The case against Mr. Saladero and his fellow labor activists
carries all the hallmarks of political
prosecution, where prosecutors bring charges against political critics without
conducting any preliminary investigation or asking any questions.  Rather than operating independently as officers
of the court in pursuit of blind justice, the Government prosecutor in Mindoro
has blindly filed charges against the activists without conducting his own
independent investigation and without asking any questions at all about the
credibility of the only witness who allegedly places all 72 activists at the
scene of the NPA ambush on March 3, 2006.

The Prosecutor apparently never asked any of the 72
accused whether they had an alibi for that day.  He never bothered to ask why, in fact, did the
initial prosecution charge from 2006 state that only around 15 armed men attacked
the police but that now he was being told by the military that over 72 people
were involved. He did not ask how it was possible that somebody suffering from
a lifelong polio afflication could have been one of the combatants that day in
2006. He did not ask why the only witness in the case, who admitted being
“handled” by the military, did not have a lawyer present as required by law when
providing his supposedly incriminating statement. In fact, he never bothered to
ask any questions at all before filing these serious charges of murder.

Because the prosecutor never bothered to conduct a
preliminary investigation or ask any questions whatsoever, Mr. Saladero’s
attorney’s have filed a motion to dismiss
all charges on the grounds that the Prosecutor has violated Mr. Saladero and
his co-defendants’ constitutional right to due process.  They hope to obtain a speedy hearing to
prevent any lasting injury to Mr. Saladero, his family, and the workers who
rely heavily on his legal aid. Unfortunately, a speedy hearing will be
difficult to obtain, as the presiding judge who issued the warrants against Mr.
Saladero has already recused himself from the case and the case has already been
transferred to a second court. After more than 48 days in jail, Mr. Saladero
still has no hearing date set, and if history
is any indication,
he could be in jail for a year or more before he is able to defend himself.

Political prosecutions are fast becoming the
preferred method used by the Philippine government to spread fear across the
activist community and chill free speech in the Philippines. All too often, the
Department of Justice prosecutors and the presiding judges abet the
politicization of the court system by unquestioningly worked hand-in-hand with the
AFP.  In fact, the AFP is very open about its
partisanship and is very public about its avowed goal to dismantle, in any
way it can, progressive legal organizations it alleges are enemies of the
state.

As the UN Special Rapporteur noted in his findings
last fall, “Senior
Government officials are attempting to use prosecutions to dismantle the
numerous civil society organizations and party list groups that they believe to
be fronts for the CPP.” In particular, the Rapporteur identified the Inter-agency
Legal Action Group (IALAG), which is an ad hoc mechanism comprised of
representatives of several executive branch agencies including the AFP and the
Department of Justice (DOJ), whose sole purpose is to “bring charges against
members of these civil society organizations and party list groups.” According
to the Rapporteur, the reason for this extraordinary prosecutorial effort by
IALAG is that seldom have any of the “targets”, like Mr. Saladero, “actually committed
any obvious criminal offence.” Unfortunately, by working hand-in-hand with
IALAG, the prosecutors for the DOJ appear to be subverting the justice system
as a weapon for the government in its efforts to dismantle civil society
organizations, not as a tool to seek justice.

It is this policy that many view as responsible for
the spate of union killings in the past few years. The AFP has been publicly
accusing rank and file union members from the KMU of being terrorists and
have been conducting anti-union campaigns against KMU unions. In an effort to
defend itself from its own government, the KMU has filed
a case with the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Committee on
Freedom of Association in the hopes that the ILO can bring some international
pressure to bear on the Philippine government and end the killings, disappearances,
and military harassments. Now, the ILO can add politically charged criminal
prosecutions to that list of violations.

In response to the KMU’s complaint, the ILO has
requested that the Philippine government allow it to send in a high-level
mission to investigate the killings and harassments of union leaders and
members, as well as other freedom of association violations in the Philippines.
Despite the near unanimity amongst the Philippine trade union movement in favor
of the ILO’s visit, the government has, for the past two years, refused to
extend an invitation to the ILO.

Recently, when the Philippine government was asked by
the office of the United States Trade Representative whether the ILO would be
extended an invitation, the government responded
(check out the response to question 9) that it “categorically declares that it
is not averse to accepting the ILO high level mission.” Then, in almost the same
breath, the Government reversed its “categorical acceptance” position and
placed two significant qualifications to the invitation:

“Given,
however, the political and economic climate now prevailing in the country
today, coupled with the ongoing efforts related to the matter, the [government]
respectfully submits that it is best that the coming of the high-level mission
be held in abeyance pending results of the consultation.”

Apparently, the Government is attempting to pass
the buck and lay responsibility for the roadblocks to the ILO mission at the
feet of the business community. In its statement to the USTR, the government
stated, “The social partners have differing views on the matter which the
[government] has to consider.” Since the trade unions are nearly 100% in favor
of the ILO high-level mission, the social partner with the “differing view”, of
course, is the Employers Confederation of the
Philippines (ECOP), which represents the Philippine business community at
the ILO, including employers such as Nestle, Toyota, Honda, who have been engaged in
standoffs with their democratically-elected unions for years.  Since the KMU requested ILO intervention to
help protect its members, ECOP has been adamantly opposed to any investigation
by the ILO.

This should come as no surprise, though, considering
that ECOP’s members have been enjoying the strong pro-employer labor policies implemented
by the Philippine government that would be the subject of the ILO investigation.
In addition to killings and arrests of trade unionists, unions from across the Philippines
have felt the impact of governmental measures to limit freedom of association and
have consistently raised
challenges to the government’s anti-union policies to the ILO. Though the
more militant trade unions, such as the KMU, BMP, and the Solidarity of Cavite
Workers are bearing much of the brunt of the government’s draconian anti-union
policies, every union in the Philippines
has been weakened by policies that have made strikes illegal in practice and
forming a union nearly impossible.

While the employers have been enjoying a historic
period of “labor peace”, where strikes are impossible, workers are prevented
from forming unions, and union members have been losing jobs to contract
workers, Mr. Saladero and his colleagues, who have spent their lives asking
questions and seeking justice for workers, sit in jail as victims of a
prosecutor who has not yet bothered to ask any questions, and the government and
ECOP won’t let the ILO either.

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List of Labor Leaders
Charged by Philippine Government in the Mindoro
Murder Case