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.
By DEE AYROSO
Progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) denounced the upcoming Balikatan exercises called “Salaknib” between the Philippines and the United States as it can provoke regional geopolitical tension and violate the country’s sovereignty.
“The case of Flor Contemplacion shows two things-the poor conditions and slave-like treatment of our fellow Filipinos overseas and the indifference of our government itself.”
“These women and all who came before them have had to claw their way out of the quagmire of limitations imposed on women—especially poor women—in a feudal-patriarchal society, and asserted their rightful place in the struggle for rights and justice. Only for the state to shove them back into a box, literally and figuratively.”
“Self-serving political elites and dynasties will make it easier for themselves to stay in power such as with term extensions, lifting of term limits, and removing provisions that might potentially be used against them.”