THE TAGGING of labor leaders and unionized workers as communists continues in the current administration, a move that has led workers to disaffiliate from their labor unions over fear, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch alleged that Filipino workers employed at companies located south of Philippine Island of Luzon have received threats from both police and military personnel, ranging from accusations of participating in the armed communist rebellion to harassment and intimidation.
“The Philippine government’s sinister and at times deadly practice of ‘red-tagging’ has become a serious threat to labor rights in the country,” Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report sent to BusinessWorld.
“President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. should direct officials to end this abusive practice and ensure that government authorities uphold the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively,” she added.
Red-tagging is the act of accusing an individual or organization of sympathizing with communism, prominently used against opposition figures in the Philippines.
It is a strategy used by the government against those perceived as “enemies of the state,” according to a dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen in a 2015 case.
“It’s clear to us that the Philippine government is using red-tagging to prevent workers from organizing and unionizing,” Jerome M. Adonis, secretary general of labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), said in the same report.
The act of state-sponsored red-tagging has led to two unions to disaffiliate from KMU and a reduction of unionized workers across the country, Kamz Deligente, deputy director of the Manila-based Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, said in the same report.
According to KMU data, 72 union leaders and members have been killed since 2016.
Mr. Marcos should disband the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), according to Human Rights Watch, noting it “has been at the forefront of red-tagging.” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio