France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers: “President Duterte is scared of the words ‘human rights’”

France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers: “President Duterte is scared of the words ‘human rights'”

In the background, demonstrators march on Congress in Manilla, on 22 July 2019, to denounce the deaths caused by the Filipino government’s ‘war on drugs’.

(Fredk/Education International-AP/Bullit Marquez)

Human rights violations continue to rise in the Philippines. Under the pretext of wanting to combat crime, the government is attacking the defenders of human and trade union rights in an effort to silence criticism. Since its launch in 2016 by President Rodrigo Duterte, the ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in more than 29,000 extrajudicial killings. On International Human Rights Day on 10 December, the global trade union movement is holding a special day of action in support of trade unionists in the Philippines.

Trade union activist France Castro is the former secretary-general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) of the Philippines and is currently a parliamentarian in the House of Representatives. In April this year, Castro received the 2019 Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights, and October she won the Febe Velasquez Trade Union Rights Award – both for her work in defence of trade union and human rights. She met with Equal Times in October, a week before two ACT members were shot by masked gunmen in their classroom, to discuss the violence and harassment facing trade unionists in the Philippines, as well as her fight to defend the rights of the Lumads, an Indigenous population in the south of the country.

The ITUC Global Rights Index lists the Philippines as one of the ten worst countries in the world for workers. What is the reality on the ground?

Being a trade unionist now in the Philippines is dangerous, because the Duterte administration doesn’t like those of us who are fighting for human rights, for trade union rights and who oppose the different anti-people policies of his government. That is why our union is now experiencing political persecution.

Last year, for example, we were profiled. The members of the National Security Council led by the police had a memorandum, though they did not admit it, and they would go from one school to another, asking for members of the ACT. This is a violation of our rights and of the privacy of our members, and of course, it also affects our freedom of association. Our members are afraid and in some regions they are leaving our union.

Our members and leaders have also received threats, sometimes death threats. Recently, the president of our union in Region 5 (Bicol) received an envelope containing his profile and the profile of his family members. It is a form of intimidation.

Many members of your union are victims of ‘red-tagging’ [editor’s note: a practice aimed at tarnishing a person’s reputation and discouraging them from organising, asserting their rights and criticising government policies]. What are the consequences?

In the Philippines when you are red-tagged, or when there is a terrorist tagging of your union or your organisation, it means you are linked to supporting terrorist groups…which is absolutely not true. So if you are red-tagged, that means that the police, the military, the paramilitary and other interest groups target you.

That is what is happening, not only in my union, not only in the progressive block, but in the opposition, the media, journalists, and other sectors like women’s groups and the poor, etc.

How does your union fight against propaganda and abuse?

We denounce the profiling of our members publicly, through press conferences and press releases. We also file cases against the police. We continuously educate our members about fake news, unfounded terrorist tagging and red-tagging against us. We are continuing to educate our union members and we report incidents. And in the Congress, through my office in the House of Representatives, and with my colleagues in the Nationalist block we continue to file resolutions, to investigate these human rights violations.

Our union is very grateful for the international support given by international organisations. It helps protect our leaders and members, and it says to the Duterte administration that our members, our unions, are protected internationally. The awards we have received, like the Arthur Svensson Prize and the Febe Velasquez Trade Union Rights Award, also give us some protection. This is proof that what we are doing as unionists is right. I hope it will inspire woman trade unionists to try hard, to help their union, and to stay in the union.

And our union members should not be afraid. They should continue to fight for their rights. We know that we have the backing of international solidarity and that this protects us as long as we continue our union work.

You also opposed the government to support the education rights of Indigenous people. Why this commitment?

We support the most disadvantaged and the most marginalised. This includes the Lumads, an Indigenous people living in the southern Philippines. Since time immemorial, they have been fighting for their ancestral domain, for self-determination, but they have scarce access to social services because they are very far from the city. Their land is under threat from mining companies and agri- business, it is being militarised, and the government is doing everything it can to drive the Lumads to live in the city. The government has abandoned their right to education, that’s why the community themselves built the schools, that we call the ‘Luman schools’, with the help of NGOs and civil society organisations.

We helped them with the school curriculum, the school supplies and with teacher training. The Duterte government resents us for this support because in its eyes, the Lumads who resist government control of their territories are ‘rebels’ or ‘terrorists’; if we help them, we are accused of helping ‘terrorists’.

In November 2018, at the invitation of the Lumads, I participated in a national mission in their region because their schools had been closed. There were roadblocks in the area set up by the authorities. The Lumads thought that as I am a parliamentarian, the military and police would let me through, but on the contrary, shots were fired and stones were thrown at my vehicle. My companions and I were arbitrarily detained on false charges for 18 hours by the police.

Has your union taken a position on extrajudicial executions by the authorities?

Yes, since the Duterte administration started its bloody war on drugs in 2016, it has resulted in thousands of people being killed on the streets. We take a strong stance against the policy of the Duterte administration. He is very mad at that. He doesn’t want people to oppose anything he is doing. He is always afraid of the words ‘human rights’.

This article has been translated from French.