Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao Region (KMU-SMR) condemned Task Force Davao (TFD) for putting under surveillance and harassing organizers of the central union and of Transmision-Piston. KMU-SMR said these incidents are not isolated but concrete manifestations of the Marcos regime’s intensifying attacks on the labor movement.

On July 24, three TFD personnel led by a Sgt. Roy Tamon monitored and went to the Davao City house of Marvin Dacanay, KMU-SMR organizer in the agriculture and service worker sector. TFD interrogated Dacanay’s father and asked about his whereabouts.

Consistent with the TFD’s modus operandi, Dacanay was baselessly implicated in the armed struggle in the countryside. State forces even pressured Dacanay’s father to cooperate and convince his son to “surrender” and leave KMU-SMR, claiming it is a “front” of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.

Two weeks later, four state forces riding motorcycles seized Jeffrey Uypala, organizer of KMU-SMR and Transmision-Piston, near Abreeza Mall in Bajada, Davao City on August 8. According to KMU-SMR, Uypala was coming from a meeting of drivers when he was taken.

The four personnel forced Uypala to “cooperate” with the state and promised him financial assistance and protection. They took his private information and photos, which would likely be used for “surrender” documentation.

According to KMU-SMR, these attacks on the labor movement in Southern Mindanao are part of the Marcos regime’s implementation of the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD). The group added, “[The plan aims] to target and silence legal democratic organizations, non-government organizations, and other civil society groups critical of the Philippine government and its policies.”

In the previous month alone, Karapatan recorded similar cases of surveillance, harassment, and intimidation by state forces against organizers and activists in Cagayan, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Aklan, and Marikina City. The regime targeted farmer leaders, women leaders, and leaders of urban poor communities.

“This is a systematic campaign of the NTF-ELCAC to terrorize organizations and communities that uphold people’s rights, in furtherance of its repressive goals enshrined in Marcos’ NAP-UPD,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said. She also said these violate the rights to express opinion, association, and peaceful assembly.