[WAC news alert] WAC Condemns on-going and continued violence and attacks of unions in Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ)

[Workers' Assistance Center]

WAC Condemns on-going and continued violence and attacks of unions
in Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ)

Only days after eight big US apparel companies expressed their
concerns to President Arroyo about disturbing reports of violence and
threats of violence against Chong Won strikers in CEPZ, another union
in a Korean firm Phils Jeon Garment, Inc. had suffered another attack
from the now dreaded bonnet-masked men who seemed to be free to roam
around the tightly-secured economic zone.

According to Rev. Fr. Jose P. Dizon, executive director of the Workers
Assistance Center, Inc. (WAC) which assist the union at Phils Jeon,
the attack happened on 12:00 midnight of August 6, 2007.

He said that the strikers who were women were taken by surprise by
around ten bonnet-masked wearing men. According to the workers the men
were wearing denim short pants and T-shirts and some wearing black
jackets. The strikers were hog tied, blind folded, and loaded to a
waiting truck. They also dismantled their makeshift tents and had it
loaded to the truck along with their other belongings.

After that they were left just outside Gate Number 3 of the CEPZ in an
area called Bacao.

Dizon noted that the violent attacks on the strikers in CEPZ had now
taken a more sinister and bold extra-legal measures and we have
reasons to believe that it is being sanctioned by the Philippine
Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and its police force.

"Until now, PEZA have still to act on the request of the union at
Chong Won to investigate on how the armed and bonnet-masked men
were able to enter the tightly-guarded CEPZ on that unforgettable
date of June 10 and 11. And yet another similar attack happened to the
strikers of Phils Jeon Garment, " Dizon lamented. Furthermore, he said
it seems like PEZA is hiding something or evading this investigation.

Dizon further said that these recent violent attacks on the unions and
strikers at CEPZ only bolster the claim of the workers that there is
indeed a connivance between the PEZA and the capitalists and that as a
government agency attracting foreign investments, PEZA is also bent
on protecting and serving the interests of these investors to the
detriment of the workers and their basic rights.

August 07, 2007

For immediate release
Ref: Rev. Fr. Jose P. Dizon
WAC Executive Director