’s power to assume jurisdiction over labor disputes, order striking workers to go back to work, and send the police and the military to enforce the back-to-work order.

Said power remains in place, despite the International Labour Organization’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions has ruled that it runs counter to Conventions 87 and 98, or workers’ right to collectively bargain and strike.

The right of Hacienda Luisita workers to organize continues to be violated. As late as last October 19, Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (AMBALA) chairperson Francisco Dizon faced an attempted abduction.

We condemn the attempt of suspected operatives of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion to abduct Dizon in his house in Barangay Mapalacsiao in Tarlac City. We salute his neighbors and comrades who prevented his abduction.

Justice for the Luisita massacre can only be achieved if the perpetrators are placed behind bars, if the laws that served as license for the massacre are junked, and ultimately, if labor and human rights in the country are respected and protected.###