180 Filipino workers in Saudi to hold hunger strike

Cabrera said Filipino OFWs stranded in Saudi Arabia are suffering from hunger and many are getting sick. “Their situation is very difficult there. It is scorching hot in their barracks, the lights are cut off by afternoon and they have no water.”

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) in Saudi told the OFWs they will be given a temporary working permit. “But they are not asking for a temporary working permit, they want to come home,” Cabrera said.

Danilo and Angelito, together with their fellow OFWs, asked help from Ambassador Ezzedin Tago to no avail. “He lives up to his name: whenever OFWs come to talk to Ambassador Tago (tago in Filipino means hide), he never shows up. He just sends a representative to tell them they could do nothing because the company involved is powerful. They were told to just wait. But until when would they wait?”

“OFWs fund the OWWA, why can’t the government use it?” Bañez asked.

Bañez has two children, both still studying. Cabrera has three. They live now only through the help of relatives.

More OFWs in distress in the last two years

Relatives of distressed OFWs call on President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to act on the cases of their loved ones. (Photo by Anne Marxze D. Umil / Bulatlat.com)

Joel Lacandula, 31, also asks for help to be repatriated because he has not received his salary since February of this year. He went to Saudi Arabia more than a year before to work as welder inspector. “But when he arrived in Saudi, he was assigned to a different employer. His salary was always delayed until they stopped paying him altogether last February,” Ruth Lacandula, Joel’s sister, said in an interview with Bulatlat.com.

Ruth said his brother Joel tried to look for another job in Saudi Arabia but his employer forbade him to leave. “Now he’s stuck there together with 10 other OFWs. They asked help from OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) but he was only scammed.”

Ruth said Joel talked to a Polo official named Allen Arroyo who told him to pay 10,000SR (P110,000 or $2,558) because he did not finish his contract. “We raised that money. All the money he earned there, plus donations, plus contributions from relatives, and what my brother was able to raise through solicitations, all went to pay that amount. His agency only gave 3,000SR (P33,000 or $776) but still, my brother was not repatriated.”

After getting 10,000SR, Arroyo could not be found. “When my brother handed him the 10,000SR, the man and his promised visa is nowhere to be seen.”

Migrante International learned that Arroyo is a Polo-OWWA official indeed. The group promised to do necessary steps to reprimand the official.

Angelina Pandongan, 59, also appealed to the government for the immediate repatriation of his son Allan who is in Doha, Qatar. “He called me crying, asking me to get help so he can go home. He said he can leave without his salary, he just wanted to come home immediately,” Pandongan told Bulatlat.com.

Allan arrived in Qatar more than two years ago on March 18, 2010 to work as a dock man. But his salary was delayed until the company stopped paying their salaries altogether. Allan has one child; Pandongan said Allan’s wife and their child are being helped by his mother-in-law.

Testament of failed promises

“The situation of OFWs has deteriorated despite Aquino’s declarations of improved welfare and services for them,” Martinez of Migrante noted. He said this deterioration is a testament of Aquino’s failed promises.

Martinez blamed the government’s indifference to the plight of OFWs, as manifested by the record-high rise in the number of cases that Migrante has handled in the past two years.

“From 1,500 cases yearly before Aquino assumed power in 2010, the number of cases we have documented and facilitated shot up to 4,500 by the end of 2011. This does not yet include cases handled independently by our chapters abroad,” he said.

He added that for the first half of 2012, the number of cases his group handled has reached an average of 35 to 40 a month. Cases they process have “broadened in scope and widened in range,” he said.

“Unlike before when majority of our cases were similar in nature, we are handling today a wider scope of cases ranging from overcharging to illegal recruitment to wide-scale human trafficking and different facets of government neglect. More OFWs have also become victims of maltreatment, abuse, labor violations and foul play compared to experiences in past years,” Martinez said.

The migrant leader also said there was a significant rise in the number of cases of jailed OFWs and OFWs on death row in the past two years.

“For the first time in history, four of our compatriots were executed abroad in just two years. It’s incredible, it’s horrible,” Martinez said.

Determined to press their case

Evelyn Casul, 25, came from Dubai last April 30, 2012. As a domestic helper, she was maltreated by her employer, sexually abused by her agent and by her employer’s brother, and she was not paid three months of her salary.

“I start work at 4 a.m. I clean two houses and take care of three children ages six and four years old and one baby who is nine months old. I cook and do the laundry. When I cannot work because I feel bad, my male employer would beat me up,” Casul said.

She did not ask for help from the Polo-Owwa because she did not know what to do. She asked her agency to just send her back home but the agency asked for P85,000 ($1976) as payment for her deployment in Dubai.

She did not ask help from her parents because she did not want to bring them problems. But she cannot take her abusive employer anymore. “I called my parents for help. They asked help from the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Agency), the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and from our municipality in Zambales.”

But before she could go home, her employer’s brother raped her and so did her agent. Casul is a single parent with two children. She went home without money.

Her case is now with the National Labor Relations Commission. But Casul observed that the arbiter seems biased toward the agency. “He told me to just accept the P30,000 ($697) because nothing will come out of the case. I refused. I am determined to fight.”

“It was difficult (what I have gone through abroad), but I’m still okay. I can still carry on, for my children’s sake,” Casul told Bulatlat.com forcing a smile in her face.

“These testimonies of relatives of OFWs only showed how justice eludes our OFWs. It has been two years since Aquino took power but the situation of the OFWs are not getting any better,” Martinez of MIgrante International said.

Meanwhile, Gil De Leon, father of Terril Atienza appealed to the government to act on her daughter’s case. “The autopsy from Mongolia arrived in the Philippines a month ago without our knowledge. The Chinese embassy took it back because there is a ‘discrepancy.’ We were also told the Chinese embassy took a copy of the autopsy report by the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation). Why? So they can compare reports?”

De Leon is saddened by the fact that the government is still not doing anything a year after Terril’s death.

“We called on Aquino to please act on our daughter’s case. We also appealed to the DFA to not cover-up the autopsy report. We know that our opponent here is powerful but justice should be served. We hope Aquino will take us to indeed to a righteous path,” De Leon told Bulatlat.com.

The families of the 180 OFWs will also be joining the People’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) protests on July 23.