MANILA, Philippines—The International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations’ arm for labor concerns, is sending a fact-finding mission to the Philippines to investigate complaints of trade-union rights violations in the country.
The investigation from Sept. 22 to 29 would seek to determine if the Philippines under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been violating its international commitments to respect freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right to strike.
The government agreed to the ILO mission during the annual International Labor Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June.
The mission is in response to complaints of military involvement in union-busting and the killing of labor leaders, among other things, filed by the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in 2006.
KMU spokesperson Wendell Gumban said ILO representatives from Geneva, in coordination with ILO Asia-Pacific, will interview workers’ organizations and inspect two major manufacturing plants in Central and southern Luzon.
They will also meet with the families of victims and survivors of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and harassment related to labor disputes.
The KMU will launch in Manila today “ILO Watch,” an alliance of civil society groups formed to monitor the high-level ILO mission and to intensify the campaign against labor rights violations.
KMU chair Elmer Labog in a statement scored the Department of Labor and Employment for “bragging” about the general state of “industrial peace” in the country, saying that the trade union movement in the country has experienced its “most severe blows” in recent history.
According to KMU, 92 trade union leaders have been murdered since President-Arroyo assumed office in 2001.
The group suspects the killings were “extrajudicial” hits conducted by military-backed death squads, which indicates the Arroyo administration’s disregard for human rights, including labor organizing rights, it said. –Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer with a report from Marlon Ramos
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos
July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines
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