The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the arrest of Jose Dahildahil Puansing, leader of a farm worker’s association, in Escalante City, Negros Occidental last October 7 on the basis of fabricated charges and an arrest warrant issued by well-known warrant factory judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89.

We condemn the Philippine National Police and the 79^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army for arresting Puansing, chairperson of local association Paghili-usa sang mga Obrero sa Barangay Jonobjonob (POBJ), which is affiliated with the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW). It is telling that the arresting officers told Puansing, “Aktibo ka pala ah! (So you’re active!)”

We demand that the cases of illegal possession of firearms and illegal logging that were filed against Puansing be junked immediately. These trumped-up charges are part of the police and military’s long-standing modus operandi, in which they seek arrest warrants from the courts and then claim that they found guns in the possession of their targets upon serving those warrants.

We demand that Puansing be released immediately. He in fact deserves protection from the country’s courts. He was among the Negros activists who were targeted for arrest in the October 31 and November 1, 2019 police-military operations that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of many activists. The police and military arrived at his house on November 1, 2019 at 4:00 am, searched his house, and claimed finding calibre .45 and .38 guns, bullets and granades.

The arrest warrants that justified the so-called search on November 1, 2019 were issued by Judge Villavert and have been proven faulty by other courts. Many of the activists who were arrested in 2019 have been set free. Judge Villavert has been exposed, and rightly so, as a “warrant factory” that releases arrest warrants requested by the police and military and have led to the unjust arrest and detention of many activists.

Puansing’s arrest brings the number of labor activists who are in prison to 28. It shows the continuing violation of labor and human rights in the labor sector and in the country. It belies the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government’s claim of upholding labor and human rights and heeding recommendations made by the International Labour Organization and the Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations.

We repeat: unionists and labor activists should be allowed to carry out their work without fear of reprisal from the government. Unions and labor organizations, as well as respect for labor and human rights, are important components of a genuine democracy and pro-people development. President Marcos Jr should issue stronger statements and carry out more decisive measures to stop grave labor and human rights violations.###