Drop all trumped-up charges against Labour Rights Defenders Kara Taggaoa and Larry Valbuena!
11 October 2022
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), Labor Rights Defenders Network (LARD) and Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) appeal for international solidarity in bringing to light the relentless attacks against Labour Rights Defenders in the Philippines and other countries in Asia and the Pacific.
On 10 October 2022, two labour activists, Kara Taggaoa and Larry Valbuena were arrested based on trumped-up charges of direct assault, without any arrest warrant at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. The two have been released after posting a bail today.
Kara and Larry were arrested after attending the arraignment hearing for yet another false charges of robbery which stemmed from a complaint of a police intelligence officer who claimed that the two assaulted him and took his gun during a demonstration on Anti-Terror Law in 2020.
Kara, 24, currently sits as the Secretary for International Affairsof KMU, one of the biggest trade unions in the Philippines and among the organisations constantly subjected to red-tagging. At a young age, Kara has fought for labour rights and has represented KMU in international advocacy spaces, including the International Labour Conference in Geneva.
Larry, 62, is the president of Pasiklab Operators and Drivers Association (PASODA), a local chapter of the one of the biggest and widest transportation workers unions in the Philippines, Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON or United Organisation of Drivers and Operators Nationwide). He has been a unionist fighting for labour justice for decades.
Kara and Larry are only among the hundreds of labour rights defenders, workers, and unionists who have been subjected to various forms of threats and harassment for fighting for labour and human rights. The attacks against activists have been relentless since former President Rodrigo Duterte declared war against activism, perpetuating the culture of impunity and promoting vilification of activists through red-tagging. These attacks are bound to continue, if not worsen under the watch of the new president Ferdinand Marcos, the son of dictator and human rights violator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
As of September 2022, Karapatan, a human rights organisation in the Philippines, recorded at least 800 political prisoners in the Philippines. They are activists who are imprisoned on various trumped up charges. Illegal arrests worsened during the COVID-19 lockdowns as 233,172 individuals were arrested due to quarantine violations, including activists and volunteers who are doing community outreach during the pandemic. CTUHR reported that 31 percent of these arrested individuals were charged, while at least 3,000 have yet to be released from prison until today.
Workers and unionists, particularly in Laguna Special Economic Zones (SEZs), also reported that they continue to fear for their lives as they continue be hounded, red-tagged, and forced to disaffiliate by elements of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), especially since unionists are extrajudicially killed like Dandy Miguel, a labour union leader who was shot to death in 2021.
Together, we call on the international community to stand in solidarity and demand accountability and justice for all the labour and human rights defenders who have been killed, arrested, vilified, harassed, and denied the rights to decent work, fair and living wage and access to social protection and services. Today, we collectively put forward our demands:
- For the Philippine government and authorities to drop all the charges against Kara Taggaoa and Larry Valbuena and all other labour and human rights defenders and activists;
- For the Philippine government to stop the attacks against workers, trade unionists and labour and human rights defenders;
- For the Philippine government to dutifully fulfill their obligations under the ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining by protecting fundamental labour rights of workers;
- For the Committee of Freedom of Association and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to investigate the violence and attacks against trade unionists, labour rights and human rights defenders in the Philippines and other countries in Asia and the Pacific.###
