Republic of the Phili
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

VIFTEENTH CON
‘Second Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO, D374

Introduced by Representatives NERL JAVIER COLMENARES, TEDDY A. CASINO,
RAFAEL V. MARIANO, [UZVIMINDA C. ILAGAN, EMMI A. DE JESUS,
-ALATINO und ANTONIO L. TINIO

AN ACT
PROHIBITING AND PENALIZING THE DEPUTIZATION
OF ANY UNIT OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
AND / OR ANY OF ITS PARA-MILITARY GROUPS
FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT DUTIES IN LABOR AND AGRARIAN DISPUTES

EXPLANATORY NOTE

‘The 1987 Constitution provides that the State shail afford full protection to the rights of workers and
peasants, particularly their rights to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiation, and
peaceful concerted activities to enable them to pursue and protect their legitimate and collective
interests and aspirations (Article If, Section 18 and Article 1H¥, Section 8).

‘Yet these rights that Filipino workers ad peasants are supposed tp enjoy are being systematically
violated. Specifically, workers and peasants, often in the midst of a collective bargaining or negotiation
‘or € dispute, have heen either killed, abducted, tortured, or harassed.

‘One of the more infamous examples of violent suppression of workers’ and peasants’ rights was the
Hacienda Luisita massacre.

On November 16, 2004, during the violent dispersal of the Hacienda Luisita workers’ picket fourteen

(14) people were killed including two children aged 2 and 5 years old who died of suffocation from

teargas lobbed by the police and army dispersal teams. At least 35 people sustained gunshot wounds,
33 were arrested and detained and another hundred were wounded.

Comparing the scene te a war zone, eyewitnesses recounted that prior to the camage, elements of the
69% and 703 infantry Battalions of the'Philippine Army belonging to the Northern Luzon Command
of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were deployed in the area together with ten (10) military trucks,
three (3) armored personnel carriers, and several fire trucks to enforce the Assumption of Jurisdiction
issued by then Secretary of Labor Patricia Sto. Tomas.



Then the melee erupted when the police dispersal team, supported by the army personnel broke the
workers’ picketline in front of the hacienda. The combined elements of hundreds of military and police
forces with big-powered firearms attacked the picketing workers and thousand of its supporters. As the
APC rammed into the workers’ barricade, the military and police repeatedly used water cannons, high-
powered rifles, truncheons and teargas to disperse the strikers and their supporters and to eventually
open the factory gates

indeed, the scene was so horrifying. The striking farmers and farm workers who were merely
demanding to own a piece of land to till for a living were met by ruthless violence — and a hail of
bullets — from the police and the military.

‘One lesson that should be leamed from the Hacienda Luisita massacre, as in several other similar cases,
is that the deployment of military forces in arcas with labor and agrarian disputes is a major
contributory element in the eventual violation of the workers’ and peasants’ rights to life, to se:f-
organization and to concerted action.

Verily, soldiers are not trained and equipped to take on law enforcement duties and functions. which is
the domain of the regular police force. In fact, owing to their military training and orientation. these
military personnel consider the striking workers and peasants as their “enemies” who must be
suppressed or crushed.

With the above background, this bill proposes to ban the deployment of any military unit in arcas with
impending or ongoing labor or agrarian disputes. It seeks to enforce the rights of workers and peasants
to selt-organization and concerted action and to check the continuing state-initiated violations of such
rights.

‘The immediate approval of this bill is eamestly requested.

Approved,

—
cod AC~
TEDDY A. CASIRO

Bayan Muna Party-List

NERI JAVIER COL!

even rty-List

bebe ns
‘AEL Y. MARIANO LU: AC. TLAGAN

Anakpawis Party-List Gabriela Women’s Party


EMMI A. Ch RAYMOND V. PALATINO

Gabriela Women's Party taan Party-List

ACT Teachers Party-List


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

Ban
HOUSE BILL NO,_9374

Introduced by Representatives NERI JAVIER COLMENARES, TEDDY A. CASINO,
RAFAEL V. MARIANO, LUZVIMINDA C, ILAGAN, EMMI A. DE JESUS,
ANTONIO L. TINIO and RAYMOND V. PALATINO

AN ACT
PROHIBITING AND PENALIZING THE DEPUTIZATION
OF ANY UNIT OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
AND /OR ANY OF ITS PARA-MILITARY GROUPS
FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT DUTIES LN LABOR AND AGRARIAN DISPUTES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION L, Declaration of Policy. - Consistent with the principles cnshrined in the 1987
Constitution, it is hereby declared a policy of the State to afford full protection to the rights of workers,
farmers, and farmworkers to enable them to pursue and protect their legitimate and collective interests
and aspirations,

Towards this end, the State shall ensure that the workers' and peasants! rights to sel-organization,
collective bargaining and negotiation, and peaceful concerted activities shall at all times be recognized
and respected when legal disputes arise from their democratic struggles to advance and/or defend their
social, economic, cultural and political rights.

SECTION 2. Definitions.-

8) Agrarian Dispute cefers to any legal controversy relating to tenurial arrangements over lands
devoted to agriculture, including disputes in negotiating, fixing, or changing the terms or conditions of
such tenurial arrangements. The term shall also include any controversy relating to compensicion of
lands acquired under RA 6657, and other terms and conditions of transfer of ownership from
tandowners to farmworkers, tenants and other agrarian reform beneficiaries.


b) Labor Dispute refers to any legal controversy between employers and employees that is related to
employment or to the terms of employment.

©) Deputization, as used in this Act, means the act of appointing any unit of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) or any unit of its paramilitary forces to take charge of law enforcement duties in the
areas with impending or existing labor or agrarian disputes.

SECTION 3. Prohibited Acts. -

) Except for the President in instances where there is an urgent need to quell lawless violence, no
person shall order the deployment and/or deputization of any unit of the AFP or any unit of its
paramilitary forces for law enforcement duties in areas with impending or existing labor or agrarian
disputes.

Any said order shall not be invoked as a justification for the deployment and/or deputization of military
and paramilitary troops in the areas mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

b) Judges and officers of quasi-judicial bodies involved in litigating labor and agrarian disputes shall
not deputize any unit of the AFP or any of its paramilitary forces to implement its orders, notices, and
decisions.

©) No officer and/or personnel of the AFP or any of its paramilitary forces shall escort individuals who
seek to enter or leave the premises of an area with labor or agrarian disputes.

) A complaint for the violation of this Act lodged with the Philippine National Police or any relevant
government investigating agency must BE investigated by that agency. Any member of the PNP or
other relevant government investigating agencies who, without any lawful reason, refused or failed to
investigate the complaint lodged is also similarly liable.

SECTION 4. Penalty. - Any person who violates any of the provisions of the preceding section shall
be punished by imprisonment of three (3) years and a fine of One Hundred Thousand Pesos (Php
100,000.00)

SECTION 5. Repealing Clause. - All previous or existing laws, decrees, executive orders,
memorandum circulars, rules and regulations or parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are hereby
repealed accordingly.

SECTION 6. Separability Clause. - \f, for any reason, any section or provision of this Act is declared
null and void, no other section, provision, or part thereof shall be affected and the same shall remain in
full force and effect.

SECTION 7. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect immediately after publication in a national
newspaper of general circulation.