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Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa
Timog Katagalugan- Kilusang Mayo Uno
(PAMANTIK-KMU)
Solidartiy of Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement
NEWS
4 December 2008
Reference: Marlon Torres
Public Information Office
Mobile No: +63.9089114936
Nestle workers arrest intel operatives
Protesting Nestle workers, under Union of Filipro Employees (UFE-DFA-KMU)
, arrested and turned over to police two (2) intelligence operatives
following and threatening them from Cabuyao, Laguna to Intramuros, Manila
today.
The operatives were cornered parked near Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila
at around 2:30 PM while surveilling a few meters from the Nestle workers’
activity in front of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) in
Intramuros.
One of the operatives, wearing a cream polo shirt with embroidered Nestle
logo, was identified as Ferdinand C. Dimayuga of the National Capital
Region Police Office (NCRPO) Deltacom-Technical Information Unit.
The other, when asked, introduced himself as Arnold Arcia, but different
on the ID he presented.
The two were turned over by the workers to the police, under Col.
Cresencio Viray of the Manila Police District (MPD), stationed at DoLE.
Nestle workers spotted the two operatives aboard a green tinted Toyota
Revo, with plate number WHK 136, in front of Gate 2 at Nestle factory in
Cabuyao at about 8:16 AM, shortly before 79 workers and their families
took off for a protest delegation to the Department of Labor and
Employment in Intramuros, Manila.
Francisco Barundia, one of the union officers said, “Sinundan kami ng mga
intel mula sa planta sa Cabuyao. Pagdating sa South expressway, tinapatan
nila ang tatlong jeep na convoy namin. Maraming beses na ibinababa nila
ang bintana sa kanan at iwinawagayway sa amin ang isang kalibre 45 baril.
(The intelligence operatives followed us from Nestle Cabuyao factory. Upon
reaching South Luzon Expressway, they were passing by our convoy of 3
jeepneys. In many occasions, they would lower the right side window and
wave to our view a 45-calibre gun.)”
“Police protection”
The police and the workers brought the arrested operatives to the MPD
General Assignment Section (GAS) at around 3:20 PM.
“Ang problema, pagdating sa MPD, hindi agad pinapasok ang dalawang
operatiba sa GAS. Bagkus, ang imbestigador at isang pulis ang pumasok sa
loob ng Revo. Kaduda-duda kung anuman ang ginawa at pinag-usapan nila
doon. (Problem is, upon reaching MPD, the two operatives were not
immediately taken to GAS. Instead, an investigator and a police got into
the Revo. It is suspicious whatever they did and discussed.),” said
Reynaldo Batitis, union board officer.
After the talks in the Revo, Batitis added that only Dimayuga was
presented to GAS. His companion’s identity was still unverified.
Acting union president Noel Alemania expressed, “This is not the only
incident where our legitimate protests to DoLE were being irked by
saboteurs and possible assassins.”
Alemania reported that four unidentified men used the same Toyota Revo and
tailed them to Manila on November 27. Earlier, on November 18, the workers
spotted men aboard a gray Toyota Altis from Cabuyao to Intramuros.
“However, the PNP itself is protecting the identity of these possible
killers,” said Alemania.
Who would castigate the violator?
Meanwhile, Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU)
expressed condemnation over the recent threat to Nestle workers.
Romeo Legaspi, PAMANTIK chairperson said, “This out-and-out threat,
intimidation, and harassment by hired intelligence operatives and
assassins prove Nestle management’s underhand moves to silence the
legitimate demands of workers, aside from trashing out the workers’
hard-earned legal achievements.”
The Nestle management’s refusal to include the Retirement Plan in the
negotiations for collective bargaining agreement (CBA) prompted the union
to strike since January 14, 2002. The Supreme Court validated the
Retirement Plan as a legitimate bargaining issue in 1991.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the Nestle management and union
return to negotiating table to settle the CBA. The management, however,
refused to comply with the highest court’s order.
“It must always be remembered that Nestle left a trail of blood in the
long years of its trade union repression. Two Nestle Cabuyao union
presidents have been killed, namely Meliton Roxas and Diosdado Fortuna,
that shamed the ‘good food, good life’ dictum of multinational Nestle. Its
market shares cannot cover its tarnished international reputation as a
union buster and butcher, including the killing of a unionist from Nestle
Colombia in 2005,” continued Legaspi.
“Nestle management’s influential role in trampling the country’s legal
system, coupled with its moves of intimidation, threat and killings, is
not in the slightest means different from the operations of the US-Arroyo
regime in suppressing and persecuting leaders and activists of legitimate
people’s organizations thru Oplan Bantay Laya II.”
Legaspi is one of the 72 Southern Tagalog leaders and activists facing
arrest warrants on charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated
murder for the killing of PNP elements in an alleged ambush by New
People’s Army in Mindoro Oriental.
Legaspi concluded, “Who would reprimand a gross human rights violator such
as Nestle, when the government itself persecutes and kills its own
people?”### |
