Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume III, Number 47 January 4 - 10, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
2003: A Tough Year for OFWs and Their Families Jose
Alejo was one of many unfortunate migrant workers who suffered under the
Philippine government’s abandonment of
OFWs. He returned home this year, jobless, after seven years in a Saudi jail and
70 lashes. His case illustrates the
tough year overseas Filipino workers and their families had under the Macapagal-Arroyo
government. BY
AUBREY SC MAKILAN An OFW’s lamentDisappointed.
This was Joselito Alejo’s reaction on the government’s actions on his case. Alejo
was charged with murder in 1997 in Saudi Arabia because he had the misfortune of
having the same name as the real perpetrator. He
said he was interrogated and tortured by Saudi policemen using a baseball bat,
ray shark’s tail or anything that the police could lay their hands on. His
case was only brought to Saudi Arabia’s high court in June 2002 or five years
after he was arrested. And after he was finally released in June 2003, he was
again invited by a Saudi lower court in June 2003 for further investigation. When
the Saudi court decided to impose 350 lashes, the Philippine embassy appealed
for clemency. Alejo at first did not want to appeal because it meant conviction.
He later acceded in order to get back to the Philippines earlier. Macapagal-Arroyo’s
promise to prioritize him for another job opportunity abroad, along with
financial assistance, is yet to come. The P10,000 that Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration (OWWA) administrator Virgilio Angelo “donated”
was the fruit of Alejo’s effort. This
experience makes Alejo doubt the government’s proclamation of OFWs as “new
heroes.” He said that migrant workers are only considered heroes if they are
still able to remit dollars but abandoned when charged with criminal cases, like
what happened to him who had worked abroad since 1980 before being arrested. He was, however, very thankful to Migrante International for campaigning for his release and taking on the responsibility that the government failed to carry out. Sexual abuse and maltreatmentAlejo
is not the only victim of, as Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) describes it,
“OWWA’s criminal neglect of duty.” Grace,
not her real name, is an Ifugao reportedly abducted and raped by Emirati Khalifa
Hassan Khalifa on May 16, 2003. After 10 days in the hospital, she was sentenced
by the Dubai Misdemeanor Court for intoxication and adultery charges to two
months imprisonment and deportation. Khalifa on the other hand was freed on bail
on Sept. 11. Since all government programs for the OFWs have been indefinitely
suspended since August last year reportedly for restructuring, it was again
Migrante which took care of her case. Migrante also revealed that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) did not even inform the United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials of the case or of its intent to actively pursue justice for Grace in a dialogue with UAE Embassy Counsellor Sharif Altayeb in Makati City. Meanwhile,
last November, the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople promoted Teresita
Mendiola from being Philippine Consul in Israel to Consul General in Guam
despite complaints of physical assault by her own Filipina maid against her. Regilyn
Duca, who was Mendiola’s all-around maid and cook for a miserable P8,200
(roughly US$150) monthly salary, was enslaved, starved ― she had to
compete with the family pets for the table scraps ― and beaten. Duca
however has never gotten hold of her money because according to Mendiola, “it
is being held to pay for her airfare.” Many
of them were beaten, interrogated and paraded at the airport with their arms
handcuffed and their feet chained. They were chained even when eating and using
the toilet. The planes carrying the deported Filipinos would usually land at the
airport in Clark, Angeles City instead at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA) to hide the maltreatment to the public. The latest was on Dec. 12, which
unloaded 108 deportees. The deportation was reportedly related to the
anti-terrorism campaign of the U.S. Migrante
admitted that some of those deported have past cases of sexual offense, robbery
and homicide but it pointed out that Americans
charged with similar offenses are not treated the way Asians, including
Filipinos, are treated when arrested. Alarming statisticsStatistics
confirm Alejo’s claim of government neglect and abandonment. Citing
DFA records, Migrante said there are more than 2,500 OFWs facing criminal
charges as of October 2003, with at least 10 men and four women on death row in
Saudi Arabia. Migrante
has been helping in the repatriation of migrant workers, including the remains
of those who died, aside from attending to cases of contract substitutions and
violations. The group has documented 10 “mysterious OFW deaths,” mostly
women, under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s watch. Meanwhile,
Migrante has also recorded intensified crackdowns on Filipinos in Taiwan, South
Korea and Israel, particularly undocumented migrant workers. With
at least 17, 000 Filipinos affected by the South Korean government crackdown,
about 2,000 were already arrested before 2003 ended. Ironically,
the Philippine government even supported the Employment Permit System or Korean
6967 that co-exists with the Industrial Trainee System which “prevents
migrants from becoming permanent workers with adequate wages and benefits.” John
Monterona, Migrante Sectoral party spokesperson and vice chairperson, thus
accused the government of being “a party to the enactment of a law that will
impose stricter penalties and worsen migrant workers’ conditions in the
workplaces.” In
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, there are 1,500 Filipino workers who have been stranded
from three months to three years. Most of them ran away from abusive employers
who in turn have withheld their travel documents including passports. On
Dec. 15, 16 OFWs staged a hunger striker to protest the government’s
non-action on their request for repatriation despite several dialogs with
Philippine Embassy officials. Instead of supporting them, the officials
reportedly called the Saudi police on Dec. 21 to have the strikers dispersed to
give way to the Embassy’s Christmas party. On
the other hand, as of Jan. 17, 2003, OWWA records show that there are only 3.7
million documented OFWs in 182 nations. Migrante reports otherwise: There are
8.2 million Filipinos abroad, including immigrants and undocumented migrant
workers. Despite
all these alarming statistics, Migrante said that the government still wants
them to “stay abroad.” CorruptionAnother
issue that has plagued the OFWs is corruption. Migrante charged that the
Philippine government has not only abandoned the OFWs but also steals their
money. Migrant
organizations were reportedly not consulted when the president issued Executive
Order 182, which allowed the transfer of the OFWs’ P4 billion Medicare Fund to
the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). The funds came from
the P900 (roughly $16.5) that each OFW pays yearly for Medicare, apart from the
US$25 OWWA contribution. OWWA reported that P10 million of the funds have been lost due to fake claimants. MSP chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado questioned how this could happen since every claimant is approved by no less than the OWWA administrator himself. The OWWA, however, could not present evidence. The migrant group is looking into the possibility of filing graft cases. Meanwhile, OWWA released US$293,500 to Ambassador Roy Cimatu for a massive evacuation in the Middle East during the U.S.-Iraq war in April 2003. Migrante found in early September however that no evacuation happened. Even OWWA administrator Angelo admitted that OWWA did not spend a single centavo for the evacuation. Migrante said OWWA could not present an audit report regarding the disbursement. Migrante also reported there are projects charged to OFW funds yet not intended for migrant workers. The
funds for OWWA’s livelihood assistance program have been transferred to the
National Livelihood Service Fund (NLSF), which is under the Office of the
President. With this transfer, the president could now release the funds even
for non-OFW projects. Meanwhile, the OFWs and their dependents have not been receiving assistance since Malacañang ordered the indefinite suspension of all welfare programs for OFWs. These include health services, financial assistance, livelihood and repatriation assistance and reintegration assistance. Ironically, all OWWA programs, even employees’ salaries, are funded by migrants’ contributions and nothing comes from government. In
the 2002 OWWA report, a P6 billion fund balance was recorded. P562 million of
these was released for direct services to OFWs in 2003; the rest, or roughly 90
percent of the P6 billion, went to OWWA’s investment projects instead of
services for the migrant workers and their families. E-card deceptionAnother
anomaly was the implementation of the electronic card (E-card), which has been
declared to be free of charge by no less than the president. Migrante-Hong
Kong reported that the US$25 contribution is being used as a precondition for
the E-card application in Hong Kong since July, when in fact the P5 million
E-card production cost was actually charged to OWWA. On
Oct. 12, OWWA personnel at the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong issued forms to
some 200 E-card applicants without telling them that these were actually for the
HK$200 (US$25) OWWA contribution which the Philippine government has been trying
to implement. The
alleged deception forced the applicants to tear up their forms in protest and
demand their free E-cards. The Philippine Consulate called on the HK police to
intervene and later imposed a ban on all protests in the consulate. Anti-migrant policiesMigrant
organizations have also scored the “Omnibus Policies of the OWWA,” or Board
Resolution No. 038, which was passed on Sept. 19 last year. They said it gave
extensive and expansive powers to the Board of Trustees of OWWA who are all
Palace appointees. Aside
from alleged possible manipulation of funds and full control over OWWA
transactions, the Omnibus Policies will make the already inaccessible programs
even more difficult to avail of. Monterona
told Bulatlat.com that the 1995 Magna Carta for OFWs is actually another
burden for them. It phased out the regulatory functions of Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA) and deregulated the deployment of Filipinos
abroad by giving the responsibility to recruitment agencies. Migrante has called
for the scrapping of the magna carta since its passage. No more gimmickMigrante
said the OFW “industry” is the only earning “industry” of the country
– “bigger than the export of pineapples, assembled semi-conductors, timber
products, and semi-manufactured foods” in terms of dollars earned. Migrante
also said that the OFW remittances are not limited to US$7 billion annually, as
stated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), but actually averages US$12
billion yearly. The group said that BSP should include in its computations
remittances through “paabot” (door-to-door delivery by fellow migrant
workers), since many OFWs prefer this method than the more expensive bank
transactions. Regalado
criticized the government’s annual Christmas scheme, “Pamaskong Handog,”
as “preposterous.” This year’s edition consists of festivities at the OWWA
office and the international airport and awarding of prizes for selected OFWs.
Regalado said they are intended to cover up all the scams that take advantage of
the OFWs and sought to project Macapagal-Arroyo as pro-migrant. Regalado
said it was part of Macapagal-Arroyo’s early political campaign in a
“desperate attempt to get the migrant votes and their families.” Even the
president’s posters displayed at the NAIA was charged to the OWWA. “All
throughout the year, OFWs are abandoned,” Regalado said, “then suddenly
government holds gimmicks which are charged to us.” Migrante
said there are about 360,000 registered absentee voters, exclusive of their
family members in the country. Regalado
called on the government to provide jobs in the country rather than exporting
workers and rather than politicking. She said that in the end migrant workers
still want to go home and be with their families. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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