Another set of trumped-up charges dismissed, another labor activist freed.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) celebrates the release from prison on February 27 of a veteran union organizer working in Negros Occidental province. It says the junking of trumped-up charges against the organizer shows that other political prisoners from the labor movement and other movements in the country should immediately be freed from detention.

Gaspar Davao, a 60-year old organizer of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), a federation of national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), was acquitted by the Cadiz City Regional Trial Court on charges of illegal possession of explosives after being in jail for almost five years. A resident of Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, Davao was arrested on June 9, 2020 in Barangay Caduhaan, Cadiz City.

At first, the military personnel who arrested Davao in a checkpoint said his offense was not wearing a face mask while riding a public utility van, a violation of COVID-19 rules that were in place then. Later, the military claimed to find a grenade in his possession. In March 2024, the courts junked the charge of not wearing a face mask against him.

Davao was heading home after attending a meeting of umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or Bayan when he was arrested. He is a veteran labor organizer, known for NFSW’s Land Cultivation Areas or LCA initiative in northern Negros that secured more than 3,000 hectares of rice and corn land for farmers.

The junking of trumped-up charges against Davao is long overdue. It is deeply unjust and unacceptable that so many labor and social activists are being imprisoned for years over charges that are simply fabricated. The detention of so many political prisoners in the country is an indictment of the Philippine government.

It should by now be a widely-accepted fact that state authorities, especially during the human rights crisis during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, manufactured trumped-up charges and planted evidence against activists, and the courts should not deny justice by delaying justice.

Davao’s release has brought the number of political prisoners from the labor movement down to 24. Human rights organizations in Negros report that the existence of 111 political prisoners in the region, largely due to intensified military operations there starting in 2018. Human rights group Karapatan, meanwhile, states that there are currently 762 political prisoners across the country.