The Philippine police arrested prominent labour lawyer Remigio Saladero, Jr. on 23 October 2008, at his law office in Antipolo City, in Rizal province. The police showed a 2006 arrest warrant for a case of multiple murder and attempted murder in Oriental Mindoro province that bore the name - Remegio Saladero alias Ka Patrick - and a different address. They also confiscated Saladero’s computer hard drive, laptop and mobile phone.

 ‘Suddenly arresting a well-established activist lawyer for a two-year-old multiple murder case in another province should set off alarm bells’, said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘This smacks of harassment, pure and simple.’ 

Saladero’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that he was allowed to meet with Saladero in jail only after Saladero had been interrogated for six hours, even though he was entitled to legal counsel from the start of the interrogation. He is currently being held in the Calapan City provincial jail. 

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Saladero was arrested because of the groups and individuals he has represented. His clients include hundreds of workers who have brought wrongful dismissal cases and suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Saladero is the board chairperson of the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE) and chief legal counsel for Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), an alliance of trade unions.