WORKERS’ STATEMENT[1]

Mr. Chairman, the entire Philippine Workers’ Delegation to this conference, as well as my organization - Federation of Free Workers (FFW), commend the Philippine Government for accepting the International Labor Organization High-Level Mission to 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, arrests of trade union leaders in connection with their activities, and widespread impunity for the perpetration of such acts” in the country, which, in the words of the Committee of Experts, “so as to obtain a greater understanding of all aspects of this case”.[2]

For us, the decision of accepting the High Level Mission, after a series of consultations with social partners, proves the willingness of the Government to follow the processes of the ILO. This will surely serve as the most appropriate forum for those who have complaints to be heard and to substantiate their claims and allegations, and for those who will be participating in the high-level mission to observe, investigate and verify, so that, in the end, only the truth shall prevail. Such decision, we believe, shows our country's commitment, as a member of this only tripartite international body, to the ideals of social justice and peace.

For sure, 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. We, therefore, call upon the Government to mobilize its resources to further continue the investigation and prosecution, and finally, penalize those responsible perpetrators.

Extra Judicial killings create an environment of fear that is not conducive to the exercise of civil rights and liberties as well as to the right to freedom of association and related fundamental ILO Standards. They erode the foundations of global and national institutions upon which rest the successful quest for social justice and peace. The concern of the ILO to look into this matter is not only timely but also consistent to its mandate.

We are confident that the High Level Mission of the ILO is not designed to find fault or to ascertain guilt. Rather, it is intended to dig into the immediate and remote causes, as objectively as it can, on why these incidences happen, so that it can craft appropriate responses, and through technical cooperation and assistance, help the country not only to fulfill its obligations as a member state, but also to suggest concrete steps and practical ways that the ILO and the social partners in the Philippines together can take in order to eliminate these obnoxious extra judicial killings.

As regards the long standing and repeated requests of the ILO supervisory mechanisms to align the Philippine Labor Code to its international standards, the tri-partite social partners in the Philippines adopted the “Philippine Decent Work Common Agenda 2008-2010” with the theme: “Narrowing Decent Work Deficits”, wherein a trade union program was adopted to review and reform the Philippine Labor Code, which is now under way, with my organization - the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) as lead organization, with the assistance of the ILO Sub-Regional Office in Manila and ILO ACTRAV. The program likewise has provided a venue for the various trade union organizations to reach a common ground towards making the Philippine Labor Code more compliant to ILO Standards; and to create an environment that is conducive to promoting in the country the Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize as well as the Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining.

The first leg of this program has recently been completed, made up of five consultations in an equal number of regions in the country, and attended by more than two hundred and fifty trade union leaders from the private and public sectors alike, representing more than 40 labor federations and workers’ alliances, that discussed what reforms of the Labor Code to pursue in the areas of promoting trade unionism and collective bargaining and the right to strike, while countering the deleterious effects of flexible employment arrangements on the fundamental rights and principles at work. Already, the Reports and Observations of the ILO’s supervisory mechanisms have been used as initial common ground to align our national law and practice to ILO Standards. The regional consultations also served as fora to discuss pending legislative bills proposed by some trade union organizations that will strengthen and realize the guarantees provided by our constitution to the rights of workers to self-organization, collective bargaining, the right to strike and security of tenure. Along the way, intensive social dialogue will be held to engage the social partners – employers, workers, government and civil society at-large – in the process of review and reform.

The next step will attempt to synthesize the findings and recommendations of the regional consultations and to ensure that the gender dimension suffuses these recommendations, from which participating trade unions will commonly propose legislative measures to delete the offending provisions of the labor code, as well as to push for other measures that will regain for the unions two decades of lost grounds to organize workers towards the attainment of social justice and peace.

Meantime, as regards the long standing and repeated requests of the ILO supervisory mechanisms to align Article 234 (c) of the Labor Code, which, in organizing of trade unions, requires the submission of the names of all its members comprising of at least twenty per cent (20%) of all employees in the bargaining unit where it seek to operate, we are glad to inform this august body that, with the passage of Republic Act 9481, such requirement has already been removed. Likewise, as regards the indiscriminate exercise of the power to assume jurisdiction over labor disputes as embodied in Article 263 (g), and the Committee’s requests to align the same to Convention No. 87, we are glad to note that as early as the 96th ILC Session in 2007, in this same room, the Head of the Philippine Government’s Delegation had expressly stated that the government agreed to limit the exercise of assumption of jurisdiction to cases involving “essential services” as defined by the ILO.

Mr. Chairman, the current program adopted by the tri-partite social partners in the Philippines, particularly the earlier-mentioned labor code review and reform, with the assistance and support from ILO-Subregional Office in Manila and ILO-ACTRAV, follows still another ILO-supported effort, also led by the FFW with the guidance of the Workers’ Specialist of the ILO Sub-Regional Office in Manila, that was completed late last year, to build the capacity of trade unionists on the use of international instruments and supervisory mechanisms to create an enabling environment for trade unionism and collective bargaining to thrive. Those that attended the training are now in the forefront of efforts to raise awareness of the social partners, in particular the workers, on the importance of international standards and the use of international supervisory mechanisms, with the end in view to reform the Labor Code of the Philippines in order to make it more consistent with the standards adopted by the ILO, and ratified by the Philippine Government.

Therefore, we must endeavor to point out what ILO Technical Cooperation can do to move countries towards the path of compliance to its Conventions and Recommendations. In our instance, technical cooperation has served the purpose of enhancing effective social dialogue on the way for the social partners to take action to align national law and practice to international labor and social standards.

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 resolve the problems of extra judicial killings and assist the social partners in their compliance with ILO Standards.

Thank you for your attention. And for those who will take part in the ILO High-Level Mission, welcome to the Philippines!

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[1] Of Atty. Allan S. Montaño, National President of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW-ITUC) to the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS), ILC June 11, 2009.
[2] Para. 4, “CEACR: Individual Observation concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87) Philippines (ratification: 1953): 2009”