Labor group seeks probe into police raid on Laguna union leader's home

The Inter-Agency Committee for the Protection of the Freedom of Association and Right to Organize of Workers has been urged to investigate police officers who raided the home of a union leader in Santa Rosa City, Laguna.

NAGKAISA Labor Coalition chairperson Jose Sonny Matula made the request in a letter dated 4 November addressed to committee chairman Executive Secretary Ralph Recto and vice chairman Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino.

Matula asked the two officials to investigate the 2 November service of a search warrant at the home of Ruel Polon, president of the union at TF Logistics Philippines.

“We ask your offices to examine whether the search was connected to his union activities,” Matula said in his letter.

He also asked the committee to arrange protection for Polon and his family and ensure that union members and officers would be protected against retaliation.

Matula said the police search, conducted under a warrant issued by Executive Judge Agripino Bravo of the Lucena City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 55, took place after the union recently filed a notice of strike.

The search warrant indicated that Polon might have two unlicensed revolvers and ammunition in his home, Matula said.

“Mr. Polon says the officers directed his family to leave before the search and found no firearms and ammunition,” he said.

Before the service of the search warrant, Matula also said Polon reported being red-tagged after the union filed a notice of strike in 2021.

As part of the investigation, Matula asked the committee to preserve evidence, including camera footage, operational logs and communications.

He also requested that the committee obtain the warrant application, return and any inventory through proper channels.

The NAGKAISA official said the committee should also determine who conducted and witnessed the search and how the “Certification for Orderly Search” was signed.