SENTRO union organizer assassinated in the Philippines

The IUF-affiliated SENTRO has called on the government of the Philippines to swiftly investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 17 assassination of Orlando Abangan, a union and community organizer who was shot dead outside his home in Cebu. Abangan, who had assisted SENTRO in organizing a union of power industry workers in Cebu and was active in organizing informal workers and persons with disabilities, was also an outspoken critic of the extrajudicial killings which have accompanied the government’s ‘war on drugs’.

SENTRO called on the Duterte administration to act immediately to halt the wave of extrajudicial murders. “The war on drugs”, says SENTRO, “has promoted a culture that is blind to human rights. Clearly it is now taking its toll on human rights defenders.”