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"The widespread corruption in the government is the reason why OFWs are strongly against the planned mandatory PhilHealth and premium rate hike. OFWs cannot entrust the government that their hard-earned money will benefit their families and the rest of the Filipino people."
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.
“I hope Mary Jane will return soon and my eldest daughter [in Dammam] recover swiftly so that we all can be reunited here. I hope the president is watching, and come to the aid of my daughters,” she added
With no salary and little assistance, some OFWs in the Middle East have resorted to scavenging for food.
Filipino migrant leaders in the United Kingdom, Canada, and US revealed that undocumented workers in those countries are the hardest hit with the lack of social protection amid the dreaded pandemic.
“Heaps of backlog in swab testing, slow release of test results, congested quarantine facilities, distressed OFWs, slow repatriation to provinces – will the government still wait for an outbreak before these problems are resolved?”
“Filipino migrants are tired of being treated as milking cows by the Philippine government. We will continue to protest the unjust provisions of the law until it is totally scrapped.”
“Instead of prioritizing widespread testing and providing support for workers, Trump has ensured profits for his Wall Street friends. We need hazard pays, our health workers should be given the pay they need..."
"OFWs deserve to get steady and efficient relief at this time of crisis. The Duterte regime better stop treating Filipino migrants as milking cows to subsidize big private profit in a country dominated by profit-oriented healthcare facilities."
“International human rights law guarantees everyone the right to the highest attainable standard of health and obligates governments to take steps to provide medical care to those who need it. Now more than ever, we need to ensure health care access is available to all in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We have tried to reach out to the health department but we have only received their reply via email saying that we should practice social distancing. There was no response to our call for mass testing. None of the phone lines given by DOH was picking up.”
“If Italy and other developed countries could admit that their health care systems could collapse in the advent of disease outbreak, then what more in our own country where health care is inaccessible and highly privatized? Duterte’s assurance is for the police and the military, not for us and our families in the Philippines.”
“Eleven percent of households in Hong Kong have domestic workers but it seems the HK government and some employers continue to overlook this vital fact in enforcing preventive measures. Most are underfed and overworked.”
"With this ruling, we are hopeful that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will come out and that not only will it decisively and ultimately impel Indonesia to make her reprieve permanent or free her by any legal or political means, that all the perpetrators of the misery she went through will be made to pay, but also that this precedent will contribute to providing succor to many others who will be victims of circumstance and injustice which can all be traced from our economic and social ills."
A Filipino migrant rights group is not surprised over the appointment of former presidential communications aide Mocha Uson to yet another government office, just four months after she lost in the party-list election.
"As a human trafficking victim, these proceedings should help her to assert her rights, including the right to testify against her recruiters.”
“It’s not like we’re doing this for the first time.“
“Rather than push OFWs to pay for social security, the government should push the employers to pay and ensure their workers’ security."
“There are many ways those ‘hostaged’ passport data may be used to the disadvantage of the owners of the data.”
"They should’ve let us know, so we’d know where to find our son. If he didn’t call, we wouldn’t know where to find him. They didn’t let us know. He has a family here. He has kids. He has parents.They should have let us know before they took him to a different city."
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