MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has not learned from the case of Flor Contemplacion, the Filipino maid who was executed in Singapore 14 years ago, a Hong Kong-based migrants rights advocates said on Tuesday.
Contemplacion was executed by hanging in Singapore in 1995 after she was found by the courts guilty of killing fellow Filipino maid and friend Delia Maga and Maga's 4-year-old Singaporean ward.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) said that while the outrage sparked by Contemplacion’s death spurred the enactment of the Overseas Filipino Migrant Workers Act of 1995, the government continues to pay lip service to the problems of its contract workers abroad.
Ramon Bultron, APPM managing director, said the government keeps coming up with policies without consulting with stakeholders in the industry.
These include the OWWA Omnibus Policies, the scrapped MC41 and its revival on the ban on direct hiring; and the POEA guidelines on domestic workers which now require training and have two non-enforceable provisions namely the no placement fee and the US$400 minimum wage, Bultron said.
At the same time, anti-migrant policies imposed by host governments and accepted by Philippine authorities sometimes through bilateral agreements are justified by the latter by saying that they must respect the laws and policies of host governments, he added.
Among these include the implementing guidelines of the UAE Employment Agreement for Domestic Workers and Sponsors issued out by the POEA as an advisory in 2007. This stipulates that any legitimate grievance by the worker would be considered null and void if one absconds from her employer.
Another is the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT), whigh the protesters said was an indirect admission by the government that the Balik Manggagawa program of the POEA in Taiwan especially for rehires is not applicable.
Furthermore, migrant workers continue to be executed and are in death row for contentious issues and the Philippine government continues its policy of asking merely for the commutation especially those of the latter. In effect they have accepted that these Philippine nationals are guilty of their crimes.
APMM said during these times of global recession, the Philippine government allegedly doctored the number of those retrenched and those newly hired. It gives lower figures for those who lost their jobs abroad and cites higher figures for new hires because it now includes in its counting for this category those rehired by their former employers.
APMM also slammed the government for accepting onerous terms for migrants retrenched like paying for their airfare back home. And for migrants who continue to work by tolerating the practice of lowering their wages and benefits through labor flexibility measures and outright wage cuts.
"It is not surprising that other governments view the Philippine government as a model for migration. This led the Philippines in hosting the last Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and helped prepare the just concluded Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration meeting in Washington DC," Bultron said.
These governments are either labor exporting countries like the Philippine or are importing ones. Both benefit from the remittances and cheap and docile labor respectively. It would be sure that Flor Contemplacion would turn over in her grave, he added. - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV
Contemplacion was executed by hanging in Singapore in 1995 after she was found by the courts guilty of killing fellow Filipino maid and friend Delia Maga and Maga's 4-year-old Singaporean ward.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) said that while the outrage sparked by Contemplacion’s death spurred the enactment of the Overseas Filipino Migrant Workers Act of 1995, the government continues to pay lip service to the problems of its contract workers abroad.
Ramon Bultron, APPM managing director, said the government keeps coming up with policies without consulting with stakeholders in the industry.
These include the OWWA Omnibus Policies, the scrapped MC41 and its revival on the ban on direct hiring; and the POEA guidelines on domestic workers which now require training and have two non-enforceable provisions namely the no placement fee and the US$400 minimum wage, Bultron said.
At the same time, anti-migrant policies imposed by host governments and accepted by Philippine authorities sometimes through bilateral agreements are justified by the latter by saying that they must respect the laws and policies of host governments, he added.
Among these include the implementing guidelines of the UAE Employment Agreement for Domestic Workers and Sponsors issued out by the POEA as an advisory in 2007. This stipulates that any legitimate grievance by the worker would be considered null and void if one absconds from her employer.
Another is the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT), whigh the protesters said was an indirect admission by the government that the Balik Manggagawa program of the POEA in Taiwan especially for rehires is not applicable.
Furthermore, migrant workers continue to be executed and are in death row for contentious issues and the Philippine government continues its policy of asking merely for the commutation especially those of the latter. In effect they have accepted that these Philippine nationals are guilty of their crimes.
APMM said during these times of global recession, the Philippine government allegedly doctored the number of those retrenched and those newly hired. It gives lower figures for those who lost their jobs abroad and cites higher figures for new hires because it now includes in its counting for this category those rehired by their former employers.
APMM also slammed the government for accepting onerous terms for migrants retrenched like paying for their airfare back home. And for migrants who continue to work by tolerating the practice of lowering their wages and benefits through labor flexibility measures and outright wage cuts.
"It is not surprising that other governments view the Philippine government as a model for migration. This led the Philippines in hosting the last Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and helped prepare the just concluded Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration meeting in Washington DC," Bultron said.
These governments are either labor exporting countries like the Philippine or are importing ones. Both benefit from the remittances and cheap and docile labor respectively. It would be sure that Flor Contemplacion would turn over in her grave, he added. - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV
No comments:
Post a Comment