A former Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) organizer warned leaders of the service cooperatives supplying manpower to Sumifru not to be deceived by organizations linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
Ka Mario (real name hidden for security reasons) revealed that his former organization are infiltrating labor unions, in disguise of helping them in their labor problems; however, they only brought chaos to the company as none of the issues raised were resolved in peaceful negotiations.
He disclosed that they would agitate the personnel of the company by amplifying simple concerns into political issues, and later use these issues to organize the workers to protest.
“Magsugod jud na on the basic issues sa mga trabahante. Then ang ginahimo namo is pag trigger up sa mga issues dinha. Instead na ma-settle, idevelop namo na into a political issue. So dakoon na. So mao nang mahitabo nga moengage na ug mga mobilization ang mga workers through sa pag sustain pud sa ilang ideological na pagtuon into Marxism, Maoism. Naa dinha nga mga pagtuon nga mopurma didto sa parliamentary hangtod sa armed struggle.” (It will start on the basic issues on the workers. Then, what we would do is to trigger up the issues. Instead of resolving the issues, we will deveop it into potical issue. We would make it big. So what happen is we engage into the mobilization of the worker through sustaining also their ideological learnings on Marxism, Maoism. Embedded in these studies are the formation from parliamentary up to the armed struggle.)
Ka Mario also stressed that there were two faces in organizing the labor force in the perspective of his former group – dayag ug tago na dagway (revealing/bare or hidden face).
“Magsugod jud na sa dayag na dagway, mga parliametaryong pamaagi. Pero while naa na, nagalihok napud mi sa tago na dagway,” he said. (It will always start with the revealing/bare face – the parliamentary or legal way. While those are ongoing, we are also conducting the hidden face.)
The former KMU cadre explained that the hidden face means organizing the selected workers to carry arms and become members of the New People’s Army.
“Mao nang matingala mo sa una na mo-absent ni si kuan kay naa na na sa bukid,” he told the cooperative leaders.” (That’s why you are baffled why one of your employees was absent; because he was in the mountains already.)
Ka Mario advised the coop leaders to sustain the relationship between the workers and management, and to address basic labor issues within the organization because that issues will be exploited by his former organization.
“Dili na paabton nato og dugay’ng panahon before nato tubagon kay samtang nagdagan ang panahon, mao pud na ang time nga mopasok dinha ang mga organizer sa kaliwang grupo para idevelop ang political consciousness sa mga trabahante para mo engage into armed struggle.” (Let’s not wait for a long time before we will address these, because as time goes by, this is also an opportunity for the left group to penetrate to develop the political consciousness of the workers for them to engage into armed struggle.)
Ka Mario, together with Assistant Regional Director on Operations Nale Romitman of National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), talked about preventing the infiltration of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the labor sector during the Orientation on Contracting and Subcontracting Agreements conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment Davao de Oro (DOLE DDO) at Comval Hotel, February 5, 2022. (PIA XI/ Michael L. Uy)
