| 8 September 2010 |
| Filipino Workers' Center Receives Bishop Tji Award |
A Church-initiated center in the Philippines has won this year's Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award for promoting poor factory workers' dignity and welfare while sharing their travails.
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Workers' Assistance Center Inc. (WAC), based in Cavite province, about 30 kilometers southeast of Manila, received the award on March 10 in Seoul. About 150 people from human rights and Church groups attended the annual ceremony, the 11th since the award honoring the late Bishop Daniel Tji Hak-soon of Wonju, South Korea, was launched in 1997.
WAC executive director Father Jose Dizon told UCA News that same day: "I'm happy to receive the award. It is the recognition of our work for suppressed factory workers. Also, this award is an encouragement after 12 years of determined work."
It shows, he said, "that all those years of hard work have not been in vain" and "reaffirms that what we are doing is right." The priest of Imus diocese, which covers Cavite, promised, "We will keep promoting the basic human rights of the workers with more determined activities."
WAC was launched on Nov. 30, 1995, as a parish's socio-pastoral response to the situation of factory workers in the Cavite Export Processing Zone not enjoying basic social welfare and workers' rights. Later it became an independent NGO offering legal aid, labor education and training to workers in the export zone.
The Philippine government set up the special zone in Cavite in 1991 to induce foreign investment. It offered special benefits for factories such as tax exemption for five years and no right for workers to form trade unions.
The special economic zone, covering 276 hectares, houses about 220 active companies from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. WAC estimates 50-60 percent are Korean companies.
Monsignor Philip Kim Byeong-sang, chairperson of the Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Foundation, said in his speech that WAC has shared the "Via Dolorosa" (way of the cross) with about 10,000 workers in the economic zone for the last 10 years.
"Workers have suffered from illegal dismissal, overdue wages, excessive overtime and violence. WAC has educated them about human rights and campaigned to get back human rights," he said. He described WAC as having "put the spirit of the incarnation of Jesus Christ into practice."
The monsignor also noted that WAC members "have been constantly obstructed and even threatened" by those who oppose their work, "but they never deviated from their principle."
In 2006, former WAC chairperson Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church was stabbed to death at his residence in Tarlac City, northeast of Manila. The previous year he had accompanied striking sugar workers in Tarlac province. When WAC was established, Bishop Ramento was serving as his Church's chief pastor and executive officer.
Father Dizon said in his speech after receiving the award that he accepted it on behalf of "our beloved Bishop Ramento."
"He died fighting for the workers' rights and we dedicate this award to him," the Catholic priest said. "Human rights violations, workers' rights violations and trade union repression continue in my country. Maybe all of us have something in common in the sense that capital reigns to the detriment of workers. I call upon everyone to help the workers exercise their right to organize and enjoy the fruits of their labor," he continued.
The late Bishop Tji was jailed in 1974 for his involvement with dissident student activists. He was a leading senior spokesperson for the Korean Catholic Church against former military rulers in South Korea until he died on March 12, 1993, at the age of 72. The award honors those who carry on his spirit.
Previous award recipients include the Hong Kong-based Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples, Bangladeshi human rights worker Rosaline Costa, Indonesian human rights worker Ibu Sulami, Kathi Zellweger of Caritas Hong Kong, the Pakistani Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, Myanmar democracy activist Salai Tun Than, and the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association for Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
>b>Union of Catholic Asian News, 14 March 2008 |
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