PHILIPPINES We Need To Speak Against The Bloody Slaughter of Activists A statement by the Partido Manggagawa (Labor Party-Philippines)
Two days after President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his « kill, kill them all » speech last March 7, 2021, 9 activists felt to the ground dead. Any extra-judicial killing (EJK) diminishes us all, it kills part of our humanity.
Today, news report said that police have killed 9 and arrested 6 believed to be with activist groups in Laguna, Rizal, and Batangas, provinces surrounding capital region Metro Manila.
Partido Manggagawa (Labor Party-Philippines) calls on the Filipino people to speak and denounce the bloody slaughter, arrests and red-tagging of trade unionists and members of people’s organizations.
The killing of trade union organizer Emmanuel « Manny » Asuncion this morning at the Workers Assistance Center in Salitran, Dasmariñas Cavite is highly condemnable and the serving of search warrant questionable if not incredible. The policemen allegedly served a search warrant. He was at the 2nd floor with the police and his wife at the ground floor when she heard gunshots. His wife witnessed that Asuncion’s body was dragged down. He was wounded and dead. Early last week and the previous month members of SENTRO and Partido Manggagawa in Davao, Cebu and Cavite were harassed and red-tagged by police and baranggay officials. The slaughter and other violent incidents this bloody Sunday and the previous days have been outrageous.
These are not acceptable in civilized society! Are we going back to the dark days of authoritarian rule? People in government appear to be ordering if not in cahoots with criminal perpetrators or tolerating their acts. We are outraged with the continuous killings of trade unionists and questionable arrests of activists. It calls on the government to stop this impunity against trade unionists. We also condemned the killing of NAFLU local union president Leonardo Escala at the port area in Tundo last month. We hold the Duterte Administration responsible for this atrocious act. And we reiterates our call for the Duterte administration to accept an ILO High Level Mission to investigate more than 50 trade unionists killings since its assumption to office.