By Sonny Melencio
At 4pm on Tuesday, November 12, Filemon "Popoy" Lagman, chairperson of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP — Solidarity of Filipino Workers), was arrested by eight carloads of military operatives of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The arrest happened at the lobby of Sulo Hotel, where Lagman had a meeting. The military men, in plain clothes and carrying rifles, pointed their guns at Lagman and whisked him away to the waiting cars in full view of stunned onlookers.
After a search by his family and colleagues in the labour movement, Lagman was eventually traced to Camp Aguinaldo, where he is still being detained. At 9.00 that night, trade union leaders from BMP and other federations staged a picket and rally in front of Camp Aguinaldo to protest against Lagman's arrest. Both the union leaders and the media were barred from entering the camp.
Labour leaders in Manila called a press conference on Wednesday denouncing the arrest. Earlier that day, BMP organised a march of 500 people and a rally in front of the presidential palace (Malacanang) to denounce the arrest.
APEC protests
Lagman's arrest came on the heels of mounting labour protests against the soon-to-be-held Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila. The BMP, together with the National Confederation of Labour (NCL), and the Kapatiran ng mga Pangulo ng Unyon sa Pilipinas (KPUP — Fraternity of Union Presidents in the Philippines) held a press conference on November 6 announcing Philippine labour's opposition to the APEC summit and its agenda.
They represent the biggest trade union formation in the country today. The BMP has around 200 unions with a total membership of 130,000 in Metro Manila alone. The NCL has more than 400 unions, while KPUP has around 800 union affiliates. The three organisations have called a general strike on November 25, the date of the official APEC summit, unless Lagman is released.
The three are hosting a four-day counter-conference of trade unionists from across the country on November 20-23. They are also organising a protest caravan of workers which will snake its way from Manila to Subic, the site of the official APEC summit.
The counter-conference, entitled "SLAM APEC" or Solidarity of Labour Movement Against APEC, is expected to be participated in by 2000 local union presidents representing roughly two-thirds of all unions in the country. It will feature a discussion of various labour issues and problems related to the neo-liberal agenda of the Philippine government and the "globalisation" projects being engineered by APEC, GATT, IMF-World Bank and other related institutions.
The highlight of the conference is the drafting of a labour agenda which will become the basis of campaigns and actions of the participating unions.
Since a few days before Lagman's arrest, protest activities against APEC have been steadily building up all over the country. The labour districts of Metro Manila are pasted over by posters with the slogans "SLAM EVIL, SLAM APEC" designed after the popular Phantom movie currently showing in the city. There have been daily protest actions, with themes ranging from the massive demolition of urban poor houses (as part of the "clean-up drive" of the government for the APEC summit) to the unemployment and privatisation program of the government — all related to the APEC summit and its agenda.
Just recently, the BMP organised a rally in front of the Malaysian embassy following the dispersal of the East Timor Conference in Kuala Lumpur. The BMP leaders declared that they would welcome Indonesian dictator Suharto and Malaysian strongman Mahathir with a big protest rally during the APEC summit. Aside from the BMP, a host of other groups are organising conferences and protest activities. One is the NGO conference against APEC and another is the recently concluded Bayan/KMU's Anti-Imperialist Globalisation Conference.
Appeal for solidarity
Following the arrest of Lagman, a BMP Action Alert statement was circulated. The statement reads in part:
"The arrest of Popoy Lagman is a foolish attempt on the part of the Philippine government to pre-empt labour resistance against the APEC summit. It is as stupid as the recent position of the Philippine government to bar Nobel Peace Prize Awardee Jose Ramos Horta from visiting the country as this would be an 'embarrassment' for the Indonesian dictator Suharto who is going to grace the summit. It is as brazen as the violent dispersal of the Asia-Pacific East Timor Conference (APCET II) in Kuala Lumpur which is also engineered to please the dictators in the region. It is as vile as the torture and the continuing detention of Indonesian unionists and activists opposing the dictatorship of Suharto.
"The BMP, however, sees that the harassment and repression (not only in the Philippines) will continue leading to the official APEC summit. The arrest of Lagman and the recent events in the region point to a calibrated design by the repressive regimes to break the backbone of the surging labour movement in Indonesia and the Philippines. It is also out to silence the resistance of the East Timorese people and out to disperse the gathering momentum of activism in the region.
"There will be more repression to come unless the international community, especially the trade unions and workers' organisations in the region and around the globe take decisive action against the unfolding events.
"... the BMP urges you to join us in the following protest actions:
"1. Send letters or messages denouncing the arrest of Lagman. Specifically call for his immediate release as his detention indicates the most recent attempt to silence labour opposition against APEC and the anti-worker agenda it represents. Also denounce the continuing atrocities committed by the repressive governments of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia against the peaceful protests of the peoples in the region.
"You can send your messages to the Philippine embassies or consulates in your country, or directly to: President Fidel Ramos, Malacanang Palace, Philippines.
"2. Organise protest activities in your own country as a signal of peoples' solidarity and cooperation in the region, as opposed to the competitive spirit and the divide-and-rule tactics being used by the repressive regimes.
"3. Organise delegations of your unions and your organisations to the counter-APEC conference in Manila, as this will indicate our determination not to be cowed and to continue with the building of a regional/international network that opposes the neo-liberal agenda and the imperialist-driven globalisation in the region."
On November 14, Lagman announced that he was beginning a hunger strike in protest against his continued detention.