Noting that “red-tagging” legal and legitimate unions poses grave dangers to the life of an organization and its leaders, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO) against the Department of Education (DepEd).
(Courtesy of ACT Philippines)
ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio, in a statement issued Thursday, April 20, said that intensified “red-tagging” of no less than the Vice President and Secretary of DepEd Sara Duterte against teachers’ unions only indicates that the Philippine government is “not upholding” the recommendations made by the High-Level Tripartite Mission of the International Labor Organization (ILO-HLTM) when the body investigated the cases of violations against freedom of association last January.
ACT file the complaint following the spate of “red-tagging” statements issued by Duterte against the group.
Received by ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Chihoko Asada Miyakawa, the complaint reported of the DepEd statements released through its official Facebook page, signed by the DepEd Secretary, red-tagging ACT on March 4 and 6, 2023, concerning the announced strike by transport groups, as well as on March 27, 29, 30 and 31, 2023 in which the DepEd connected the Masbate armed conflict to ACT’s call for the hiring of 30,000 teachers.
ACT also included the joint press conference of the DepEd and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on April 4 which he said was “solely dedicated to incriminate ACT and its leaders to armed revolution.”
Basilio said that “red-tagging” legal and legitimate unions is a “violation of the freedom of association.”
It also “poses grave dangers to the life of our organization and leaders as records show that rampant red-tagging preceded all harassment, intimidation, illegal arrest and detention, and extra-judicial killings perpetrated against unionist in recent years.”
Basilio said that the ILO-HLTM has observed that despite the government’s denial that a red-tagging policy is in place, the “repeated reference of government agencies to the alleged connection of workers and unions to the Communist Party of the Philippines clearly belies this claim.”
For ACT, there is no other way to protect its right to free association but to push back and make accountable those who “dare trample” on it.
“We cannot give up our unions as it is our only recourse to assert our economic and political rights, especially in this time of grave economic crisis and state repression,” Basilio. “We are set to bring our case to other responsible bodies in the coming days,” he added.