Marking the eighth year in detention of one of the first labor activists imprisoned by the Rodrigo Duterte administration, labor groups held a picket today in front of the Justice Department office in Padre Faura, Manila, to call for the junking of trumped-up charges against 18 labor activists and for their immediate freedom.

Together with various labor groups and NGOs under the Free Our Unionists network, labor NGO Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) decried the eight years of imprisonment of Maoj Maga, a labor organizer of national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and progressive transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON).

The protest is part of a Global Day of Action of labor and progressive groups around the world calling for the freedom of Maga, all detained labor activists, and all political prisoners in the country.

Maga was arrested on February 20, 2018 in San Mateo, Rizal while playing basketball and after sending his son to school. Police personnel claimed they found a gun in his possession while trying to serve him an arrest warrant for murder charges. The illegal possession of firearms case was junked by the courts, but Maga continues to be imprisoned because of trumped-up murder charges.

“Maoj has been a youth and labor activist who organized in Metro Manila and nearby areas. How can he be responsible for murders in faraway places in Mindanao? The ridiculous charges against him were fabricated by the Duterte government to prevent him from organizing and to silence dissent. He should be set free now,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

CTUHR said that Maga is a victim of the Duterte government’s policy of filing fabricated charges against labor and social movement activists on the basis of attacks carried out by rebel group New People’s Army (NPA). It said that while the Duterte government tried to connect activist groups with the NPA through red-tagging, it has failed to present evidence actually proving that individual activists were involved in NPA attacks.

“At the start of the Marcos Jr presidency, there were more than 40 political prisoners from the labor movement. This has been reduced to 18 after four years, even as Maoj, one of the first to be imprisoned, remains in jail. Courts have junked the many trumped-up charges against labor activists. We demand that they speed up junking the same charges filed against Maoj and others,” Deligente said.

“President Marcos Jr likes to present himself as being pro-human rights unlike his predecessor. Yet political prisoners continue to languish in prison under his watch. He can and he should take action to end the injustice against political prisoners and speed up their release,” Deligente added.

CTUHR, together with the Free Our Unionist network, is calling for the release of 17 political prisoners from the labor movement apart from Maga: Romina Astudillo, Pauline Banjawan, Felixberto Consad, Mark Ryan Cruz, Maritess David, Joel Demate, Tess Dioquino, Jayme Gregorio, Benny Hilamon, Nedo Lagunias, Steve Mendoza, Jose Puansing, Nolan Ramos, Bob Reyes, Oliver Rosales, Adelberto Silva, and Marlon Torres.