The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government for the filing of charges based on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 against 28 labor leaders and activists who are based in Metro Manila.

The filing of terrorism charges against 28 labor leaders and activists on the basis of an October 8, 2023 encounter between rebel group New People’s Army (NPA) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Nueva Ecija province belies the Marcos Jr government’s claims of upholding labor and human rights in the country.

The labor leaders who are victims of these trumped-up terror charges have long records of fighting for labor and human rights, and have become victims of rights violations themselves:

>> Rodrigo Esparago is a labor organizer of the Sandigan ng Manggagawa sa Quezon City (SMQC) who was among the six labor organizers who were arrested on International Human Rights Day, December 10, in 2020. The case that was filed against him and served as basis for his arrest and imprisonment was junked in February 2021 and he was freed on March 5, 2021.

>> Ed Cubelo is the long-standing president of the Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation Workers’ Association (TMPCWA) who leads the fight for justice of the workers who were retrenched by the car manufacturing giant. He has been a victim of harassment by state agents since March 2014.

>>  Francisco Manaog is the president of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Harbour Centre (UMHC) and has been visited in his residence by unknown men who introduce themselves as members of the military and ask him to surrender as member of the NPA.

Through its “Omnibus Guidelines on the Freedom of Association and Civil Liberties Joint Memorandum Order No. 1, series of 2024” which was signed in April 2024 and involve at least eight (8) government agencies, the Marcos Jr government claims that it is upholding labor and human rights, but we are not seeing workers’ rights being respected and protected.

Said memorandum states that any case that is not related to labor disputes will first pass through the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and we wonder if this was followed in the case of Esparago, Cubelo, Manaog and others.

The filing of trumped-up charges against labor activists based on military encounters with the NPA is a trademark move of the Rodrigo Duterte government, from which the Marcos Jr government seeks to distance itself.

We are calling on the DOLE, all the agencies involved in the memorandum stated above, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr himself, to immediately intervene into the case against Esparago, Cubelo, Manaog and others. Any government claim of upholding labor and human rights is seriously undermined by the filing of trumped-up charges against well-known labor leaders and activists.###