NATIONAL labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno threw its support today behind human rights group Karapatan’s call for the resignation of the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, saying that the government official has indeed been acting as a spokesperson of the police and the military.
KMU condemned Etta Rosales, CHR chief, for: blaming people’s organizations for the violent dispersal of the protests during Pres. Noynoy Aquino’s State of the Nation Address, condemning the presence of a foreigner in the said protest, saying that policemen’s human rights were violated by the residents of Agham Road who resisted the demolition of their homes last July 1, and agreeing with the promotion of Brig. Gen. Eduardo Año, among the accused in the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos, and Brig. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, among those responsible for the arrest, torture and detention of the Morong 43.
“With a human rights chief like Rosales, the Aquino government doesn’t need a spokesperson for the military and the police. She has been acting like a loyal stooge of Aquino, not a CHR chief, not even a human rights advocate,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.
“Aquino likes to boast about democracy in the country but cannot even appoint a truly independent human rights advocate to the CHR post. It is clear that for Aquino, even the CHR chief should be defending the government and upholding its counter-insurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan,” he added.
The labor center said Rosales has not done anything about rampant violations of workers’ rights, saying four leaders of transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper and Operators Nationwide (PISTON) have fallen victims to extra-judicial killings since Aquino became president.
It also cited the case of the more than 130 workers of Pentagon Steel Corporation in Quezon City who were removed from work for protesting the non-implementation of their Collective Bargaining Agreement and have been harassed almost daily by police forces and company goons since starting their picket-protest last April.
“Workers across the country are being removed from work for forming unions, yet the CHR under Rosales has done nothing about this. She speaks up only when she is set to defend the police and the military, never defending the workers and the poor,” Soluta said.
“She is very different from Leila de Lima who, when she was still CHR chief, kept her independence from the government and helped victims of human-rights abuses. Rosales may brag about her activist past, but her fascist present continues to be exposed,” he added.
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