PNP claims Bulacan factory unions infiltrated by NPA

by Philippine Daily Inquirer, 29 Feb 2020

CITY OF MALOLOS –– Unions of four Bulacan manufacturing companies have allegedly been infiltrated by communist rebels through the Kilusang Mayo Uno, the police said during the February 27 launch of the Joint Industries for Peace Office (JIPCO) in the province.

The factories of Steel Asia and the Supreme Steel Pipe Corp. in the City of Meycauayan and the Indo Phil Textile Mill and Indo Phil Cotton Mill in Marilao town have been placed under JIPCO’s social investigation and class analysis, said Police Brigadier General Rhodel Sermonia, Central Luzon police director. Representatives of these companies attended the program.

KMU denied the links with the communists.

“The PNP’s claims are arrogant and malicious. KMU has been organizing workers into unions to fight for proper wages and has no association with the Communist Party of the Philippines nor the New People’s Army,” said KMU Secretary-General Jerome Adonis in Filipino on Saturday (Feb. 29).

KMU Vice-Chairman Lito Ustarez added: “According to the news and what I have read, the NPA is armed and lurk in the mountains. Workers stay inside factories to produce goods, and are the ones who seek out our help).”

During the JIPCO program, the police presented an alleged NPA leader identified only as “Ka Eric,” who blamed the KMU for the 55-day protest of 860 workers employed by condiments giant Nutri Asia in 2018, which cost the company P450 million in lost revenues.

Sermonia argued that JIPCO was not anti-labor. He said it harmonizes the interests of investors and workers and is “the first line of defense against radical labor infiltration.” JIPCO was earlier launched in the provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac.

“We have to protect business and economic zones as [the rebels] are capable of crippling industries,” Sermonia said.

“Ka Eric” claimed to have been a target of convicted abductor General Jovito Palparan and described his last posting as regional secretary general of activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan when it participated in the ouster of former president Joseph Estrada for corruption.

“Bulacan is the gateway to Manila,” he said, which communist rebels are allegedly trying to penetrate by fueling dissent./lzb