Intense surveillances on CTUHR Cebu Workers Center, alarm staff and volunteers

     Suspicious looking, burly men, two of them sporting popular military haircut began, since last week of September, taking pictures and videos on people coming in and out of the compound where the CTUHR Cebu Center in Lapu-lapu city, Mactan (Visayas island-central part of the Philippines) is located.

    CTUHR volunteers in the area narrated that suspicious men, on various times and teams have been watching the lone entry to and exit from private compound where the CTUHR Cebu office is. Until the time of this writing, men seemingly in shifting have constantly watched the area.

    Butch Rosales, CTUHR volunteer assisting workers from nearby Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) and victims of demolitions surrounding the zone, reported that on October 2 while meeting was going on at the Center, a man placed a table in front of the compound, beside his motorbike, sit there for about half day and took the pictures of people coming in and out of the office. When other volunteers came out and took his photographs as well, they saw his hands trembling but did not leave. On the same, night, three men with bulging waists and sporting  military hair cut, called on Rosales, after the latter had taken his dinner at nearby eatery.  Rosales hurriedly went inside the compound and called another colleague to fetch him in fear that the men will get him.

    “This is intimidation plain and simple that is meant to frighten our volunteers and workers frequenting the center. This is hardly surprising, said Daisy Arago, CTUHR Executive Director.

     CTUHR Cebu Workers Center started operation only in April this year, but its staff and volunteers had facilitated trainings and significant number of basic human rights education. The Center is also supporting the activities of Unity for Workers Rights (U4WR)—a broad organization of workers and workers rights advocates established in February this year in response to massive retrenchments in MEPZ and neighbouring industrial center brought by global economic crisis.  

    “If the surveillance is meant to scare or stop us from doing our human rights work, and helping workers and urban poor discover their own rights guaranteed by law and international instruments, it will not work”, added Arago. On the contrary, surveillances and intimidation will only raise more questions and curiosity from workers silenced by a no union, no strike policy and practice common in export processing zone or special economic zones.  The formation of U4WR -- the first workers’ organization established in MEZ since the 1990’s with members coming from eight factories inside the zone is a sign of awakening, and thus deserves to be supported by any labor rights or human rights organizations,  Arago noted.

    MEZ 1 and 2 are considered by the government as one of the country’s most successful public export processing zones.  The two ecozones are host to  189 companies and contributes a large percentage of exports in electronics, electrical devices and clothing apparel.