The wife and the daughter of a labor leader in Southern Tagalog were ‘almost abducted,’ a labor group said.
According to the Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU), Romeo Legaspi’s wife Hermelita, 47, and daughter Sherry Anne, 17, were approached by a suspected intelligence agent yesterday in Cabuyao, Laguna.
Legaspi, president of Lakas-Manggagawang Nagkakaisa sa Honda Cars Philippines (LMNH-OLALIA-KMU) and chairman of PAMANTIK-KMU, was among the 72 individuals charged with multiple murder and frustrated multiple murder in connection with an NPA raid in Mindoro Oriental in March 2006.
According to the PAMANTIK-KMU statement, Hermelita and Sherry Anne were waiting for workers of Honda Cars to fetch them in front of a fast food chain when a man, described as medium built, 5’ 4” in height, fair-skinned, and in his early 30s approached them.
The man asked Hermelita in a whisper, “Kayo ba ang nagpapasundo?”(Are you the ones who requested to be fetched?) Sherry Anne then pulled her mother and stopped her from talking with the man.
“He then started texting fast using a slim-type Motorolla cellphone,” said Sherry Anne. She added that the man was also wearing a black shirt, just like the shirt to be worn by the workers during the motorcade.
Hermelita and Sherry Anne intended to join the motorcade against political persecution of activists.
Hermelita said, “We were thankful when the persons who were suppose to fetch us arrived soon before something untoward might have happened to us.”
They soon joined the motorcade, which started in San Pedro and culminated in the workers’ protest camp in front of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC-Region IV) in Calamba City. More than 200 workers in motorcycles joined the protest.
The workers condemned the recent attempts on the Legaspi family.
PAMANTIK spokesperson Hermie Marasigan said, “The US-Arroyo regime is desperately aggressive and daring in its attempt to put pressure on the family of Romeo Legaspi.”
Marasigan said further, “We believe that government operatives planned to abduct the family to put pressure on Legaspi to come out in the open so that they could put him behind bars for the false criminal charges filed against him.” (Bulatlat.com)
