The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) commends the Philippine Government for accepting the International Labour Organization (ILO) High-Level Mission to look into the "extra-judicial killings" in the country.

Atty. Allan S. Montaño, FFW National President, made the declaration at the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva on June 11, following the formal acceptance of the Mission by the Philippine government.

Specifically, Montaño said the High-level Mission will look into the allegations and reported violations of trade union rights, including killings, attempted murders, death threats, abductions, disappearances, assaults, tortures, military interference in trade union activities, violent police dispersion of marches and pickets and arrests of trade union leaders.

In a speech at ILC’s Conference Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) earlier, Labor Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz, head of the Philippine delegation, said, “the government favorably considers the request to accept the mission.”

“Accepting the High Level Mission proves the willingness of the Government to follow the processes of the ILO,” said Montaño, in reference to the only tripartite international body.
“This will surely serve as the most appropriate forum for those who have complaints to be heard and to substantiate their claims and allegations. Such decision, we believe, shows our country's commitment to the ILO’s ideals of social justice and peace,” added Montaño, who sits at the ILC’s CAS.

The ILO’s two-year old request for a High Level Mission stemmed from a report of the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR). In its individual observation concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), which the Philippines ratified as early as 1953, it raised the need for the Mission “so as to obtain a greater understanding of all aspects of this case”.

The ILO is a specialized UN agency aimed at establishing social justice and peace through the adoption of International Labor Standards. It is the only UN agency that has a tripartite constituency composed of government, workers and employers per member-state. Each year, ILO members gather in Geneva for the ILC to discuss the adoption of new standards and look into reports of violations of the Conventions or international treaties on Freedom of Association and collective bargaining, among others.

“All and every instance of extra judicial killing is condemnable, be this committed by the armed forces of duly constituted governments or by the armies of rebel forces or by pure and simple criminal elements,” Montaño stressed.

He called upon government to mobilize its resources to further continue the investigation and prosecution, and finally, penalize the perpetrators.

The Mission will look into cases of extra-judicial killings in the country and see how the same affect the right to freely organize unions.

“Extra Judicial killings create an environment of fear that is not conducive to the exercise of civil rights and liberties and to the right to freedom of association and related fundamental ILO Standards,” added Montaño.

Montaño is confident that the High Level Mission of the ILO is not designed to find fault or to ascertain guilt. Rather, it is intended to objectively dig into the immediate and remote causes on why these incidences happen, so it can craft appropriate responses.

“We are confident that the ILO Mission to the Philippines will take a similar tack of combining fact-finding with concrete technical cooperation programs that will help the Philippines eliminate these obnoxious extra judicial killings and assist the social partners in complying with ILO Standards,” Montaño said.

(see full statement here)