We fight against labor exploitation and work towards empowering Filipino workers and communities. Defend Jobs Philippines (DJP) is a center advocating for the respect and fulfillment of
economic, social, and cultural rights, specifically the right to work and the right to
adequate housing. It provides different forms of assistance, services, and advocacy
programs to workers such as documentation, campaigns for decent work, housing
and human rights, legal and paralegal assistance to distressed workers, and
livelihood programs for displaced workers, among others. Due to strong concern in workers’ communities to defend housing and other human
rights, Defend Jobs Philippines formed its Demolition Watch Program in the year
2010 which documents housing rights violations and educated on right to adequate
housing. The organization’s active involvement in this campaign caught the attention
of the United Nations Special Rapporteur (SR) on Extreme Poverty and Human
Rights and Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. In 2012, Defend Jobs
Philippines was invited by the UPR Watch Philippines to join the delegation
attending the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines at the United Nations
Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2012, the organization formally
joins International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or ESCR Network and is a partner of the Asian Human Rights Commission. Defend Jobs Philippines was established on July 19, 2009, by various workers and
sectoral groups based in the National Capital Region and was registered on
September 15, 2009, at the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-profit
organization. The current membership of the organization is rooted in workers’
unions in workplaces and people’s organizations in the communities. The
organization works closely with church institutions and is an active secretariat and
member of the Church People-Workers Solidarity and Church-Urban Poor Solidarity. Born out of struggle from women garment workers of Triumph International in
2009, the undergarment factory was suddenly closed without prior notice to the
workers as the company has undergone restructuring and as part of it is ridding of
regular and unionized workers replacing them with contractual jobs. In the same
year, thousands of workers from various factories experienced the same plight as
the workers of Triumph International. A long-standing issue of flexible labor being
forced into contractualization. The very reason why the women workers of Triumph
International with other cause-oriented groups established Defend Jobs Philippines
as a campaign center advocating the protection of workers amidst the massive
violations of labor rights. Since then, the organization’s main advocacy and lobbying
for the abolition of the contractualization law.
