Philippines’ war on drugs kills construction workers
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs is killing construction workers.
This was the conclusion of a demographic analysis conducted by Philippine-based Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS) into the widespread killings linked to the government’s anti-drug campaign.
IDEALS’ study, comprised of some 500 cases of human rights violations dating from late 2016 to February 2020, reported that all cases involved victims who were blue-collared workers, with a majority of them working as construction workers or carpenters.
The study, which focused on Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Cebu, also said that a sizable portion of the victims belonged to the informal sector as minimum-wage earners in urban poor communities.
“We stand in solidarity with our Philippine affiliates and partners in expressing our outrage over the climate of killing and impunity that has engulfed the country. The study confirms what we have been saying for quite some time now—the government’s war on drugs is a war against the poor, particularly workers,” BWI General Secretary Ambet Yuson said.
Yuson said that while the result of the study is appalling, it is not surprising. He said that many employed Filipinos living in poverty are construction workers. He said that before COVID-19, construction work in the Philippines is one of the few blue-collar jobs accessible to poor people despite the industry’s lack of job security, low wages and unsafe working conditions.
“Overworked, underpaid and with no job security, Filipino construction workers now end up dead under the country’s drug war. This is unacceptable! We call on our fellow global unions to continue raising their voices and building awareness on the deteriorating human and labour rights situation in the Philippines,” Yuson asserted.
IDEALS’ study recorded 252 killings and 229 arbitrary detentions that went with other instances of torture and enforced disappearances. Around 45 percent of the cases included other violations such as planting evidence, property theft, forceful ingestion of substance, extortion, and sexual violence.