By Shan Kenshin Ecaldre

CABUYAO CITY, Laguna – While labor rights advocates hailed the release of Southern Tagalog labor leader Gavino Panganiban, they stressed that his freedom is only partial justice as 18 other labor organizers remain behind bars. 

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) on Tuesday welcomed the court decision that cleared Panganiban, campaign director of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU), of murder charges. The Infanta, Quezon Regional Trial Court earlier this month junked the charges, paving the way for Panganiban’s release after more than a year in detention.

Panganiban and fellow organizer Maritess David of OLALIA-KMU were arrested in October 2024 in Makati City by combined elements of the Philippine Army’s 2nd Infantry Division and the PNP Southern Police District. Rights groups said the charges were baseless. 

Labor advocates said Panganiban’s ordeal mirrors the experience of many unionists whose organizing work has long been met with state surveillance, red-tagging, and arrests. 

“His case is not an exception, it is a pattern,” CTUHR said. “Organizers are slapped with trumped-up charges, imprisoned for years, and acquitted only after the damage has been done. This systematic harassment violates workers’ right to freedom of association and their right to participate in political life.”

According to CTUHR, Panganiban’s unjust imprisonment demonstrates the structural use of the justice system to intimidate organized labor, a tactic amplified during the Duterte administration’s counterinsurgency framework and continued under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Call to release 18 others

CTUHR urged the Marcos Jr administration to release all 18 political prisoners from the labor movement, most of whom were arrested during  Duterte’s presidency under what rights groups describe as “weaponized” law enforcement operations.

In Southern Tagalog alone, at least seven labor organizers remain detained: Maritess David, Marlon Torres, Tess Dioquino, Nedo Lagunias, Steve Mendoza, Benny Hilamon, and Nolan Ramos.

Also languishing in other detention centers nationwide are Maoj Maga, Bob Reyes, Oliver Rosales, Adelberto Silva, Romina Astudillo, Mark Ryan Cruz, Jayme Gregorio, Joel Demate, Jose Puansing, Pauline Banjawan, and Felixberto Consad.

Maga has been convicted and imprisoned the longest. Arrested in February 2018, Maga faces what labor groups call “absurd and impossible” murder charges involving incidents in places he had never visited. The illegal firearms and explosives case filed against him has already been dismissed by the courts for lack of evidence, yet he remains detained on other charges.

‘Selective justice’

Workers’ groups criticized what they described as the Marcos Jr administration’s selective application of justice. 

“It is revolting,” CTUHR said. “While corrupt politicians and contractors evade accountability, unionists remain in cramped detention cells for the ‘crime’ of helping workers fight for dignity and rights.”

Advocates argue that the continued detention of the 18 labor political prisoners serves as a chilling message intended to weaken workers’ collective action, especially in regions like Southern Tagalog, a hotbed of labor organizing and resistance.

A partial victory, a continuing fight

For labor groups, Panganiban’s release is a welcome reprieve in a landscape marked by repression. But until all detained labor leaders walk free, they say the struggle continues.

“Gavino’s freedom is a victory carved out of collective resistance,” PAMANTIK said. “But true justice requires the release of every unionist imprisoned for standing with workers.”

As CTUHR, and PAMANTIK-KMU celebrates one of its own returning home, labor advocates reiterate their demands: Free all labor political prisoners! Stop the criminalization of unionism. (RTS, RVO)