Labour lawyer Remigio Saladero of the Philippine Pro-labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE) is being held by police on a number of trumped up criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit rebellion and participating in an undisclosed murder.

Remigio Saladero

A few days earlier, Saladero had been falsely accused of being part of a group of New Peoples’ Army (NPA) rebels who allegedly set fire to a Globe Telecom cell phone tower in Lemery, Batangas.

In fact, Saladero was in his law office in E. Rodriguez Quezon City meeting with a client at the time the fire was set.

Atty. Saladero is the chief legal counsel for Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), an independent trade union that the Philippine government brands as a communist front. For the past year, PLACE staff and trade union clients have been harassed by police and their office has been under intense surveillance.

According to Philippine Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), the detention of Atty. Saladero on these false and malicious charges poses a serious danger to his life and creates fear among his trade union clients.

This incident is the latest desperate attempt to harass and frighten Atty. Saladero and other PLACE lawyers for handling even the most controversial labor cases on pro-bono basis such as the Hacienda Luisita and Nestle Philippines. PLACE handles around 700 labor, human rights, criminal, civil and administrative cases on pro-bono basis. Harassments to PLACE law office started in 2006, during the height of political turmoil experienced by the Arroyo government. PLACE had been under intense surveillance for months since then.

Please read this update!

Dec 17, 2008 - More Action Needed to Protect Philippine Labour Organisers