February 18, 2021
Dear Partners and Colleagues,
In the spirit of defending our fundamental freedoms, we inform you of the continuing saga of red-tagging by the Philippine government to civil society organizations, specifically, the intensifying harassment and attacks on labor organizations and church people.
Research and education work is not a crime. The Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) strongly denounces the allegations of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA). In the NICA’s letter to the Bureau of Immigration (BI), EILER is branded as a Communist-Terrorist Group-affiliated. The said letter was received by our volunteer staff from the BI only on February 3, 2021.
The red-tagging endangers the lives of EILER’s Board of Trustees, its staff, and the workers it serves. Our volunteer researcher and lay missionary, Otto De Vries, has been maliciously accused by NICA that he was “engaged and actively participating in protest rallies of Communist-Terrorist Group (CTG) front organizations.” Under EO 70 (2018), the NICA sits as a member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and heads the NTF-ELCAC’s Situational Awareness and Knowledge Management (SAKM) Cluster.
The wrongful allegation is another violation by the Philippine government in its relentless series of harassment and attacks on church people and labor rights defenders. Further, the attacks on civil society organizations indicate the eroding democratic governance in the country, in a critical time the focus should be on relief and recovery amid the pandemic.
Contrary to the accusations of NICA, EILER neither supports terrorism nor publishes materials to recruit terrorists. EILER is an established non-profit, non-governmental organization that has tirelessly advanced labor education, research, capacity-building, campaigning and advocacy work since 1981. It has published numerous research materials and has produced documentaries on the plight of the Filipino workers for 40 years.
We would like to assure our partners that we will continue to serve the workers through our projects, research and education work. We also appeal for your support in this very difficult time. We hope that you can sign on to endorse our official statement (attached), in support of our campaign to end red-tagging, as well as to put an end to the culture of impunity.
We urge our partners, civil society organizations and trade unions to stand in solidarity with EILER in condemning the attacks and in defending our democratic rights. We kindly ask for you to:
1) Issue statements supporting EILER’s call for defending labor rights and defending our institution so that we may continue serving the workers. You may also include our publicly-shared photos from any joint activities of our organizations and the hashtags below for online posting.
2) Issue statements supporting Otto’s mission to the Philippines.
3) Share our campaign to stop red-tagging and hold those in power accountable for perpetuating the culture of impunity.
4) Endorse our statement by affixing your signature.
Our calls:
No to Red-tagging!
Hands off Otto! Hands off Labor Rights Defenders!
Research and education work is not a crime!
Stand with EILER! Hands off civil society organizations!
Thank you very much for your solidarity.
Sincerely,
Rochelle M. Porras
Executive Director
Institusyong Ekumenikal para sa Edukasyon at Pananaliksik sa Paggawa
Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER)
