AFL-CIO Joins Clamor to Cut US Aid to the Philippines, Endorses Philippine Human Rights Act

Last week, the largest federation of unions in the United States joined the growing call in the US to cut US military aid to the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte. 

The AFL-CIO-- made up of 55 national and international unions, together representing more then 12 million active and retired members-- voted to endorse the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA). The PHRA calls on US Congress to “suspend United States security assistance to the Philippines until such time as human rights violations by Philippine security forces cease and the responsible state forces are held accountable.”

In its resolution released by the AFL-CIO Executive Committee, it stated-- “In the four years since the election of Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines, we have been increasingly troubled by the increased repression of labor, human rights, environmental and political activists in the Philippines…... at least 48 labor leaders and activists have been murdered…Meanwhile, the United States continues to provide taxpayer dollars to the Philippines military and police forces that are actively engaged in these egregious human rights violations.”

The statement went on to say-- “In fact, the Duterte government is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in East and Southeast Asia. More than $33 million of U.S. taxpayer money has been given to the police forces in the Philippines for their “war on drugs,” while the military conducts massive aerial bombardments of regions of the Philippines where workers are fighting for basic worker dignity... These weapons provided by U.S. taxpayers are turned on our brothers and sisters struggling for worker justice.”

Read the Executive Council Statement from the AFL-CIO here.

“We welcome and applaud the AFL-CIO's statement calling on congress to introduce and pass the PHRA. Our coalition of support for human rights and democracy in the Philippines is growing within the labor movement, faith groups, youth, educators and academics, community-based organizations and even city-level government agencies,” states Drew Elizarde-Miller of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. 

“Now with the pending passage of the Anti-Terror Law in the Philippines, we are seeing intensifying political repression in the country under Duterte’s rule, a targeted national campaign to silence and kill off his critics and voices of dissent. The Duterte government is even using the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown to justify its abuse of executive power and crackdown on the Filipino people, who continue to struggle against tyranny. As Filipinos in the US and our supporters, we must fight as well and echo the cries for democracy and justice,” states Yves Nibungco of Malaya Movement.  

"As Filipino-American youth, we want a future where the human rights violations in the Philippines aren't funded by US tax dollars. We don't want our families separated because of a US military presence in the Philippines, we don’t want to see the military occupation and violence in Philippine schools,” states Christine Fabro of Kabataan Filipino-American Youth Alliance based in Washington DC.

Co-sponsors of the PHRA include the Communication Workers of America, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, the United Church of Christ Justice and Peace Ministries and the Ecumenical Advocacy Network on the Philippines. For more information on the PHRA and how to support it, visit humanrightsph.org or email ichrpus@gmail.com.