They have been called modern-day heroes for propping up the Philippine economy with their dollar remittances. Now they are responding to the call of the times. While 80,000 people converged for the interfaith rally in Ayala, Makati on Feb. 29, overseas Filipinos (OFs) in different countries held protest actions such as pickets, forums, and petition-signing to call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation or ouster.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
MIGRANT WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 5, March 2-8, 2008

They have been called modern-day heroes for propping up the Philippine economy with their dollar remittances. Now they are responding to the call of the times. While 80,000 people converged for the interfaith rally in Ayala, Makati on Feb. 29, overseas Filipinos (OFs) in different countries held protest actions such as pickets, forums, and petition-signing to call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation or ouster

BaBay Gloria

In the country, numerous alliances have been formed, and some merely revived, but all were united in calling for the president’s resignation or ouster.

For their part, overseas Filipinos (OFs), their families in the Philippines and advocates launched Bagong Bayani Ayaw kay Gloria (BaBay Gloria or Modern-day Heroes Against Gloria), a global petition campaign calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down. In the Philippines, the BaBay Gloria campaign was launched with a petition signing on Feb. 26 along an area in Manila where hundreds of seafarers congregate daily.

“This BABAY Gloria petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/babay/petition.html) encapsulates how our kababayan’s abroad unite with the people’s demand for Gloria to step down,” said Connie Bragas-Regalado, Migrante International chairperson.

The petition is being circulated in several countries including Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States.

Global protests

While people were crowding Ayala during the interfaith rally on Feb. 29, overseas Filipinos held protest actions in front of Philippine Embassies and posts in their respective host countries.

In Canada, Filipinos and their supporters from Toronto and Montreal converged in Ottawa and held a protest action in front of the Philippine Embassy. Similar protest actions were also held in Winnipeg and Vancouver, led by the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Filipino Nurses Support Group, Philippine Women Centre of B.C., Advance the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers and their Families (SIKLAB-B.C.), and Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-B.C.

In the U.S., overseas Filipinos led pickets and candle-light vigils across New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even on a freezing night, members of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)-USA member-organizations, Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, and their supporters joined the global call to oust Arroyo.

Filipinos in the Middle East participated in the Day of Action through petition signings, leaflet distributions and text barrages calling on relatives to join Oust Gloria activities in the Philippines. Forums were also scheduled in the UAE.

In Australia, Filipinos and advocates calling for truth and accountability gathered in Sydney. The Sydney Migrante Neighbourhood has also issued its statement titled, “Glo Must Go!”

In Hong Kong, OFWs led the call to a No Remittance Day in prayer rallies.

“Our money should not be used to support a most corrupt regime,” said Dolores Balladares chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK). “No Remittance Day is our way of expressing our call: Enough with corruption. Enough with plundering our money.”

Starting the month of March, Unifil-HK will call for a No Remittance Day to express their “condemnation of the blatant corruption in the Philippines, allegedly led by the First Couple.

Issues

For these migrant groups, they have had enough of Arroyo.

“We have had enough of seven years of your administration’s high-level corruption, gross human rights violations, political killings, abductions, electoral fraud, artificial economic development and subservience to foreign interests. We have had enough of your policy to export and commodify our labor, your extortion and criminal neglect of migrant workers and their families. We have had enough of your cover-ups and gangsterism,” stated the BaBay Gloria petition.

With regards migrant issues, migrant leader Bragas-Regalado cited, as basis for their call to oust the Philippine president, alleged anti-migrant policies by the Arroyo administration, such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration Guidelines on Direct Hiring and the or Memorandum Circular (MC) 04, POEA Guidelines on Household Service Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Omnibus Policies.

These policies, Bragas-Regalado said, only worsened the already worse conditions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and intensified the hardships of aspiring migrant workers.

Migrante organizations and network groups vowed to intensify their global campaign in coordination with the protest actions in the Philippines.

“As the country’s ‘bagong bayani’ or modern-day heroes, we deplore how your administration intensifies its reliance on our remittances to prop up your bankrupt economy,” the BaBay Gloria statement read. “We are confident that when overseas Filipinos and their families unite, much can be achieved.” (Bulatlat.com)