PHILIPPINES: Eight workers illegally arrested and detained; police threaten to file fabricated charges 

[NOTICE: The AHRC have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Philippine authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Philippine authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.] 

PHILIPPINES: Illegal arrest and detention; threat of filing fabricated charges; denial of right to remain silent and access to legal counsel; failure to provide food and medicines to arrested persons; food and medicine deprivation; harassment and intimidation
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that eight workers have been illegally arrested and detained in Rosario, Cavite, Philippines since September 28. The arrested workers, namely Gemma Lape, Lorna Reli, Ivy Villasan, Ana Lou Estrimos, Glaysa Layesi, Josephine Bahar, Pablito Sapata and Rodelito Amo, have already been subjected for questioning in the absence of their legal counsel by police investigators attached to the Rosario Municipal Police Station (RMPS). The police have not provided them with food and medicines while in detention.

According to a report from labour group Workers’ Assistance Center (WAC), the workers were being held based on police claims they seized from them reading materials allegedly with subversive contents. The workers were at that time staying at a warehouse when Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) police and Jantro security guards arrived in their service vehicles and started arresting them. The Peza police and guards are accusing the workers of supplying food and for supporting other workers on strike nearby.

Prior to the incident, the Peza police and guards had imposed a food blockade at the picket line of workers on strike at Chong Won Fashion, Inc. (CWFI). (Please see our appeals on this case: UP-185-2006). The police and guard have since been harassment and intimidation those who provide support to workers on strike. Today, September 29, the Peza authorities have already prevented the entry of workers on strike at Chong Won Fashion from the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) compound.

Seven of the eight arrested workers, formerly employees of another Korean-owned garment factory SP Ventures, Inc., lost their jobs when their factory went bankrupt in May 2006. They were forced to stay at a warehouse to ensure that the remaining equipment of their insolvent factory would not be smuggled out unless the employer pays them with their separation pays, unpaid salaries and benefits. The insolvent factory then operating inside the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), threatened to abscond without paying financial obligations to their workers. The insolvency proceedings are continuing.

According to one of the arrested workers, Gemma Lape, they were on their way to a police station following their arrest when she overheard one of female Peza policemen telling her companion that she should be killed instead. The Peza police and an official were at the time questioning her regarding her involvement to striking workers. When she told them he had nothing to do with them, the female Peza policemen told her companion as: “Sanay ‘yan. I-salvage nalang natin (She’s smart. Why don’t we just kill her.” (In Philippine context, the term salvage is equivalent to extra-judicial execution).

Lape said investigators attached to the Rosario police and Peza police started illegally searching her and her companions’ personal belongings soon after they arrived at the police station. Her mobile phone too was seized. She was later taken to the investigation room while her seven companions were locked up at the detention center. The police did not and apparently refused to provide legal counsel as they subjected her to questioning. When a group of paralegals arrived at the police station to represent the eight victims, one of the policemen was so arrogant that he refused to acknowledge their appearance. They also insisted that they were not detaining the victims despite putting them behind bars.

When asked as to why they are questioning Lape in absence of a legal counsel and why they were not informing her of her right to remain silent, the policemen instead told the paralegal officers it is no longer required. They insist that persons subjected for questioning does not necessarily require a lawyer. He even ridiculed the paralegal officers as saying they should be thankful to them that they’re allowed in and spoke to them at the investigating section even though they are lawyers, and are not relatives of Lape. The police refused to allow private conversation between the paralegal officers and Lape. One of the policemen even intimidated and yelled at one of the paralegal officers for showing gestures he claimed disrespectful. “Huwag kang bastos, tandaan mo nasa police station ka(Don’t be disrespectful. I’m warning you, you’re inside our police station),” the police told one of the paralegal.

The police refused to free the arrested workers claiming they had seized from them documents with subversive contents. When the paralegal requested the police investigators to provide food and medicines for the detainees, they simply replied that they didn’t have any.  The paralegal had to get food and buy medicines for the detainees. Some of the arrested workers were sick at the time of their arrest due to a heavy downpour.

As of this writing, the workers are still being detained at the Rosario Police Station without any formal charge. It was learned that the police investigators threatened to file rebellion charges and for illegal possession of subversive documents against the victims. The documents the police investigators claimed subversive are actually education materials about the history of labour movement, workers rights, right to create labour unions and the like.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the concerned agencies listed below demanding for the immediately and unconditional release of the arrested workers. The allegations that one of the Peza police threatens to kill one of the victims must be looked into. The police investigators must be investigated for denying the arrested victims right to remain silent, to have access to legal counsel, food and medicines while in detention. If it is found that they have committed acts violating the Republic Act 7438, they must be charged.

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