The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) vehemently condemns the Christmastime extra-judicial killing of an organizer of sugar workers in Negros. The murder is part of the government’s attacks on progressive grassroots organizations in the island and on labor organizing in the country. We demand that the national government probes the murder and holds those responsible accountable.

Warlita Jimenez, 55 years old was shot four times and killed by baclava-wearing men in her bedroom in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental at around 11:00 in the evening of December 23. She is an organizer of sugar workers under the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), which is affiliated with national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). She is also the wife of Joseph Jimenez, a farmer-leader who was killed together with National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Ericson Acosta in November 2022.

According to human rights group Karapatan, Jimenez faced non-stop harassment since the killing of her husband yet persisted in her activism. It said that Jimenez’ murder is part of the intensified militarization in the Negros island since former President Rodrigo Duterte imposed Memorandum Order No. 32 (MO32) in November 2018. It also said that it has monitored the extrajudicial killing of 55 farmers under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Negros has been a case study of how the government, in pursuing its counter-insurgency plan against rebel group New People’s Army or NPA, has been attacking legal progressive organizations of farmers and other marginalized sectors. Now, with the killing of Jimenez, even organizers of sugar workers are not spared.

The extra-judicial killing of Jimenez and the fear that it creates among fellow labor organizers and among workers are hindrances to workers’ exercise of their right to freedom of assocation. Attacks on labor organizers, especially those working among the most exploited workers like sugar workers who need all the help they can get to claim their rights, redound to attacks on workers’ labor and human rights.

Jimenez’ murder is another proof that President Marcos Jr’s Executive Order 97, which was issued in September and supposedly bans the redtagging of labor activists and the resulting human rights violations, is all bluster. Labor activists continue to be redtagged, harassed and now, with the case of Jimenez, extrajudicially killed.

We demand that President Marcos Jr himself issue a strong statement condemning Jimenez’ murder, ordering an investigation into the killing, and calling for the accountability of those responsible for this gruesome crime. We demand that he mobilize all relevant government agencies to attain justice for Jimenez and to stop the bloodbath that has been happening in Negros.