New faces of Flor
Buhay Bangcawayan of the Gabriela Women’s Party in Hong Kong said, “In every woman migrant who experienced abuses, violence and neglect, we see Flor.”
Bangcawayan said, “…[T]he new face of Flor is Jocelyn Dulnuan of Canada and Vicky Flores of Hong Kong who met tragic deaths while abroad. She is Marilou Ranario who still languishes in jail in Kuwait because of government blunders and ineffective action. She is also Hazel who was raped by a US soldier in Japan and never got support from GMA [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo],” she relayed.
In Canada, Migrante chapters in BC and Ontario released a joint statement revealing that under the Arroyo administration, six OFWs have already been executed. They were Antonio Alvesa, Sergio Aldena, Miguel Fernandez, Wilfredo Bautista, Reynaldo Cortez and Jenifer Biduya.
According to Migrante International, there are 4,000 Filipino overseas workers in foreign prisons, 600 of them women. There are 40 OFWs facing death penalty abroad. In 2008, thirteen OFWs were reported to have died mysterious deaths overseas. At least 10,000 OFWs are stranded in the Middle East. From October 2008 to February 2009, at least 6,676 OFWs were laid off from their jobs because of the global economic crisis.
Criminal neglect
The Migrante chapters in Canada stated, “We remember Flor because the Philippine government, the current administration of President Gloria Arroyo included, continues its criminal neglect of Filipino overseas workers (OFW) and their families.”
“The Philippine government reduces Filipino labor to a commodity that it uses to ease the country’s growing unemployment problem, earn the life-saving foreign currencies to improve its balance of payments and to defuse social tensions. And yet, it turns a blind eye to the harsh conditions and sacrifices of migrant workers and the social costs to their families,” they added.
“As long as the criminal neglect of OFWs by the Philippine government remains, countless more Flors will suffer. Thus the struggle of migrants that Flor’s death has inspired shall live on,” Bangcawayan said.
Not sustainable
Migrante chapters in Canada maintained that the push for overseas migration reflects the intensified crisis in the Philippines and is not sustainable.
“What is needed is genuine land reform and nationalist industrialization …Without these, there will always be domestic joblessness and dependence on overseas work,” they said.
Members of Migrante International vowed to persist in advancing the rights and welfare of OFWs. They also called for the removal of Arroyo from Malacanang.(Bulatlat.com)
