The Migrante Middle East said that without providing an alternative to the rising unemployment and lack of living wage in the Philippines, the government will only be putting the lives and livelihood of Filipino migrant workers even more at risk.
In this list, Bulatlat highlights women migrant rights activists who rose to the challenge of standing behind beleaguered Filipino migrant workers and the families they left behind.
The current cosmetic changes in the country’s labor export policy will not provide due protection to Filipino workers overseas. Worse, this will only exacerbate the already dire conditions they are facing.
Looking at history, one can say that state abandonment is very much the official disposition on which the labor export system is hinged. The Philippine government is fundamentally inclined to function simply as what sociologist Robyn Rodriguez calls a “labor brokerage state,” an institutional apparatus that facilitates Filipinos’ outward labor traffic.
The women’s partylist hoped that with President Duterte’s statement, no woman will have the same fate as Irma Jotojot.
“We will never attain comfort under this government which has no compassion for the sufferings of the Filipino people”.
“If what the government has been saying is true, why am I applying again? Why is there a steady stream of Filipinos leaving the country to work abroad every day?” – OFW
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com I have a friend leaving for Italy on Friday, January 13. She is a mother of two adorable kids. We have been friends for almost a decade. Not only will I miss a good friend but two children will be left behind by their mother to...
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“We can’t stand idly by and allow another OFW to be executed because the Philippine government failed to exert all diplomatic means to save him. We call on all Filipinos to come together and call for the commutation of our kababayan’s sentence in China.” – Migrante International
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com No jobs, no future. The country’s one and only congressman directly representing the youth and students sector recently called on President Benigno Aquino III to provide jobs for the 400,000 fresh graduates or run the risk of...
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Sally Ordinario-Villanueva's sister Mirasol said that the government should generate jobs so that Filipinos would not be forced to leave and work abroad. She also urged the government to go after the drugs syndicates that victimized Sally.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Analysis March 30 is a sad day for Filipinos. Three overseas Filipino workers Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain were executed after being caught by Chinese immigration authorities and subsequently sentenced to death for...
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
As March 30 nears, Filipinos, especially relatives of the three Filipino migrant workers who are set to be executed in China, are still hoping for a miracle: to be able to bring them back home alive.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Many hospitals are charging new nurses fees in exchange for work, training and experience, which are required for nursing jobs abroad. This offshoot of the government’s exploitative labor-export policy needs to stop, according to the Gabriela Women’s Party.
By CIELO FLORES
Candidates who signed the covenant commit to review and work to repeal existing laws that exploit OFWs and to propose new policies that will further protect the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers.
In spite of President Arroyo’s statement that it is government policy to “allow our citizens to work only in safe places,” some 1.1 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are still working, and many more are being deployed in danger zones all over the world. BY...
Press Release 21 March 2010 “The newly amended law for Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act (Republic Act 10022) as it introduces amendments to R.A. 8042, will only heighten and intensify the exportation of human labor as a primordial labor program of the...
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
The regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo changed the face of labor migration in the Philippines. It pursued its labor-export policy aggressively, begging receiving countries to accept more overseas Filipino workers. In the meantime, it shirked its responsibilities toward OFWs in distress, in many instances even becoming complicit in the abuse of overseas workers.
Maricar Evangelista, 35, a mother of four children, left the Philippines to work as a domestic helper in Dubai. Her story of abuse is similar to the thousands of women migrant workers who have returned home after experiencing various forms of abuses from their employers.
Apart from adding to the burden of those who seek job abroad, the Labor Export Policy bill now pending in Congress could mean that the government will no longer generate local jobs because it would be easier to deploy them to foreign countries.
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