LABOR WATCH

Sacked Union Leader Jailed by Benguet Police

The strike at a big mining firm already ended last Sept. 10 with both the union and management promising not to take retaliatory action. Nineteen union officers, however, got dismissed by the company. Worse, a union officer was arrested and detained last Oct. 3. His case? A police officer accused him of stealing a cellular phone!

BY ALDWIN QUITASOL
Northern Dispatch (Nordis)
Posted by Bulatlat

MANKAYAN, Benguet (348 kms north of Manila) — A union leader was not just dismissed from his job. He was even arrested and detained by the police.

The Mankayan Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested Vicente Dalem, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU), near his home at Pallatong, Mankayan, 6:30 p.m. last Oct. 3.

Dalem was one of the 19 union officers who were dismissed by the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC) for leading a three-month long strike there. LEU is affiliated with the National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU) which is a member of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, or May First Movement).

The PNP earlier served a warrant of arrest for Dilem on Sept. 12, barely two days after his fellow officers and members of the union held a closing ceremony to end the strike against the management of the Lepanto. Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch Judge Agapito Laoagan issued the arrest warrant.

Dilem was charged with robbery with violence and intimidation for allegedly stealing the cellular phone of a certain SP01 Guillermo Muñoz. The latter claimed Dilem stole his cellular phone in a scuffle last July 23 after the police tried to block the workers from entering the company's Gate 3. The workers held a march-rally to ask for a dialogue with the management at that time.

"Kas-ano a matakaw ko ti cell phone diay pulis ket pangpang-oran dakami ken nakapaltog pay dagiti dadduma isunga a depdepensaan mi ti bagi mi" (How could I steal the cellular phone of that policeman when they were hitting us with their truncheons and some of them even have guns so we were only defending ourselves), Dilem stressed.

Before his arrest, Dilem was among those criminally charged by the Lepanto Management when they were picketing at the gates of the mine site. Dilem and his co-workers were forced to go on strike after the management refused to give in to their demands and the supposed non-submission of their SSS contributions and loan payments by LCMC. Union leaders and the LCMC management representatives both signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) Sept. 10 that sought to settle the labor dispute, on one condition that there shall be no retaliatory actions from either side. This ended the strike three-month long strike.

Meanwhile, KMU-Cordillera spokesperson James Tulipa denounced the filing of a case against Dilem, saying it is merely a form of harassment against workers as the local election for the new batch of union officers is fast approaching. He lambasted the PNP for trying to intervene in the union affairs again, making trumped-up cases in suppressing the officers and members.

LEU president Ninian K. Lang-agan said that the unionists are confident that justice would be served. Lang-agan, however, assailed the improper procedures of the PNP for transferring Dilem to the Abatan Police Station in Buguias, Benguet and bringing him back at Mankayan for no apparent reason.

The court requires a bail of P150,000 ($2,687.93, based on an exchange rate of P55.805 per U.S. dollar) for Dilem's temporary liberty. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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