MIGRANT WATCH

‘Bring Them to the Precinct? Kill Them!’
Police disperse OFW campout; OWWA inaction hit

Seventy family members and supporters of 16 OFWs stranded in Saudi Arabia were dispersed from their campout outside the OWWA office in Pasay City night of Jan. 27. The OWWA administrator denied having any hand in the violent dispersal even as his office faces a pile of complaints, among others, over inaction on cases of stranded OFWs.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat.com

Mary Ann Tejada, wife of Jose Tejada who is one of 16 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded in Saudi Arabia, joined the kampuhan (campout) outside the office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Pasay City on Jan. 27. She was with 79 other OFW family members and supporters at the campout who demanded urgent action by OWWA for the immediate repatriation of the stranded OFWs.

At 7 p.m. on the same day, teams of policemen armed with Armalite rifles moved in to disperse the campout. In the ensuing melee, scores of protesters were injured and some migrant leaders affiliated with Migrante International were arrested.

Some of the policemen were said to be drunk, protesters said.

OWWA Administrator Virgilio Angelo who migrant families said had refused to act on the case of the stranded OFWs denied reports that it was he who ordered the dispersal. He said that what his office did was a standard operating procedure (SOP) - to report the protest to the police.

But Maita Santiago, secretary general of Migrante International, who herself was arrested said that the police dispersal operation was on Angelo’s orders. Pasay policemen themselves admitted that the order of dispersal came from OWWA through the Western Police District (WPD).

The police dispersal operation was reportedly led Senior Supt. Oscar Catalan and Senior Insp. Reynaldo Baculan.

One of the protesters, Butch Tubera, was hit in the head when he tried to grab Santiago whom the policemen were trying to arrest. Then, according to Tubera, another policeman shouted to fellow policemen, “Idederetso pa ba sa presinto yan? Patayin na’ yan!” (Are you going to bring them to the precinct? Kill them.)

Another Migrante member, Llyod Castañeda was hit with an M16 rifle.

Five of the protesters were arrested: Santiago, Tubera, Mark Ramirez (chairman and deputy secretary of the migrant youth group Kamiyan), Chat Dimaano (of the Filipino Seafarers Movement-Migrante), and Richard Evangelista. Although not behind bars, the five were prohibited even from standing from their seats from about 8 p.m. to almost 10 p.m.

Two lawyers from ProLabor were able to have those arrested released.

Meanwhile, Migrante along with the OFW families, will file criminal charges against the Pasay City police this week.

Stranded at home

Mary Ann Tejada, one of those dispersed, has a nine-month old boy who is afflicted with mild leukemia. The boy vomited several times during the dispersal. Mary Ann says that she has been receiving no benefits from OWWA due them as OFW family.

This experience, Mary Ann told Bulatlat.com is no different from the one she had while working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In November 2001, she ran away from her employer who always beat her up and paid her no salary.

Now Mary Ann, along with her son, has taken shelter at the Migrante office in Quezon City.

The 16 OFWs have been stranded in Saudi Arabia since September last year. In protest, the migrant workers held a hunger strike last December.

But OWWA Administrator Angelo said that his office had bought tickets for the Filipino workers for their return trip to the Philippines. He did not however acknowledge them as OWWA members. He cited OWWA Omnibus Policies which provide that only those with job contracts are qualified to become OWWA members. He said the 16 Filipinos ran away from their employers citing poor working conditions and hence forfeited their membership.

Santiago, however, refuted that OWWA promised workers’ repatriation before 2003 ended.

Stranded in Singapore

In a related case, OFW Mercedita Openea has been stranded in Singapore with 16 other Filipinas for nine months now after being victimized reportedly by illegal recruiters.

Jorge Morales, Mercedita’s husband, went to OWWA to follow up his wife’s case but its personnel only told him to “let the Singaporean government pay for the repatriation.” There were no records of his wife at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

He instead sought the help of Migrante International.

Mely Pillas of Migrante’s Rights and Welfare Assistance Program told Bulatlat.com that the government neglect of stranded OFWs is due to the suspension of the General Assistance Fund of OWWA¾ which has been denied by Angelo¾and worsened by OWWA Omnibus Policy’s accessibility to services on a per-contract basis. Bulatlat.com

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