The ITF has expressed its outrage to the Philippines government over the second murder of a transport trade union leader in less than three weeks.
At the beginning of July Antonio ‘Dodong’ Petalcorin, president of the Network of Transport Organizations, was shot outside his home. Now Kagi Lucman, president of the Notre Dame Village Operators and Drivers Association – part of the ITF-affiliated National Confederation of Transportworkers’ Unions – has been murdered after dropping his children at school. He is the sixth Filipino transport trade union leader to be murdered since March 2012.
The ITF has protested to the president of the Philippines and to the chair of the Philippines government Commission on Human Rights. ITF acting general secretary, Steve Cotton, told them:
Lucman is now the sixth transport union leader murdered during the three years of President Aquino’s presidency.
The ongoing lack of action from the government around these murders appears to confirm the Philippines’ international reputation as a place where union leaders are targets for extra-judicial killings and where a culture of impunity is allowed to exist.
The ITF is committed to working with our partners internationally to campaign for justice to be done and for the Philippines to become a place where transport union workers can operate without fear. In less than three weeks the online LabourStart campaign, in which we were involved, has received over 11,000 signatures demanding justice for Petalcorin. Our affiliates in the Philippines have written several letters to President Aquino, calling for justice to be done. We will continue to monitor and report on the situation to our global audience of some 4.5 million workers. We will continue to take action, and to support our affiliates to campaign against these murders.
The ITF is cooperating with LabourStart on a campaign against the killings and the culture of impunity in the Philippines. For details see here.
