Workers from the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) denounced Executive Order (EO) 97 which they said was only a “token protection” for labor rights. The order was issued on September 19 as a response to the recommendation of the High Level Tripartite Mission held in 2023 to establish an agency that would safeguard labor rights and hold violators accountable.

“EO 97 is a distortion and an outright insult to workers’ demanding justice and accountability,” KMU said. The group added that the newly established agency had no credibility since it would be led by the very perpetrators of labor rights violations such as the military, police, and NTF-Elcac.

“The hands of the AFP and PNP are drenched with the blood of more than 100 workers and unionists killed under Duterte and Marcos Jr,” the group said. Dozens of unionists and labor organizers also remain imprisoned.

“The NTF-Elcac leads the campaigns of forced disaffiliation, red-tagging, and house-to-house operations against unions and labor organizations nationwide,” the group stated.

The group also said that EO 97 only legitimized making workers a target of the counter-insurgency campaign.

“It justifies the intervention and interference of the NTF-Elcac and the armed forces of the state in labor issues under the pretense of maintaining ‘industrial peace’ and a ‘whole-of-nation approach’,” KMU declared. The group called for the abolition of NTF-Elcac.