JUSTICE FOR KA JUDE FERNANDEZ! CONDEMN THE INTENSIFYING STATE TERRORISM UNDER MARCOS-DUTERTE RULE!
The Asia-Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) strongly calls for justice for 67-year old Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) labor organizer, Jude Fernandez, who was extrajudicially killed by police forces in Binangonan, Rizal on September 29. APCHRP vehemently condemns the intensifying state terrorism and furtherance of “tokhang style” war against drugs under the Marcos-Duterte administration. It only worsen the already systematic and wanton violation of human rights in the country.
Contrary to police accounts, a fact-finding mission conducted last October 3 found out that Fernandez did not resist (“nanlaban”) but was brutally killed by members of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. Progressive groups and people on the ground lament that again the Marcos-Duterte administration is using the war against drugs as a pretext to target civilian activists and cower the community into fear and submission as his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte did.
Fernandez is the 72nd union organizer killed by state forces since 2016. Before him are Ka Manny Asuncion in Cavite and Ka Dandy Miguel in Laguna both are killed for asserting the rights of Filipino workers for rights, jobs and wages. His killing happened eight months after the International Labour Organization investigated the worsening and intensifying rights violations and killings of Filipino workers through the High Level Tripartite Mission in January this year.
When would these senseless killings end? When will the Marcos-Duterte government realize that silencing and cowering the Filipino people into fear and submission through state terrorism resolve nothing? The Filipino people are suffering from poverty, hunger, landlessness, low wages and skyrocketing prices of basic commodities. Instead of addressing the economic woes and alleviating the misery of the Filipino people, the Marcos-Duterte government killed Ka Jude Fernandez, abducted Job David, Jimboy Del Monte, and Alia Encela in Mindoro and Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro in Bataan and many others before them. An utter neglect of responsibility to protect the rights and welfare of the Filipinos resorting to tyranny and fascism.
The APCHRP together with the international community standing with the Filipino people firmly demands justice for Ka Jude Fernandez, and all victims of state terrorism and attacks. We are adding our voice urging the Commission on Human Rights to do an impartial investigation. The Marcos-Duterte government to end the systematic and wanton human rights violations and extra-judicial killings, bring the perpetrators of these dastardly acts to the halls of justice. Address the root-causes of Filipinos misery and poverty.
