Bulatlat

After a rousing protest by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong during Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s visit on March 30, Filipino migrant workers are again preparing another “greeting” for the president on her 61st birthday on April 5. Led by Migrante International, the largest alliance of migrant Filipinos worldwide, OFWs set April 5 as their next “Zero Remittance Day.”

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat
MIGRANT WATCH
Vol. VIII, No. 8, March 30-April 5, 2008

After a rousing protest by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong during Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s visit on March 30, Filipino migrant workers are again preparing another “greeting” for the president on her 61st birthday on April 5.
 
Led by Migrante International, the largest alliance of migrant Filipinos worldwide, OFWs set April 5 as their next “Zero Remittance Day.”
 
“Zero remittance will be OFWs birthday gift to GMA,” said Migrante International secretary general Maita Santiago, noting that OFWs have had enough of being treated as mere ‘exhaust valves’ by this regime.

The group said this campaign is the migrant workers sector’s “contribution to the Filipino people’s legitimate search for truth and accountability” in the alleged highly-anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. She added that it is also aimed at adding pressure to the mounting calls for the resignation and/or removal of Arroyo from the presidency.
 
“On GMA’s 61st birthday, OFWs have vowed to withhold their hard-earned money to protest Gloria Arroyo’s brazen corruption, criminal neglect to OFWs in distress and its shameless cover-up of its crimes against the people by successfully gagging the executive, castrating the independent Senate and filling the highest court of the land with subservient justices,” Santiago said.
 
Santiago said her group expects more and more OFWs to join the campaign. She added that their member organizations worldwide have gathered thousands of signatures from OFWs signifying their intent not to remit money to their loved ones on Arroyo’s birthday.
 
In the Philippines, Santiago said, Migrante regional chapters resolved to drum up support for the “zero remittance” campaign in their respective areas during the Migrante National consultation held March 16-17, 2008 in Quezon City .
 
“So expect a not-so-happy birthday, Gloria,” Santiago said.
 
OFWs in Hong Kong started the “Zero Remittance Days” campaign early this year at the height of massive demonstrations calling for the president’s resignation.

On March 30, OFWs in Hong Kong, led by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK) have “welcomed” Arroyo with protests. The OFW held a protest action outside the hotel where the president was giving her speech to invited leaders of the Filipino community in Hong Kong. Arroyo was there to stir up foreign investments in the Philippines.

But the president’s scheduled April 1 meeting with Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was puzzlingly cancelled.

The OFWs viewed the cancellation of the meeting as recognition by Hong Kong government of the migrant workers’ sentiments, as well as their important role in Hong Kong’s economy. Bulatlat