Hari demi hari kulalui Dengan rasa sakit yang kualami Dimana ketenangan hatiku Dimana kedamaian jiwaku Dimana sukacita yang selalu memenuhi hidupku. Lenyap… Lenyap sudah… Keterpurukan… ketidakberdayaan mengganggu hati dan pikiranku. Namun… sepucuk harapan mulai tumbuh saat aku mengenalmu. Ketenangan.. kedamaian kembali kurasakan. Kau… adalah sahabat sekaligus guru bagiku. Darimu… aku banyak belajar dan berserah diri…
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA – The family of Mary Jane Veloso, along with supporters and migrant rights activists, described the Filipina in death row in Indonesia as “full of joy, hope, and determination” as they visited her at the Wirogunan Prison in Yogyakarta today, Sept. 14. Mary Jane’s father Cesar and her…
“Once again, we are calling on all the people to raise their voices for justice and for Mary Jane’s freedom so that she can be reunited with her family.”
As Migrante summed it up, the widespread consequences of Duterte’s labor export policies and contractualization laws have generated more Mary Janes: women obliged to work abroad only to be baselessly accused of crimes punishable by death; or maybe, more Nanay Celia’s who have lost faith in a government tolerating such injustices.
Three years later, after the bittersweet circus of Mary Jane’s case, she remains in jail in Indonesia, unsure of the final verdict in a crime she insists she didn’t commit.
“We should be treating temporary foreign workers as how we treat Canadians, instead of exploiting them then disposing of them.”
“Overseas Filipinos continue to leave the Philippines under the labour export policy, driven by many social and political problems, such as poverty, lack of jobs, landlessness, the lack of accessible health care and other social benefits.”
“Migrants are facing uncertainty that is why it is imperative for them to organize themselves not just to protect their rights and welfare but also to understand and link their issues to the socio-economic problems of Philippine society.”
The Honorable Court, the motion for reconsideration stipulated, “grossly ignored the extraordinary circumstance attendant in this case that puts Mary Jane Veloso under the exception instead of the general rule” in the strict application of criminal procedures in the Philippines.
“Just let her speak out and let her story stand on its own. Or shall we wait for her to be sent to the gallows with her mouth gagged?”
In a recent study of the ILO, it found out that 61 percent of all domestic workers in Asia were entirely excluded from labor protection, and only three percent enjoyed equal protection with other general workers.