Internal rift eyed in Nestlé labor leader’s slay

Police are now eyeing an internal rift in the labor union as the possible cause of last month’s ambush-slay of a labor leader of Nestlé Philippines in Laguna.

The death of Diosdado Fortuna, however, is now being attributed to military agents by his militant colleagues.

Calamba City police director Superintendent Roland Bustos said that investigators have gathered strong leads to prove that Fortuna’s assassination was triggered by internal squabble among top labor leaders at the Cabuyao-based company.

"His position as president of a big and highly active labor union might have polarized him and forced him to be identified with one faction, which could have gotten the ire of the opposing faction," Bustos said.

Prior to Fortuna’s ambush-slay, police probers, in the course of their investigation to dig deeper into the case, were able to confirm an internal rift among labor union members at Nestlé Philippines.

"Intelligence reports confirmed that the squabble was due to policy differences among its top leaders," Bustos said.

Aside from this angle, Bustos said that police agents of the Special Investigation Task Group Fortuna, are also pursuing other leads, including the outside financial dealings and transactions of the slain labor leader.

"Other angles are also being investigated such as his personal dealings outside of his labor affiliations," Bustos said.

Militant labor groups, blaming the military for their leader’s assassination, even paraded the labor leader’s coffin in front of the gate of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Camp Aquinaldo in Quezon City last week.

From Camp Aguinaldo, Fortuna’s body was taken to the University of the Philippines (UP) and was paraded towards Mendiola, near Malacañang.

The rallyists insisted that military agents gunned down Fortuna in order to silence him and prevent him from doing his job as labor leader at Nestlé Philippines.

Unidentified motorcycle-riding men waylaid the 50-year-old Fortuna, president of Nestlé Cabuyao Union Workers, while he was driving his motorcycle on his way home to Barangay Paciano, Calamba City on Sept. 22.

Fortuna, of Blk 6, Lot, 29, Rodriguez Village, Barangay Lawa, Calamba City, died from gunshot wounds in the head fired from a caliber .45 pistol while undergoing treatment at the Calamba Medical Center. At the time of his ambush, Fortuna who just came from the picket line at the Nestlé plant in Cabuyao was seen being tailed by two motorcycle-riding suspects.