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Date of publication: December 8, 2006

Source: Workers Assistance Center Press Release

Attached Files

• brian_WACpr_120806.pdf

Fr. Jose Dizon, executive director of the Cavite-based Workers

Assistance Center (WAC), strongly believed that US labor lawyer Brian

Campbell was denied entry in the country because the government wants

to get even with him and with his Washington DC-based organization

International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) for spearheading a strong

justice campaigns in the USA for the slain Bishop Alberto Ramento of

the Philippine Independent Church, Nestle union president Diosdado

"Ka Fort" Fortuna, and other activists murdered in the Philippines.

"Supposedly that would be the second visit of Mr. Campbell in the

Philippines. There's no other reason for his deportation except his

strong advocacy for justice and human rights. The government wants to

get even with him because they want the truth to be buried with the

cadaver of Bishop Ramento forever" said Fr. Dizon.

It would be remembered that the cases of murder of Bishop Ramento,

WAC's chair of the board at the time of his death, and that of

former Yazaki-EMI union president Gerardo Cristobal who survived in

police ambushed in April 2006, and the violent dispersals of the

strikes at Chong Won Fashion Inc. and Phils Jeon Garments Inc. by the

Cavite Economic Zone authorities were the strong concerns raised in an

unprecedented joint- statement recently issued by seven US retail

giants to President Arroyo for her government to address and resolve

immediately. The government reacted negatively on that joint statement

when it landed in the newspapers coincided with the statement of the

Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in the Philippines.

ILRF is one of the several organizations in the USA, Canada, and

Europe that was instrumental in convincing the seven US retail giants

to issue the said joint statement.

According to Fr. Dizon, the sudden deportation of Atty. Campbell has

further expose the increasing paranoia of Mrs. Arroyo's governance

among her critics abroad.

To be with the protesters at the 12th ASEAN Summit was not part of

Atty. Campbell's itinerary because he would leave the country early

morning of December 11. He is invited to attend the WAC and Cavite

workers's tribute for the slain Bishop Ramento on December 9, 2006

at St. Michael Institute in Bacoor, Cavite. His itinerary includes

attending the International Conference on Jobs and Justice in Cebu City

and several meetings with the workers of the struck Korean companies

Chong Won Fashion Inc. and Phils Jeon Garments Inc. at the Cavite

Export Processing Zone (CEPZ); meeting with other human rights and

lawyer's groups; and the family of the slain bishop on the 10th of

December, International Human Rights Day.

"Campbell is no terrorist nor a law fugitive in his country, but

rather a respected labor lawyer in his own field of human rights

advocacy. He should have been spared by our government from such kind

of harsh treatment," Fr. Dizon lamented.

Campbell's first visit in the Philippines was in April 30 to May 7.

2006 when he was sent by ILRF, upon the invitation of Center for Trade

Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), to join the International Labor

Solidarity Mission and Fact Finding Missions to investigate the truth

behind the political killings of labor leaders and trade union

repressions in the country.

He was barred from entering the country Wednesday evening at the Ninoy

Aquino International Airport (NAIA). He was detained and immediately

put by immigration officials on the next flight back to Hong Kong

without being told "the exact nature of [his] transgression." He

called up the WAC office at 10 p.m. upon his arrival at Hong Kong

airport and narrated that he was not even allowed by immigration

officials in the Philippines to make a phone call and was placed

"under guard awaiting expulsion from the Philippines."

"We will be seeing more of Campbell's case in the future, because

human rights advocates and political activists are not anymore free

today to roam the streets of the so-called Philippine democracy," Fr.

Dizon ended.