Press Release
November 28, 2008

Pia pins deaths of workers and trees on Hanjin construction in Subic

Senate opposition member Pia S. Cayetano today called for a new congressional investigation into the mounting deaths of Filipino workers at the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries on Redondo Peninsula at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.

"The Hanjin shipyard has virtually become a modern-day killing field, but has any Hanjin official been jailed or even charged in court?" asked the lady senator, following reports on the work-related deaths of two more Filipino workers this month at the sprawling 354-hectare shipyard.

Cayetano said the deaths of the two laborers, 40-year-old Phillip Mendoza and 42-year-old Jose Vener Gil, in a span of two weeks just this month, have brought to 15 the number of workers' deaths at the shipyard since the project was started two years ago.

"No one will contest how Hanjin infuses massive investments to the economy and provides jobs to 13,000 Filipinos. But none of these can justify the authorities' lack of conviction to punish those responsible and put a stop to the string of workers' deaths at Hanjin."

"Even if just one breadwinner dies, that's already one family going hungry and entire dreams being hurled into uncertainty. But did the Arroyo administration ever bother to lift a finger to stop the mounting deaths?" asked Cayetano, who earlier this year led an on-site probe into reported violations of environmental regulations by Hanjin in building two high-rise condominiums right in the middle of the Subic rainforest.

She said that while news reports earlier this year accounted how the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Department of Labor (DOLE) had already looked into occupational health safety standards at the shipyard, the recent deaths of Mendoza and Gil have again raised doubts on the effectiveness of the measures supposedly undertaken, or if these are being implemented at all.

"It's high time that the Senate labor committee steps in to find out how Hanjin appeared to have shielded itself from accountability by routinely arguing after every incident that the fatalities were merely subcontracted workers, and therefore not directly under their employ. It should also look into the so-called labor safety guidelines being implemented by the SBMA and whether the labor department is able to effectively exercise its oversight functions on Hanjin and its sub-contractors."

She said that in the case of Hanjin's twin condominiums, the Senate environment committee which she then headed found out that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) did not monitor compliance with environmental laws.

"Whether it's trees or workers being killed at Hanjin's project site, it's up to Congress to carry out its Constitutionally mandated power of oversight where our national government agencies have rendered themselves useless."

"Like in the earlier investigations conducted by the Senate, the objective is not to drive away investments but to ensure that our government agencies have been properly guiding foreign investors to comply with national laws and regulations. The deaths simply must stop," she concluded.

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