LABOR WATCH
Police Break Up
Miners’ Picket, Nab 2 Workers
At around 5:30 a.m.,
Aug. 6, over 100 armed police officers led by Maj. Brent Madiaco and Capt.
Richard Abon dispersed striking workers picketing the Tubo gate. During
the dispersal operations, police arrested Douglas Farnican and Francisco
Dida. Workers believe that the arrests were part of a plan hatched by the
PNP and the management of Lepanto Mining Corporation.
By Northern
Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
MANKAYAN, Benguet —
At around 5:30 a.m., Aug. 6, over 100 armed police officers led by Maj.
Brent Madiaco and Capt. Richard Abon dispersed striking workers picketing
the Tubo gate of Lepanto Mining Corporation. During the dispersal
operations, police arrested Douglas Farnican and Francisco Dida.
Dida was handcuffed
and brought inside the Tubo shaft while Farnican was collared at the Tubo
waiting shed. Kilusang Mayo Uno-Cordillera (May 1st
Movement-Cordillera) spokesperson James Tulipa, together with officers of
the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU), tried to intercede with Madiaco for the
release of the arrested workers. But the latter refused.
“We tried to
negotiate with Major Madiaco but he wouldn’t listen. Instead he questioned
the assistance that Kilusang Mayo Uno-Cordillera (KMU-Cordillera) is
providing the workers,” said Tulipa.
After Dida was
handcuffed, the police used a company security vehicle to bring him to the
Mankayan town hall. But workers blocked the vehicle and demanded that Dida
be released.
“It took a while
before authorities finally found the key to remove his handcuffs and
release him,” Tulipa said.
As of 10 a.m. July 6,
workers are still looking for Farnican, whom the police probably took
using another route.
“The arrests are part
of a plan hatched by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the
management. Even before the arrests, word has it that the PNP plans to
arrest one of the officers of the union,” Tulipa said.
In the same incident,
another KMU organizer was chased by PNP elements as he tried to check on
his colleagues.
“After we were driven
away from the picketline, one of our colleagues arrived. Then we heard one
of the policemen shout ‘Diay man, diay naka-jacket ti nangisit’
(Arrest that one, that person in black jacket) Tulipa said. But
workers blocked the road and prevented the PNP from catching him.
KMU condemned the PNP
for its continued acts of violence against the striking workers and its
collusion with the management of Lepanto Mining Corporation.
The Tubo picketline
was only recently reclaimed by the workers last July 30. Nordis / Posted
by Bulatlat
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