This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 1, Feb. 4-10, 2007
MIGRANT WATCH
Weekly Protests in RP, Big Mobilization in HK Set vs New POEA
Policy
Calling the new guidelines of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
as a “sugar-coated extortion scheme,” OFWs in Hongkong and Migrante
International, the local organization of OFWs, are planning more protest actions
and bigger mobilizations. BY
AUBREY MAKILAN Weekly protest actions in
the Philippines and a big mobilization in Hong Kong are already set to show that
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), their families and supporters are against the
new guidelines of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Extortion Migrante International, an
alliance of organizations of overseas Filipinos and their families, announced on
Feb. 3 that weekly protests would be held at the POEA and Department of Labor
and Employment (DoLE) offices starting Feb. 6. Under the new guidelines,
those applying as domestic helpers abroad had to undergo additional training
under POEA’s Pre-Qualification for Household Service
Workers scheme. The training would cost them P10, 000-P15, 000 ($205.29 to
$307.94 at an exchange rate of $1=P48.71). Aside from this, the guideline sets
the minimum wage of overseas domestic workers to $200 to $400. It also
stipulates that no placement fee should be charged to applicants, but limits the
minimum age to 25 years old. Dolores
Balladares, chairperson of the United
Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK), said that the
seemingly good aspects of the new guidelines, particularly the provision on the
$400 minimum wage for domestic workers and the prohibition on the charging of
placement fees, are but “sugar coatings to cover the real intent of the new
scheme.” These measures, government
officials said, were put in place to protect contract workers from possible
abuse. But Migrante chair Connie
Bragas-Regalado said that the government’s justification for the additional
training is based on their baseless conclusion that the abuse of OFWs can be
traced to their lack of skills in operating household appliances. Calling this absurd,
Bragas-Regaladao asked, “What about those who are raped, killed or outrightly
treated as modern-slaves?” Bragas-Regalado also said
that the so-called “professionalization” program for domestic workers is but the
government’s “bid to justify extortion” in the form of new training fees. Reforms? The latest POEA resolution
clarified that only newly-hired maids are required to undergo a competency
assessment administered by the Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority (TESDA) and a language and culture training from the Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA). Meanwhile, Labor Secretary
Arturo Brion said that his department has agreed to set the minimum age
requirement for domestic helpers to 23 years old from 25. Balladares said that these
“reforms” only show that “the government is just trying to douse the mounting
protests of OFWs against these new policies.” She said that so long as
the guidelines stay, “extortion of the government shall remain.” Global campaign After a series of protest
actions, OFWs in Hong Kong are preparing for a big mobilization on Sunday, Feb.
4. Unifil-HK
data showed that Hong
Kong, one of the main destinations for OFWs working
mostly as women household helpers, is home to about 118,000
domestic helpers. Last week, Gabriela Women’s
Partylist Rep. Liza Maza consulted migrant workers in Hong Kong regarding the
new POEA guidelines. Maza has earlier filed a resolution
in Congress urging an investigation into the new POEA
guidelines. She also delivered a privilege speech at the House of
Representatives expressing the sentiments of OFWs demanding that the new
guidelines be scrapped. She described the policy
as “pure and simple money-making venture at the expense of millions of Filipino
domestic helpers around the globe.” “Kinakalakal na sila,
kinokotongan pa,” (They are not only being commodified, they are also
subjetcted to extortion) she said. She also said this scheme
of forcing even veteran domestic helpers to shell out some P12, 000
($246.35) for training is “preposterous,” noting the number of “used and abused”
OFWs allegedly not getting any substantial help from the government. The congresswoman said that
the government refuses to help OFWs who are undocumented even if they are
victims of rape and human trafficking. “Registered or not, it is
the duty of the government to protect its citizens abroad,” she said.
Migrante is coordinating
with their members and allied organizations in other countries such as Taiwan,
Korea, Japan, Macau, Canada, and Europe to mount an international campaign
against the said training scheme. Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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Bulatlat
“We will not be trapped by such an obvious ploy to dampen the anger of current
OFWs and drive a wedge between us and our fellow OFWs,” she said.