Among the cases the workers brought to the attention of the labor department is the harassment against Jaime Paglinawan, and several other workers rights advocates, whose photos appeared in a Facebook post, with a note that read, “they are the root cause of violence in our society.”
By MAX SANTIAGO
In the Philippines, victims of rights violations face dead ends as they turn to the Office of the Ombudsman for justice and redress.
The NUPL has recorded a total of 262 work-related attacks in the past 15 years, including that of 86 lawyers, judges and prosecutors. Five of whom were members of the NUPL.
“The government is using the UN joint program, they say they are complying with the HRC resolution. We don’t want the international community to depend only on that because that is only a window dressing of the Philippine government.”
The UNHRC said they are concerned at the “reports of increased crackdowns, including in the context of the government’s counter-terrorism and anti-illegal drug operations, on human rights defenders, activists and other civil society actors to discourage them from carrying out their legitimate activities.”
“We gather to put a stop to repeated attempts by the NTF-ELCAC and other state agencies to sow terror, confusion, and intimidate our people into silence and inaction. We gather to stand as one with the people in their struggles for democracy, social justice and genuine peace.”
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said that the red-tagging has become bold and relentless in spreading lies and terror-tagging more individuals from the media, activists and critics.
“With the recent Comelec order, the NTF-ELCAC is now grasping at straws in its allegation of foreign funding, aside from clutching at concocted stories of fake rebels. We are confident that the truth will soon be affirmed and all the lies against us will be debunked.”
“Such practices amount to intimidation, discourage engagement with international bodies and prevent HRDs from accessing assistance and remedies available to them through international human rights mechanisms.”
For nearly two decades, Len has been part of Bulatlat from her days as a contributor to becoming the managing editor of one of the country’s longest-running online news. She is a champion of human rights reporting, media workers’ welfare, and journalists’ safety.