Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: August 22, 2009
US AND NATO forces battling al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan have been moving toward the southern part of the country, near the border with Pakistan, to capture enemy strongholds.
The operations in the Kandahar and Helman provinces require massive logistics to protect supply routes, support soldiers’ needs, and keep camps, bases and other military facilities in tiptop shape, according to Emmanuel Geslani.
30 FOBs
Geslani, a consultant for several Manila-based recruitment agencies, said the buildup of forces in southern Afghanistan, would require a network of forward operating bases (FOB) with the city of Kandahar as the nerve center. There are about 30 FOBs across Afghanistan.
He recalled that Fluor, the company that employed the Filipinos who were killed in a chopper crash last month, was involved in the construction of eight new FOBs in southern Afghanistan set up in support of new troop commitments ordered by US President Barack Obama.
Troop surge
Beginning 2001, the US deployed troops numbering only about 3,000. There are now 26,000 of them as of March 2009 (excluding the 34,000 Nato troops) and the US defense department wants the number increased to at least 50,000 by the end of the year.
“FOBs needed to be set up to house thousands of troops and civilian-support staff to the tune of $400 million, according to US government estimates. And lots of workers are needed to maintain these bases,” Geslani said.
The FOBs are typically made of prefabricated buildings for dining, barracks, headquarters, recreation and training. They may or may not have their own hospitals and airfields.
The bases will be used as launching pads for troops to attack enemy forces moving in villages to retake territory and set up ambushes against US troops. The facilities are expected to have sufficient firepower and other sophisticated defense measures to minimize attacks from the outside.
Hundreds of jobs
Geslani said hundreds of jobs would be available, such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, water-food- and vehicle-maintenance crew, training specialists, utilities manager, information technology experts, vector specialists, laundry managers and housing supervisors.
The US military prefers Filipino workers because of their familiarity with Western culture and their ability to speak or understand English, according to the consultant.
Filipino construction workers and electricians also understand English technical terms better than their Afghan counterparts, he said.
Geslani said those who were previously employed in US bases in Iraq and those who had experienced working or living in former US bases in the Philippines were given preference. “The Philippine government can only watch helplessly as more OFWs will stream into Afghanistan, attracted by the high pay, for example, $1,400 for construction workers, which is triple the salaries received in Middle East countries,” he said.
Afghanistan saw a surge in violence in recent weeks, as the country prepared to go to the polls for landmark presidential and provincial elections on August 20.
About 21,000 US troops were sent to the country recently to keep stability ahead of the vote. Last month, some 4,000 troops began assaulting Taliban strongholds in the southern part of the country.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
OFWs defy ban for high pay in Afghanistan
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: August 22, 2009
COMPENSATION at least four times bigger than that offered in the Middle East is enticing Filipinos to work in forward operating bases of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan despite the dangers and the ban on deploying them to the war-torn country.
The dangers were highlighted by the death of 10 Filipino workers when the helicopter they were riding burst into flames and crashed moments after taking off at a runway in the city of Kandahar on July 19.
The 10 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), recruited in the Philippines and the Middle East, were to be deployed for work in the town of Spin Buldak, near the Pakistani border, which hosts a forward operating base manned by Canadian troops.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) identified the fatalities as Marvin Najera, Celso Caralde, Ely Cariño, Ernesto de Vega, Manolito Hornilla, Leopoldo Jimenez Jr., Noli Visda, Mark Joseph Mariano, Rene Taboclaon and Recardo Vallejos.
The badly burned bodies were taken to Kuwait and a laboratory in Maryland, United States subjected samples to further identification via DNA testing. Only two – Jimenez and Hornilla – have been identified; their remains arrived in the Philippines on August 11.
The Philippine government was quick to reiterate its two-year-old ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Afghanistan, but migrant workers and recruitment groups said the ban had been a failure.
Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the ban would remain in place and would continue to be enforced. He urged aspiring OFWs to seek employment in other countries through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and licensed recruitment agencies.
There are about 1,500 Filipino workers in Afghanistan, 500 in the capital Kabul and 1,000 in the southern part of the country, said Vice President Noli de Castro, also the presidential adviser for OFWs and chair of the interagency Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR).
De Castro said OFWs must be prevented from going to Afghanistan because it was still unsafe for Filipino workers.
Aside from the Filipino fatalities, six people were killed and five others were injured in the crash of an MI-8 chopper, owned by the Russian firm Vertikal-1.
There were no indications that the crash was caused by hostile fire, according to US military officials.
Texas-based employer
An investigation by the POEA and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa), both agencies of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), found that the Filipino workers were employed by the Texas-based Fluor Corp., an engineering and construction firm that obtained several huge contracts with the US military in Afghanistan.
But the company that recruited the Filipino workers was AIM Group Inc., also a Texas-based firm, which, according to Roque and De Castro, had apparently got hold of the recruits through “subagents,” some of them Filipinos, who were sent to scout for workers in the Philippines.
Roque said the recruiters of the 10 Filipinos acted individually so as not to attract the attention of authorities in the Philippines. One of the two subagents looked for prospective workers in Central Luzon.
“When a potential recruit is found, he would be asked if he knows another one who is qualified. The recruiter would then refer and fly them to Dubai, where an accomplice would process hiring papers,” he said.
Two of the fatalities had worked in Iraq and were directly recruited in Dubai, according to a TFAIR initial investigation.
Recruiters
De Castro said TFAIR was looking for Jake de la Cruz, one of the two male recruiters in the country. The task force also has identified Lourdes Kabigting as the recruiter in Dubai who processed the OFWs’ papers.
He said he had asked the labor department to make proper representations with UAE authorities to make the recruiters accountable.
On July 14, TFAIR agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport intercepted 11 Filipinos bound for Dubai who admitted they were to be deployed to Afghanistan. Immigration authorities were alerted because the passports of some of the workers showed that they had worked in Afghanistan.
The TFAIR found that the workers’ travel documents were facilitated by Faisal Ahmad Muhammad Alamri, who reportedly owns Sara Tourism and Cargo, a firm in Dubai.
‘Bahala na’
Emmanuel Geslani, a consultant for several Manila-based recruitment agencies, said the government would remain “powerless” to enforce the ban, especially because the 10 OFWs did not die from a terror or insurgent attack but from an accident.
“The construction activities in Afghanistan continue to attract OFWs because of the high pay and insurance benefits. With the generous compensation, OFWs are willing to risk their life and limb to work there so that they could give their families back home a better life,” he said.
He said he agreed with the observation that Filipinos seem to think they were “invincible.” Geslani attributed this view to the “bahala na” (come what may) attitude of Filipinos.
“Who would not want to defy the risk and go to Afghanistan, where a janitor can earn up to $800 a month, compared with only $200 in the UAE? A semiskilled worker can earn at least $1,200 there compared with only $300 in the rest of the region. A manager or supervisor earns much, much more,” he said.
Unaware of conflict
It was found that some OFWs themselves lacked adequate information on the real situation in Afghanistan.
“We haven’t heard about any conflict there,” said Margarita Hornilla, whose husband Manolito was among the fatalities. She and other grieving families of the 10 OFWs were brought to the Owwa Center in Pasay by De Castro on July 22.
She said Manolito, who had worked for three years in Iraq, was recruited in Dubai and brought to Afghanistan on July 1 to work as a carpenter with a monthly salary of $1,200. Manolito left six children, three of whom were in college.
On July 23, Owwa repatriated four OFWs in Afghanistan, including Najera’s father Eduardo and Mariano’s uncle Ronald de la Cruz. “We took the risk of going to Afghanistan because of the high pay,” De la Cruz said. He decided to go home because he could not yet land a job despite his recruiter’s promise.
Eduardo was remorse-stricken at having brought his son to Iraq. He said he and his son were also lured by the high pay and so took the risk of going to Afghanistan even if they knew of the ban.
US-base insurance act
Geslani said that even if the 10 Filipino fatalities were undocumented in the eyes of the Philippine government, their families would receive at least $30,000 each in insurance benefits in compliance with the US Base Insurance Act covering civilians working in high-risk defense contracts.
The ban on the deployment of OFWs to Afghanistan was imposed by the POEA in December 2007, citing the continuing strife that has engulfed the Central Asian country following the invasion by a US-led multinational force.
The government maintains a similar ban in four other countries – Iraq, Nigeria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Jumping points
Despite the ban, recruiters can easily send Filipino workers to Afghanistan, Iraq or Lebanon by using “jumping points,” Geslani said.
“Recruits from the Philippines would not go to Afghanistan directly but fly as tourists first to Bangkok or Hong Kong, from where they could take flights to Afghanistan. Middle Eastern cities such as Kuwait and Dubai in UAE have also become ‘recruitment hubs’ for OFWs in the region whose contracts have expired and are looking for a new job,” he said.
He said there were also allegations in the recruitment industry about rampant “escort services” at the Manila and Cebu international airports, where immigration and airport officers in cahoots with illegal recruiters help “tourist workers” slip out of the Philippines.
“(I)n the long run, the government cannot really set stringent measures that would violate or hamper citizens’ right to travel. And the government here and the government in Afghanistan cannot just close all their borders,” he said.
He said the government was in a better position to protect workers who were already in the four countries before the ban was imposed – as well as those who went there illegally later – if they were documented and their stay legitimized.
“The government, however, remains adamant in implementing the ban. Thus, we have no embassy or labor office there to even look after the OFWs, who are entitled to protection even if they are undocumented,” he said.
Area-specific ban
Foreign firms, however, have not stopped their lobbying. In February, a Colorado-based firm Global Procurement Consulting LLC, wrote the Dole, the DFA and Malacañang and suggested the modification of the ban to make it “area-specific.”
The ban, according to Global’s proposal, could be lifted by the Philippine government only for the military installations in Afghanistan where the Filipino recruits would be confined.
Global was looking for 2,000 cooks, waiters, cashiers, utility workers, maintenance crew and other administrative staff for Supreme Foodservice, a Swiss firm catering to the needs of US and European troops stationed in Kandahar. Supreme offered monthly tax-free salaries ranging from $385 for a general assistant to $700 for a head cook.
Bonus, free plane tickets
Benefits include a $1,200-annual bonus, free roundtrip airfare for every six months and 21 days paid leave. Food, lodging, uniforms, laundry, medical consultations and medicines are provided free of charge. Death benefits amount to three times the annual salary of the worker.
Nothing, however, came out of Global’s proposal. Roque said that as long as the peace and order situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria remained unstable, the ban would be maintained.
He said the decision was consistent with Section 5 of Republic Act No. 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, which authorizes the government to terminate or impose a ban “in pursuit of the national interest or when public welfare so requires.”
Critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lamented that Filipinos were forced to work in dangerous areas like Afghanistan to make a living because the government back home had failed to generate jobs.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: August 22, 2009
COMPENSATION at least four times bigger than that offered in the Middle East is enticing Filipinos to work in forward operating bases of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan despite the dangers and the ban on deploying them to the war-torn country.
The dangers were highlighted by the death of 10 Filipino workers when the helicopter they were riding burst into flames and crashed moments after taking off at a runway in the city of Kandahar on July 19.
The 10 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), recruited in the Philippines and the Middle East, were to be deployed for work in the town of Spin Buldak, near the Pakistani border, which hosts a forward operating base manned by Canadian troops.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) identified the fatalities as Marvin Najera, Celso Caralde, Ely Cariño, Ernesto de Vega, Manolito Hornilla, Leopoldo Jimenez Jr., Noli Visda, Mark Joseph Mariano, Rene Taboclaon and Recardo Vallejos.
The badly burned bodies were taken to Kuwait and a laboratory in Maryland, United States subjected samples to further identification via DNA testing. Only two – Jimenez and Hornilla – have been identified; their remains arrived in the Philippines on August 11.
The Philippine government was quick to reiterate its two-year-old ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Afghanistan, but migrant workers and recruitment groups said the ban had been a failure.
Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the ban would remain in place and would continue to be enforced. He urged aspiring OFWs to seek employment in other countries through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and licensed recruitment agencies.
There are about 1,500 Filipino workers in Afghanistan, 500 in the capital Kabul and 1,000 in the southern part of the country, said Vice President Noli de Castro, also the presidential adviser for OFWs and chair of the interagency Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR).
De Castro said OFWs must be prevented from going to Afghanistan because it was still unsafe for Filipino workers.
Aside from the Filipino fatalities, six people were killed and five others were injured in the crash of an MI-8 chopper, owned by the Russian firm Vertikal-1.
There were no indications that the crash was caused by hostile fire, according to US military officials.
Texas-based employer
An investigation by the POEA and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa), both agencies of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), found that the Filipino workers were employed by the Texas-based Fluor Corp., an engineering and construction firm that obtained several huge contracts with the US military in Afghanistan.
But the company that recruited the Filipino workers was AIM Group Inc., also a Texas-based firm, which, according to Roque and De Castro, had apparently got hold of the recruits through “subagents,” some of them Filipinos, who were sent to scout for workers in the Philippines.
Roque said the recruiters of the 10 Filipinos acted individually so as not to attract the attention of authorities in the Philippines. One of the two subagents looked for prospective workers in Central Luzon.
“When a potential recruit is found, he would be asked if he knows another one who is qualified. The recruiter would then refer and fly them to Dubai, where an accomplice would process hiring papers,” he said.
Two of the fatalities had worked in Iraq and were directly recruited in Dubai, according to a TFAIR initial investigation.
Recruiters
De Castro said TFAIR was looking for Jake de la Cruz, one of the two male recruiters in the country. The task force also has identified Lourdes Kabigting as the recruiter in Dubai who processed the OFWs’ papers.
He said he had asked the labor department to make proper representations with UAE authorities to make the recruiters accountable.
On July 14, TFAIR agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport intercepted 11 Filipinos bound for Dubai who admitted they were to be deployed to Afghanistan. Immigration authorities were alerted because the passports of some of the workers showed that they had worked in Afghanistan.
The TFAIR found that the workers’ travel documents were facilitated by Faisal Ahmad Muhammad Alamri, who reportedly owns Sara Tourism and Cargo, a firm in Dubai.
‘Bahala na’
Emmanuel Geslani, a consultant for several Manila-based recruitment agencies, said the government would remain “powerless” to enforce the ban, especially because the 10 OFWs did not die from a terror or insurgent attack but from an accident.
“The construction activities in Afghanistan continue to attract OFWs because of the high pay and insurance benefits. With the generous compensation, OFWs are willing to risk their life and limb to work there so that they could give their families back home a better life,” he said.
He said he agreed with the observation that Filipinos seem to think they were “invincible.” Geslani attributed this view to the “bahala na” (come what may) attitude of Filipinos.
“Who would not want to defy the risk and go to Afghanistan, where a janitor can earn up to $800 a month, compared with only $200 in the UAE? A semiskilled worker can earn at least $1,200 there compared with only $300 in the rest of the region. A manager or supervisor earns much, much more,” he said.
Unaware of conflict
It was found that some OFWs themselves lacked adequate information on the real situation in Afghanistan.
“We haven’t heard about any conflict there,” said Margarita Hornilla, whose husband Manolito was among the fatalities. She and other grieving families of the 10 OFWs were brought to the Owwa Center in Pasay by De Castro on July 22.
She said Manolito, who had worked for three years in Iraq, was recruited in Dubai and brought to Afghanistan on July 1 to work as a carpenter with a monthly salary of $1,200. Manolito left six children, three of whom were in college.
On July 23, Owwa repatriated four OFWs in Afghanistan, including Najera’s father Eduardo and Mariano’s uncle Ronald de la Cruz. “We took the risk of going to Afghanistan because of the high pay,” De la Cruz said. He decided to go home because he could not yet land a job despite his recruiter’s promise.
Eduardo was remorse-stricken at having brought his son to Iraq. He said he and his son were also lured by the high pay and so took the risk of going to Afghanistan even if they knew of the ban.
US-base insurance act
Geslani said that even if the 10 Filipino fatalities were undocumented in the eyes of the Philippine government, their families would receive at least $30,000 each in insurance benefits in compliance with the US Base Insurance Act covering civilians working in high-risk defense contracts.
The ban on the deployment of OFWs to Afghanistan was imposed by the POEA in December 2007, citing the continuing strife that has engulfed the Central Asian country following the invasion by a US-led multinational force.
The government maintains a similar ban in four other countries – Iraq, Nigeria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Jumping points
Despite the ban, recruiters can easily send Filipino workers to Afghanistan, Iraq or Lebanon by using “jumping points,” Geslani said.
“Recruits from the Philippines would not go to Afghanistan directly but fly as tourists first to Bangkok or Hong Kong, from where they could take flights to Afghanistan. Middle Eastern cities such as Kuwait and Dubai in UAE have also become ‘recruitment hubs’ for OFWs in the region whose contracts have expired and are looking for a new job,” he said.
He said there were also allegations in the recruitment industry about rampant “escort services” at the Manila and Cebu international airports, where immigration and airport officers in cahoots with illegal recruiters help “tourist workers” slip out of the Philippines.
“(I)n the long run, the government cannot really set stringent measures that would violate or hamper citizens’ right to travel. And the government here and the government in Afghanistan cannot just close all their borders,” he said.
He said the government was in a better position to protect workers who were already in the four countries before the ban was imposed – as well as those who went there illegally later – if they were documented and their stay legitimized.
“The government, however, remains adamant in implementing the ban. Thus, we have no embassy or labor office there to even look after the OFWs, who are entitled to protection even if they are undocumented,” he said.
Area-specific ban
Foreign firms, however, have not stopped their lobbying. In February, a Colorado-based firm Global Procurement Consulting LLC, wrote the Dole, the DFA and Malacañang and suggested the modification of the ban to make it “area-specific.”
The ban, according to Global’s proposal, could be lifted by the Philippine government only for the military installations in Afghanistan where the Filipino recruits would be confined.
Global was looking for 2,000 cooks, waiters, cashiers, utility workers, maintenance crew and other administrative staff for Supreme Foodservice, a Swiss firm catering to the needs of US and European troops stationed in Kandahar. Supreme offered monthly tax-free salaries ranging from $385 for a general assistant to $700 for a head cook.
Bonus, free plane tickets
Benefits include a $1,200-annual bonus, free roundtrip airfare for every six months and 21 days paid leave. Food, lodging, uniforms, laundry, medical consultations and medicines are provided free of charge. Death benefits amount to three times the annual salary of the worker.
Nothing, however, came out of Global’s proposal. Roque said that as long as the peace and order situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria remained unstable, the ban would be maintained.
He said the decision was consistent with Section 5 of Republic Act No. 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, which authorizes the government to terminate or impose a ban “in pursuit of the national interest or when public welfare so requires.”
Critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lamented that Filipinos were forced to work in dangerous areas like Afghanistan to make a living because the government back home had failed to generate jobs.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Undocumented Pinoys in Belgium urged to avail themselves of new migration policy
http://www.bloggen.be/philippinenews
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Embassy in Belgium urged undocumented Filipinos to avail of the Belgian government’s new migration policy for the regularization of undocumented migrants.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy (Flemish Christian Democrat) announced in a press conference last July 19 the details of the Federal Government agreement on regularization of undocumented migrants.
Under the new regularization policy, illegal migrants who lived in Belgium for at least five years and had filed their initial applications for regularization on or before 18 March 2009 can re-submit their applications with the Office for Foreigners of the Ministry of Interior starting on Sept. 15, 2009 up to Dec. 15, 2009.
Applications shall then be assessed by the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration vis-à-vis the implementing guidelines on regularization.
If approved, the undocumented migrant will be granted with the necessary papers that will allow them to stay in Belgium legally.
Meanwhile, people who have been working in Belgium for at least two and a half years can apply for a residence permit. They are required to submit a labor contract and a regional labor card.
Applicants for both categories must prove that they are well-integrated into the Belgian community for their applications to be successful. Other factors, among others, that can count in the applicants’ favor include knowledge of the local language, employment status, families with children at school, earlier credible attempts to obtain a legal residence in Belgium, and sustainable social local ties.
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Embassy in Belgium urged undocumented Filipinos to avail of the Belgian government’s new migration policy for the regularization of undocumented migrants.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy (Flemish Christian Democrat) announced in a press conference last July 19 the details of the Federal Government agreement on regularization of undocumented migrants.
Under the new regularization policy, illegal migrants who lived in Belgium for at least five years and had filed their initial applications for regularization on or before 18 March 2009 can re-submit their applications with the Office for Foreigners of the Ministry of Interior starting on Sept. 15, 2009 up to Dec. 15, 2009.
Applications shall then be assessed by the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration vis-à-vis the implementing guidelines on regularization.
If approved, the undocumented migrant will be granted with the necessary papers that will allow them to stay in Belgium legally.
Meanwhile, people who have been working in Belgium for at least two and a half years can apply for a residence permit. They are required to submit a labor contract and a regional labor card.
Applicants for both categories must prove that they are well-integrated into the Belgian community for their applications to be successful. Other factors, among others, that can count in the applicants’ favor include knowledge of the local language, employment status, families with children at school, earlier credible attempts to obtain a legal residence in Belgium, and sustainable social local ties.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Worrisome low new-voter registration
EDITORIAL
The Manila Times
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) admits that so far less than 850,000 new voters have registered. The deadline for registration, October 31, is fast approaching.
The consensual estimate is that thee are about five million new voters. Comelec had set a target of registering three million by October. It does not look like the target will be met.
The Comelec must heed the call of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero to extend the registration of new voters to December. The senator said extending the registration period would give more of the youth the opportunity to vote in the May 2010 elections.
Senator Escudero aired his recommendation at a forum with students of the University of the East. Defending the youth from critics who claim that the lag in new-voter registration proves that the young Filipinos are apathetic, he said, “The youth is not apathetic as some would want to portray them, because it is they who will inherit this country.”
The opposition senator added that if some young people have indeed developed apathy towards elections and government affairs, it is because the government has failed to inspire them to register and vote.
Corruption scandals turn off citizens
Some anecdotal evidence can show that government corruption scandals and the bad reputation of Philippine elections—for being the occasion for vote-buying, fraudulent counting of ballots and tampered certificates of canvas—do turn off citizens from government affairs and elections.
But the citizens who get disgusted with government are not only young persons but also adults.
Another reason for apathy is the fear that there will be “failure of elections.” Election failure in 2010 would mean no new president and lawmakers would be elected. This would then allow the present administration and Congress to continue ruling until a new election is held.
More registration places throughout the country
Chairman of the Senate Electoral Reforms Committee, Senator Escudero also urged the Comelec to establish more registration centers in schools, barangay halls and other public facilities nationwide. A young partylist congressman, Kabataan party-list’s Rep. Raymundo Palatino made a similar call for the Comelec to open more “accessible satellite registration venues in schools and barangays throughout the country.”
Senator Escudero also wants Comelec to be more vigorous in its campaign for new voters here and abroad.
Overseas-voter registration also very low
He pointed out that the low turnout of new absentee voters overseas should drive the Comelec to “step up information campaigns and set up mobile registration units in countries where there are huge Filipino expatriate populations.”
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) data show that only about 175,000 Filipinos abroad have registered for the 2010 polls. The DFA’s target for the end of August is to register at least one million overseas Filipino voters. There are at least two million OFWs and other overseas Filipinos who can avail themselves of the absentee voting privilege.
Some analysts view the overseas Filipinos as among the most aware of the blessings of democracy because they have seen these in the United States and Western Europe (though not in the Middle East). As persons of a superior awareness of the value of suffrage, the OFWs and other overseas Filipinos could become the vanguard of a more enlightened Philippine electorate.
Their reluctance to use their voting power deprives the Philippines of a much-needed patriotic service. Are these overseas Filipinos apathetic? No. Then why aren’t they registering?
Need to amend Absentee Voting Act
The Comelec itself has an answer. Something in the Absentee Voting Act of 2001 makes the Filipinos abroad reluctant to register.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez on Friday said that the law should be amended and shorn of its provision requiring migrant Filipino workers to return to the country within three years after exercising their voting rights.
A Filipino abroad who registers and votes and later fails to comply with the requirement to come home within three years after voting would find his or her “sovereign rights”—which include the right to vote—temporarily withheld. To have these “sovereign rights” restored, he or she must pass a series of questioning.
Mr. Jimenez also mentioned that some of the OFWs are undocumented. The highest estimate is that there are a million of them in the United States. Returning to the Philippines before they get their stay status cleared up in the US would expose their illegal status to US authorities.
Mr. Jimenez also cited Filipino professionals whose contract with their employers would preclude leaving their work to fulfill the three-year requirement of the absentee-voting law.
The Comelec took this matter up with the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee in the Twelfth Congress. The poll body recommended that the provision be repealed by amendment. Mr. Jimenez said the congressional committee, which has the jurisdiction over the Absentee Voting Act of 2001, has not taken any action on the poll body’s recommendation all these past several years.
Mr. Jimenez said the Comelec is convinced that this problem provision’s removal from the law would make overseas Filipinos more eager to exercise—abroad where they are—their right of suffrage in Philippine elections.
To prove that overseas Filipinos are not apathetic and are eager to vote in 2010, Mr. Jimenez talked about a test vote that the poll body conducted through the Internet in Singapore in 2007. He said the participation rate of Filipinos in Singapore was large.
The Manila Times
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) admits that so far less than 850,000 new voters have registered. The deadline for registration, October 31, is fast approaching.
The consensual estimate is that thee are about five million new voters. Comelec had set a target of registering three million by October. It does not look like the target will be met.
The Comelec must heed the call of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero to extend the registration of new voters to December. The senator said extending the registration period would give more of the youth the opportunity to vote in the May 2010 elections.
Senator Escudero aired his recommendation at a forum with students of the University of the East. Defending the youth from critics who claim that the lag in new-voter registration proves that the young Filipinos are apathetic, he said, “The youth is not apathetic as some would want to portray them, because it is they who will inherit this country.”
The opposition senator added that if some young people have indeed developed apathy towards elections and government affairs, it is because the government has failed to inspire them to register and vote.
Corruption scandals turn off citizens
Some anecdotal evidence can show that government corruption scandals and the bad reputation of Philippine elections—for being the occasion for vote-buying, fraudulent counting of ballots and tampered certificates of canvas—do turn off citizens from government affairs and elections.
But the citizens who get disgusted with government are not only young persons but also adults.
Another reason for apathy is the fear that there will be “failure of elections.” Election failure in 2010 would mean no new president and lawmakers would be elected. This would then allow the present administration and Congress to continue ruling until a new election is held.
More registration places throughout the country
Chairman of the Senate Electoral Reforms Committee, Senator Escudero also urged the Comelec to establish more registration centers in schools, barangay halls and other public facilities nationwide. A young partylist congressman, Kabataan party-list’s Rep. Raymundo Palatino made a similar call for the Comelec to open more “accessible satellite registration venues in schools and barangays throughout the country.”
Senator Escudero also wants Comelec to be more vigorous in its campaign for new voters here and abroad.
Overseas-voter registration also very low
He pointed out that the low turnout of new absentee voters overseas should drive the Comelec to “step up information campaigns and set up mobile registration units in countries where there are huge Filipino expatriate populations.”
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) data show that only about 175,000 Filipinos abroad have registered for the 2010 polls. The DFA’s target for the end of August is to register at least one million overseas Filipino voters. There are at least two million OFWs and other overseas Filipinos who can avail themselves of the absentee voting privilege.
Some analysts view the overseas Filipinos as among the most aware of the blessings of democracy because they have seen these in the United States and Western Europe (though not in the Middle East). As persons of a superior awareness of the value of suffrage, the OFWs and other overseas Filipinos could become the vanguard of a more enlightened Philippine electorate.
Their reluctance to use their voting power deprives the Philippines of a much-needed patriotic service. Are these overseas Filipinos apathetic? No. Then why aren’t they registering?
Need to amend Absentee Voting Act
The Comelec itself has an answer. Something in the Absentee Voting Act of 2001 makes the Filipinos abroad reluctant to register.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez on Friday said that the law should be amended and shorn of its provision requiring migrant Filipino workers to return to the country within three years after exercising their voting rights.
A Filipino abroad who registers and votes and later fails to comply with the requirement to come home within three years after voting would find his or her “sovereign rights”—which include the right to vote—temporarily withheld. To have these “sovereign rights” restored, he or she must pass a series of questioning.
Mr. Jimenez also mentioned that some of the OFWs are undocumented. The highest estimate is that there are a million of them in the United States. Returning to the Philippines before they get their stay status cleared up in the US would expose their illegal status to US authorities.
Mr. Jimenez also cited Filipino professionals whose contract with their employers would preclude leaving their work to fulfill the three-year requirement of the absentee-voting law.
The Comelec took this matter up with the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee in the Twelfth Congress. The poll body recommended that the provision be repealed by amendment. Mr. Jimenez said the congressional committee, which has the jurisdiction over the Absentee Voting Act of 2001, has not taken any action on the poll body’s recommendation all these past several years.
Mr. Jimenez said the Comelec is convinced that this problem provision’s removal from the law would make overseas Filipinos more eager to exercise—abroad where they are—their right of suffrage in Philippine elections.
To prove that overseas Filipinos are not apathetic and are eager to vote in 2010, Mr. Jimenez talked about a test vote that the poll body conducted through the Internet in Singapore in 2007. He said the participation rate of Filipinos in Singapore was large.
Stricter border controls, repatriations expected
manilatimes.net
Sunday, August 16, 2009
DÉJÀ VU describes the financial meltdown’s impact on migrant workers.
Repatriation, more border controls, punitive penalties for undocumented migrant workers, and no new or higher levels of employment in host countries will be the same this year as has happened in the Asian financial crisis of 1997, according to Dr. Maruja Asis, Scalabrini Migration Center director.
The director, cited by the OFW Journalism Consortium, also expects more overseas migration but also increased undocumented overseas workers as well as rising numbers of returning migrant workers—as in 1997.
International labor migration “hasn’t adversely affected” the Philippines, owing to increasing deployment to old and new labor markets, and because of rising remittances, the OFW Journalism Consortium quoted Stella Go, De La Salle University professor and migration expert.
What worries her, however, is that the crisis might increase the risks facing Filipino workers abroad in “vulnerable occupations” such as domestic help and construction, she said. “They might be exposed to wage cuts and less-ideal work conditions.”
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea are among the target destination countries for Filipino migrant workers.
Figures of deployed migrant workers in 2007 from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show that these four countries received 76,565 newly hired and rehired Filipino workers, according to the OFW Journalism Consortium, a group of journalists concerned about overseas Filipino workers.
Demand for foreign labor
While Singapore, Southeast Asia’s financial hub, will experience a “sharp economic downturn that is the most severe in the country’s history,” it will still need foreign workers, the consortium quoted Dr. Yap Mui Teng of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
Singapore companies forecast a minus 5-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for this year, he said, adding it was unavoidable that companies would cut costs and fire foreign workers first and nationals last. GDP, a key economic indicator, is the final cost of all goods and services produced in a country in a year.
Teng said that more foreign workers were complaining of unclaimed salaries and of being subjected to “no work, no pay” situations. He added that some manpower agencies could place repatriated foreign workers.
He said analysts forecast that 50,000 foreign workers would lose their jobs this year, especially those in manufacturing and construction.
About 143,000 highly skilled foreign workers in Singapore hold employment passes while 757,000 semi-skilled foreign workers (including domestic workers) hold work permits.
Feeling the pinch
Neighboring Malaysia is also feeling the pinch as migrant workers will be among the 400,000 workers that employers’ federations forecast to be laid off this year.
The situation is especially glaring for Malaysia’s manufacturing sector, whose biggest market is recession-hit United States.
The government has responded with a policy seen as harsh for migrant workers. In retrenchments, they will be terminated first. Plus, a freeze hiring of migrant workers was put in place, and the deportation of undocumented migrants was fast-tracked.
A bright spot is that the crisis may possibly see the government regularizing some of the undocumented workers in Malaysia’s informal sector. But since migrant workers hold annual work permits, it is easy for employers to retrench them.
Thailand and South Korea
Thailand, which supplies and hosts migrant workers, is unlikely to extend the work permits of some 200,000 documented migrant workers in 2010.
Thais would be hired first, the OFW Journalism Consortium quoted Dr. Supang Chantavanich of the Asian Research Center on Migration based in Chulalongkorn University as saying.
If foreign workers wish to extend their work permits, “they have to apply through Thai line government agencies,” she added.
Thailand has 76,206 foreign construction workers and 53,933 foreign domestic workers.
Chantavanich expects the increased hiring of construction and domestic workers in the two sectors where migrant workers will not be affected by the crisis “due to increasing needs for them.”
It is no better in South Korea where the global economic crisis has led to the retrenching of some 6,707 foreign workers last year.
Retrenchments because of bankruptcy and shutting down of small- and medium-sized enterprises have also affected migrant workers.
The South Korean government has suspended issuing work visas to foreign workers until 2010 because of a “shrinking labor market,” said economist Park Young Bum of Hansung University, according to the OFW Journalism Consortium.
South Korea also subsidizes small and medium enterprises that replace foreign workers with Koreans.
Since 2008, it sent back home some 8,000 undocumented migrant workers but Park thinks the country depends on unskilled foreign labor and a massive repatriation “is not possible.”
Sunday, August 16, 2009
DÉJÀ VU describes the financial meltdown’s impact on migrant workers.
Repatriation, more border controls, punitive penalties for undocumented migrant workers, and no new or higher levels of employment in host countries will be the same this year as has happened in the Asian financial crisis of 1997, according to Dr. Maruja Asis, Scalabrini Migration Center director.
The director, cited by the OFW Journalism Consortium, also expects more overseas migration but also increased undocumented overseas workers as well as rising numbers of returning migrant workers—as in 1997.
International labor migration “hasn’t adversely affected” the Philippines, owing to increasing deployment to old and new labor markets, and because of rising remittances, the OFW Journalism Consortium quoted Stella Go, De La Salle University professor and migration expert.
What worries her, however, is that the crisis might increase the risks facing Filipino workers abroad in “vulnerable occupations” such as domestic help and construction, she said. “They might be exposed to wage cuts and less-ideal work conditions.”
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea are among the target destination countries for Filipino migrant workers.
Figures of deployed migrant workers in 2007 from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show that these four countries received 76,565 newly hired and rehired Filipino workers, according to the OFW Journalism Consortium, a group of journalists concerned about overseas Filipino workers.
Demand for foreign labor
While Singapore, Southeast Asia’s financial hub, will experience a “sharp economic downturn that is the most severe in the country’s history,” it will still need foreign workers, the consortium quoted Dr. Yap Mui Teng of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
Singapore companies forecast a minus 5-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for this year, he said, adding it was unavoidable that companies would cut costs and fire foreign workers first and nationals last. GDP, a key economic indicator, is the final cost of all goods and services produced in a country in a year.
Teng said that more foreign workers were complaining of unclaimed salaries and of being subjected to “no work, no pay” situations. He added that some manpower agencies could place repatriated foreign workers.
He said analysts forecast that 50,000 foreign workers would lose their jobs this year, especially those in manufacturing and construction.
About 143,000 highly skilled foreign workers in Singapore hold employment passes while 757,000 semi-skilled foreign workers (including domestic workers) hold work permits.
Feeling the pinch
Neighboring Malaysia is also feeling the pinch as migrant workers will be among the 400,000 workers that employers’ federations forecast to be laid off this year.
The situation is especially glaring for Malaysia’s manufacturing sector, whose biggest market is recession-hit United States.
The government has responded with a policy seen as harsh for migrant workers. In retrenchments, they will be terminated first. Plus, a freeze hiring of migrant workers was put in place, and the deportation of undocumented migrants was fast-tracked.
A bright spot is that the crisis may possibly see the government regularizing some of the undocumented workers in Malaysia’s informal sector. But since migrant workers hold annual work permits, it is easy for employers to retrench them.
Thailand and South Korea
Thailand, which supplies and hosts migrant workers, is unlikely to extend the work permits of some 200,000 documented migrant workers in 2010.
Thais would be hired first, the OFW Journalism Consortium quoted Dr. Supang Chantavanich of the Asian Research Center on Migration based in Chulalongkorn University as saying.
If foreign workers wish to extend their work permits, “they have to apply through Thai line government agencies,” she added.
Thailand has 76,206 foreign construction workers and 53,933 foreign domestic workers.
Chantavanich expects the increased hiring of construction and domestic workers in the two sectors where migrant workers will not be affected by the crisis “due to increasing needs for them.”
It is no better in South Korea where the global economic crisis has led to the retrenching of some 6,707 foreign workers last year.
Retrenchments because of bankruptcy and shutting down of small- and medium-sized enterprises have also affected migrant workers.
The South Korean government has suspended issuing work visas to foreign workers until 2010 because of a “shrinking labor market,” said economist Park Young Bum of Hansung University, according to the OFW Journalism Consortium.
South Korea also subsidizes small and medium enterprises that replace foreign workers with Koreans.
Since 2008, it sent back home some 8,000 undocumented migrant workers but Park thinks the country depends on unskilled foreign labor and a massive repatriation “is not possible.”
Female workers abroad now outnumber males
manilatimes.net
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Filipino women now outnumber the men in working and settling abroad.
And the trend is reflected in data from the provinces, according to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI).
Citing numbers from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the institute reported that data on overseas workers from 2004 to 2007 shows that 33 provinces have more female land- and sea-based migrant workers than their male counterparts, compared to 18 provinces that had more male migrant workers than females.
These include all the provinces in the Ilocos region and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Some 21 other provinces, meanwhile, had years that there were more female migrant workers than males and vice versa—with no clear trend which gender has more migrant workers over the four-year period.
From the provinces
An overwhelming 76 of 78 provinces with data had more female than male emigrants and permanent residents, according to a 27-year dataset on this group of migrants coming from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).
Only Aklan and Tawi-Tawi had more male than female permanent residents and emigrants.
The provinces that had more female than male overseas workers and permanent residents come from provinces with high and low poverty incidence levels.
Government data segregates overseas Filipinos as land- and sea-based (the latter is included because the Philippines is the world’s leading supplier of merchant marine fleet).
But looking at total land-based workers per province alone by gender, 73 of 76 provinces with data show that females outnumber male land-based workers.
Only Bataan, Pampanga and Zambales had more male land-based overseas workers than females.
According to the institute, Filipino women workers abroad have contributed “a lot of resources quietly yet visibly, and have helped improve their birth provinces’ quality of life.”
These contributions by overseas Filipinas are “not without a cost,” the institute reported in a policy briefing paper, “since females are vulnerable to human rights abuses.”
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Filipino women now outnumber the men in working and settling abroad.
And the trend is reflected in data from the provinces, according to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI).
Citing numbers from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the institute reported that data on overseas workers from 2004 to 2007 shows that 33 provinces have more female land- and sea-based migrant workers than their male counterparts, compared to 18 provinces that had more male migrant workers than females.
These include all the provinces in the Ilocos region and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Some 21 other provinces, meanwhile, had years that there were more female migrant workers than males and vice versa—with no clear trend which gender has more migrant workers over the four-year period.
From the provinces
An overwhelming 76 of 78 provinces with data had more female than male emigrants and permanent residents, according to a 27-year dataset on this group of migrants coming from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).
Only Aklan and Tawi-Tawi had more male than female permanent residents and emigrants.
The provinces that had more female than male overseas workers and permanent residents come from provinces with high and low poverty incidence levels.
Government data segregates overseas Filipinos as land- and sea-based (the latter is included because the Philippines is the world’s leading supplier of merchant marine fleet).
But looking at total land-based workers per province alone by gender, 73 of 76 provinces with data show that females outnumber male land-based workers.
Only Bataan, Pampanga and Zambales had more male land-based overseas workers than females.
According to the institute, Filipino women workers abroad have contributed “a lot of resources quietly yet visibly, and have helped improve their birth provinces’ quality of life.”
These contributions by overseas Filipinas are “not without a cost,” the institute reported in a policy briefing paper, “since females are vulnerable to human rights abuses.”
Low-skilled workers are the top remitters
manilatimes.net
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Low-skilled overseas workers are the country’s top senders of money from abroad.
Women domestic workers, by the number, are also the topmost deployed overseas workers even if they may have earned smaller salaries and send home lesser amounts of remittances compared to other overseas workers.
According to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI), male plant and machine operators and assemblers, male trades and related workers, and female laborers and unskilled workers are the country’s top remitters.
The non-profit organization cites the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) of the National Statistics Office, which shows that male plant and machine operators and assemblers remitted P14.543 billion in 2007, up from P7.927 billion in 2001.
These workers were the top remitters from 2001 to 2004 and in 2007.
Female workers
While female laborers and unskilled workers were the second-highest group of remitters by volume in the annual survey, this category of female migrant workers is the leader among female overseas workers. Female laborers and unskilled workers sent home P13.082 billion in 2007, up from P6.452 in 2001.
Yet, female service workers doing domestic work are the leading overseas workers by total number, according to the institute, citing 15-year data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on deployed new-hire overseas workers by gender, skill and country of destination.
The data on new-hire overseas workers by the agency show that domestic helpers and related household workers, choreographers and dancers and composers, musicians and singers—all females—are also the leading Filipino workers deployed abroad.
The topmost groups of skilled workers are female nurses, followed by male engineers (electrical and electronics) and technicians.
Low-skilled or semi-skilled overseas workers’ regular remittance transfers that benefit their immediate families make them the “major driver of the country’s remittance economy,” according to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues.
Global trend
This trend reflects the fact that job opportunities in developed countries call for semi-skilled or low-skilled workers so that host country nationals can actively participate in their country’s labor force.
The institute recommended that measures to support and protect the rights and welfare of these low-skilled workers should be put in place. They should have access to various forms of legal redress when they are abused.
“They [low-skilled workers] remit frequently [though in lesser amounts], they also try out micro-to-small enterprises, and had to repay debts incurred prior to their migration overseas,” according to the institute.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Low-skilled overseas workers are the country’s top senders of money from abroad.
Women domestic workers, by the number, are also the topmost deployed overseas workers even if they may have earned smaller salaries and send home lesser amounts of remittances compared to other overseas workers.
According to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI), male plant and machine operators and assemblers, male trades and related workers, and female laborers and unskilled workers are the country’s top remitters.
The non-profit organization cites the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) of the National Statistics Office, which shows that male plant and machine operators and assemblers remitted P14.543 billion in 2007, up from P7.927 billion in 2001.
These workers were the top remitters from 2001 to 2004 and in 2007.
Female workers
While female laborers and unskilled workers were the second-highest group of remitters by volume in the annual survey, this category of female migrant workers is the leader among female overseas workers. Female laborers and unskilled workers sent home P13.082 billion in 2007, up from P6.452 in 2001.
Yet, female service workers doing domestic work are the leading overseas workers by total number, according to the institute, citing 15-year data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on deployed new-hire overseas workers by gender, skill and country of destination.
The data on new-hire overseas workers by the agency show that domestic helpers and related household workers, choreographers and dancers and composers, musicians and singers—all females—are also the leading Filipino workers deployed abroad.
The topmost groups of skilled workers are female nurses, followed by male engineers (electrical and electronics) and technicians.
Low-skilled or semi-skilled overseas workers’ regular remittance transfers that benefit their immediate families make them the “major driver of the country’s remittance economy,” according to the Institute for Migration and Development Issues.
Global trend
This trend reflects the fact that job opportunities in developed countries call for semi-skilled or low-skilled workers so that host country nationals can actively participate in their country’s labor force.
The institute recommended that measures to support and protect the rights and welfare of these low-skilled workers should be put in place. They should have access to various forms of legal redress when they are abused.
“They [low-skilled workers] remit frequently [though in lesser amounts], they also try out micro-to-small enterprises, and had to repay debts incurred prior to their migration overseas,” according to the institute.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Runaway Maids on the Rise in the U.A.E.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/
August 17, 2009 1:14 p.m. EST
The Media Line Staff
The Filipino Resource Centre of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office, an arm of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, has reported an increase of 20 percent in the number of Filipino domestic workers who have fled their employers and sought assistance.
Philippine labor attaché Nasser Munder said the majority of those running away had worked for their respective employers for less than three months. Munder reported fielding an average of 118 to 125 cases each month, up about 20% from 2008 figures.
The Philippine Embassy and worker's rights advocacy groups said such runaways were the result of a number of factors ranging from sexual harassment, abuse and nonpayment of wages to homesickness and illness.
"This is reflective of the fact that these women are under a lot of pressure," Gloria Moreno-Fontes, a senior labor migration specialist with the International Labour Organization told The Media Line. "It's an expression of desperation. They are in situations in which they feel exploited and discriminated against, they often do not receive their wages and their freedom of movement is very constrained."
"After a woman runs away the employers often withhold their wages, they are often deported and this poor lady goes back home with debt," said Moreno-Fontes. "This is an issue we are very concerned about. A woman running away should not lead to them being considered undocumented. They need to be given the right protections, access to lawyers and the judicial system, and receipt of all wages due."
Rights organizations say migrant workers lack sufficient protections both in the U.A.E. and Gulf countries in general.
"There are several levels on which women's domestic workers rights are not protected but the main issue is they are not afforded the same rights as many other workers," Moreno-Fontes said. "Migrant workers should be treated and given opportunities on parity to national workers but in most countries of the region national legislation does not cover domestic workers in general and women migrant workers specifically."
Moreno-Fontes warned against assuming that all domestic workers were facing difficulties.
"Many of these women find themselves in a desperate situation this does not mean that all domestic workers are in difficult or exploitative situations," she said. "There are of course good employers."
The U.A.E. has received extensive criticism over the years from human rights and labor organizations over the conditions for foreign workers in the country.
Domestic workers, which make up a significant proportion of the U.A.E.'s predominately foreign population, have complained of sub-standard housing, lack of medical care, abuse and non-payment of wages. A report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch found that despite official salaries, U.A.E. domestic workers are actually paid an average of 400-450 dirhams ($108 - $122) each month, which at 16-18 hours per day works out to about 25 cents an hour.
The government announced new regulations two years ago requiring holiday, medical care and registered salaries for all foreign domestic workers in the country. A conflict resolution unit was also set up to resolve disputes between employees and workers.
The International Labor Organization plans to push international standards or labor recommendations for domestic laborers in their annual conference next year.
The United States recently placed the U.A.E. on a watch list of countries with poor human trafficking records.
August 17, 2009 1:14 p.m. EST
The Media Line Staff
The Filipino Resource Centre of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office, an arm of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, has reported an increase of 20 percent in the number of Filipino domestic workers who have fled their employers and sought assistance.
Philippine labor attaché Nasser Munder said the majority of those running away had worked for their respective employers for less than three months. Munder reported fielding an average of 118 to 125 cases each month, up about 20% from 2008 figures.
The Philippine Embassy and worker's rights advocacy groups said such runaways were the result of a number of factors ranging from sexual harassment, abuse and nonpayment of wages to homesickness and illness.
"This is reflective of the fact that these women are under a lot of pressure," Gloria Moreno-Fontes, a senior labor migration specialist with the International Labour Organization told The Media Line. "It's an expression of desperation. They are in situations in which they feel exploited and discriminated against, they often do not receive their wages and their freedom of movement is very constrained."
"After a woman runs away the employers often withhold their wages, they are often deported and this poor lady goes back home with debt," said Moreno-Fontes. "This is an issue we are very concerned about. A woman running away should not lead to them being considered undocumented. They need to be given the right protections, access to lawyers and the judicial system, and receipt of all wages due."
Rights organizations say migrant workers lack sufficient protections both in the U.A.E. and Gulf countries in general.
"There are several levels on which women's domestic workers rights are not protected but the main issue is they are not afforded the same rights as many other workers," Moreno-Fontes said. "Migrant workers should be treated and given opportunities on parity to national workers but in most countries of the region national legislation does not cover domestic workers in general and women migrant workers specifically."
Moreno-Fontes warned against assuming that all domestic workers were facing difficulties.
"Many of these women find themselves in a desperate situation this does not mean that all domestic workers are in difficult or exploitative situations," she said. "There are of course good employers."
The U.A.E. has received extensive criticism over the years from human rights and labor organizations over the conditions for foreign workers in the country.
Domestic workers, which make up a significant proportion of the U.A.E.'s predominately foreign population, have complained of sub-standard housing, lack of medical care, abuse and non-payment of wages. A report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch found that despite official salaries, U.A.E. domestic workers are actually paid an average of 400-450 dirhams ($108 - $122) each month, which at 16-18 hours per day works out to about 25 cents an hour.
The government announced new regulations two years ago requiring holiday, medical care and registered salaries for all foreign domestic workers in the country. A conflict resolution unit was also set up to resolve disputes between employees and workers.
The International Labor Organization plans to push international standards or labor recommendations for domestic laborers in their annual conference next year.
The United States recently placed the U.A.E. on a watch list of countries with poor human trafficking records.
Monday, August 17, 2009
OFWs ‘extremely vulnerable’ to HIV
SAYS LABOR GROUP
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: August 16, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—Worried over the growing number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) infected with HIV, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) wants government agencies to build up efforts to heighten awareness of the disease among foreign-bound laborers.
"There is no question that once exposed to foreign cultures, OFWs, especially sailors, tend to put their guard down. As a result, they risk contracting HIV, mainly through unsafe sex practices," said TUCP secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said in a statement.
"This is why OFWs now account for one-third of all our HIV and full-blown AIDS cases," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment, and human resources development.
Herrera urged the Department of Health (DoH), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) to devote more resources to preventive education campaigns targeted at foreign-bound as well as returning migrant laborers.
As of June 2009, the DoH’s National AIDS Registry listed a total of 3,951 HIV cases, of which 815 have already developed into full-blown AIDS. Of the 815 AIDS patients, 314 have already died.
OFWs accounted for 1,254 of all cases, or 32 percent of those in the registry, including 264 full-blown AIDS cases.
Herrera, meanwhile, urged the Senate and House committees on health "to find out whether the Philippines is not being left out in the scramble for HIV/AIDS treatment."
"Our lawmakers should ascertain whether every Filipino in the DoH’s AIDS Registry is covered by adequate treatment, and whether every patient who needs antiretroviral drugs has ready access to the medication," Herrera said.
A UN official recently expressed concern over the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines.
Renaud Meyer, director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines, said the fact that the country reported 85 new cases in one month is troublesome.
"We are not doing good in controlling HIV. Instead of reversing and halting it, we see increasing cases," he said, adding that the world body is allocating $1.5 million to help the Philippines fight the disease.
The DoH said that 362 people were newly infected in the first semester of this year, with 85 cases in May and 40 cases in June.
Some five million Asians are living with HIV, many of them in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations’ multi-agency program on HIV/AIDS.
UNAIDS said it expects a million Asians to be treated with antiretroviral drugs between now and 2011. At present, UNAIDS said some 565,000 Asians are already receiving the drugs.
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: August 16, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—Worried over the growing number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) infected with HIV, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) wants government agencies to build up efforts to heighten awareness of the disease among foreign-bound laborers.
"There is no question that once exposed to foreign cultures, OFWs, especially sailors, tend to put their guard down. As a result, they risk contracting HIV, mainly through unsafe sex practices," said TUCP secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said in a statement.
"This is why OFWs now account for one-third of all our HIV and full-blown AIDS cases," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment, and human resources development.
Herrera urged the Department of Health (DoH), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) to devote more resources to preventive education campaigns targeted at foreign-bound as well as returning migrant laborers.
As of June 2009, the DoH’s National AIDS Registry listed a total of 3,951 HIV cases, of which 815 have already developed into full-blown AIDS. Of the 815 AIDS patients, 314 have already died.
OFWs accounted for 1,254 of all cases, or 32 percent of those in the registry, including 264 full-blown AIDS cases.
Herrera, meanwhile, urged the Senate and House committees on health "to find out whether the Philippines is not being left out in the scramble for HIV/AIDS treatment."
"Our lawmakers should ascertain whether every Filipino in the DoH’s AIDS Registry is covered by adequate treatment, and whether every patient who needs antiretroviral drugs has ready access to the medication," Herrera said.
A UN official recently expressed concern over the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines.
Renaud Meyer, director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines, said the fact that the country reported 85 new cases in one month is troublesome.
"We are not doing good in controlling HIV. Instead of reversing and halting it, we see increasing cases," he said, adding that the world body is allocating $1.5 million to help the Philippines fight the disease.
The DoH said that 362 people were newly infected in the first semester of this year, with 85 cases in May and 40 cases in June.
Some five million Asians are living with HIV, many of them in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations’ multi-agency program on HIV/AIDS.
UNAIDS said it expects a million Asians to be treated with antiretroviral drugs between now and 2011. At present, UNAIDS said some 565,000 Asians are already receiving the drugs.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
MoneyGram-Philippines-based M. Lhuillier roll out dollar payout service
Khaleej Times - 06/08/2009
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Money transfer company MoneyGram International said it is expecting more overseas Filipino workers to avail of its US dollar payouts service which it launched with Philippines-based M. Lhuillier Financial Services Inc.
The service launched last April, made Lhuillier, which operates more than 1,200 outlets nationwide, the first Moneygram agent to offer the service in the Philippines.
Through the service, Filipinos working abroad can send money home from the UAE from any of the MoneyGram outlets like Al Rostamani International Exchange, Al Fardan Exchange and Al Ahalia Exchange. Their beneficiaries will receive cash in US dollars.
"Our strategic alliance will help MoneyGram continue to provide competitive pricing for our customers in the Philippines, and reach out to a wider customer base across the Philippines though M. Lhuillier's extensive network," said Richard Meredith, regional director for MoneyGram Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Philippine central bank expects remittances from overseas Filipino workers to stay flat in 2009 at around last year's level of $16.4 billion. The Philippines is one of the world's leading sources for skilled and unskilled workers with up to 9 million people, about 10 per cent of the population, living and working in 140 countries.
By Rocel Felix
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Money transfer company MoneyGram International said it is expecting more overseas Filipino workers to avail of its US dollar payouts service which it launched with Philippines-based M. Lhuillier Financial Services Inc.
The service launched last April, made Lhuillier, which operates more than 1,200 outlets nationwide, the first Moneygram agent to offer the service in the Philippines.
Through the service, Filipinos working abroad can send money home from the UAE from any of the MoneyGram outlets like Al Rostamani International Exchange, Al Fardan Exchange and Al Ahalia Exchange. Their beneficiaries will receive cash in US dollars.
"Our strategic alliance will help MoneyGram continue to provide competitive pricing for our customers in the Philippines, and reach out to a wider customer base across the Philippines though M. Lhuillier's extensive network," said Richard Meredith, regional director for MoneyGram Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Philippine central bank expects remittances from overseas Filipino workers to stay flat in 2009 at around last year's level of $16.4 billion. The Philippines is one of the world's leading sources for skilled and unskilled workers with up to 9 million people, about 10 per cent of the population, living and working in 140 countries.
By Rocel Felix
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
‘Don’t marry Filipinas for human organs’
ALIENS TOLD
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:42:00 08/10/2009
MANILA, Philippines—Foreigners who offer marriage to Filipino women in exchange for their kidneys or other human organs risk running afoul of Philippine criminal laws, Cotabato Representative Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza warned in a statement.
"Foreigners cannot procure kidneys from Filipino women in return for marriage. They will definitely be held to account for violating Philippine statutes against the trafficking in persons or their human organs, and/or our laws banning mail-order brides," Taliño-Mendoza said.
Taliño-Mendoza made the statement not long after a Saudi Arabian man married a Filipino woman to mask his buying her kidney, in a bid to dodge the Philippines' rigorous new rules against human organ trafficking,
Philippine authorities prevented the man’s transplant.
The Saudi man sought a kidney transplant at a Philippine government-run hospital, listing his new wife as his voluntary donor.
Suspicious Philippine authorities ruled that the transplant was not a valid donation, but an effective human organ sale, considering the couple had married only recently and did not speak a common language.
Last week, Taliño-Mendoza urged the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to run after human organ smugglers preying on impoverished women in her province.
In the Cotabato town of M’lang alone, human organ traffickers have already illicitly acquired kidneys from at least a dozen women, each lured with P200,000, according to Taliño-Mendoza.
"This is one of the most repulsive forms of exploitation of women," she added.
On Saturday, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, a member of the IACAT, responded to Taliño-Mendoza's call and vowed to pin down foreigners and their local intermediaries engaged in the illegal human organ trade.
According to the World Health Organization, the Philippines has emerged as the No. 5 global hotspot for human organ trafficking. The criminal trade involves mostly kidneys, since humans can survive with only one kidney.
The Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 penalizes the buying and selling of human organs. Those found guilty of engaging in the unlawful trade face 20 years in prison plus a fine of up to P2 million.
Meanwhile, the Philippines’ Anti-Mail-Order Bride Law forbids persons or entities from matching Filipino women for marriage to foreigners either on a mail-order basis or via personal introduction for a fee. Offenders face from six to eight years in prison plus a fine of up to P20,000.
Congress passed the law in 1990, after dozens of Filipino women lured by mail-order bride advertisements were found forced into prostitution overseas. Others ended up as battered wives or enslaved domestic laborers.
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:42:00 08/10/2009
MANILA, Philippines—Foreigners who offer marriage to Filipino women in exchange for their kidneys or other human organs risk running afoul of Philippine criminal laws, Cotabato Representative Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza warned in a statement.
"Foreigners cannot procure kidneys from Filipino women in return for marriage. They will definitely be held to account for violating Philippine statutes against the trafficking in persons or their human organs, and/or our laws banning mail-order brides," Taliño-Mendoza said.
Taliño-Mendoza made the statement not long after a Saudi Arabian man married a Filipino woman to mask his buying her kidney, in a bid to dodge the Philippines' rigorous new rules against human organ trafficking,
Philippine authorities prevented the man’s transplant.
The Saudi man sought a kidney transplant at a Philippine government-run hospital, listing his new wife as his voluntary donor.
Suspicious Philippine authorities ruled that the transplant was not a valid donation, but an effective human organ sale, considering the couple had married only recently and did not speak a common language.
Last week, Taliño-Mendoza urged the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to run after human organ smugglers preying on impoverished women in her province.
In the Cotabato town of M’lang alone, human organ traffickers have already illicitly acquired kidneys from at least a dozen women, each lured with P200,000, according to Taliño-Mendoza.
"This is one of the most repulsive forms of exploitation of women," she added.
On Saturday, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, a member of the IACAT, responded to Taliño-Mendoza's call and vowed to pin down foreigners and their local intermediaries engaged in the illegal human organ trade.
According to the World Health Organization, the Philippines has emerged as the No. 5 global hotspot for human organ trafficking. The criminal trade involves mostly kidneys, since humans can survive with only one kidney.
The Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 penalizes the buying and selling of human organs. Those found guilty of engaging in the unlawful trade face 20 years in prison plus a fine of up to P2 million.
Meanwhile, the Philippines’ Anti-Mail-Order Bride Law forbids persons or entities from matching Filipino women for marriage to foreigners either on a mail-order basis or via personal introduction for a fee. Offenders face from six to eight years in prison plus a fine of up to P20,000.
Congress passed the law in 1990, after dozens of Filipino women lured by mail-order bride advertisements were found forced into prostitution overseas. Others ended up as battered wives or enslaved domestic laborers.
A Filipino tour guide to the Holy Land
By Volt Contreras
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:26:00 08/11/2009
MANILA, Philippines—With a name like Exaltacion Cruz-Schlossberg, she was meant to take you on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, bringing you to places where Jesus Christ walked, suffered and died, and where, based on ancient beliefs, the Second Coming would commence.
With her trademark “sunflower” umbrella keeping her cool under the Judean sun (and making it easier for her touring group to spot her in the crowd), Schlossberg said she believes she has fulfilled God’s calling.
“This not just a job, [it’s] more of a calling; [it’s] what God wants.” she said.
Known among Israeli friends as Romema, which is Hebrew for Exaltacion, she is the only Filipino tour guide licensed by the Israeli government.
If her visitor-clients are willing to listen, she can transform the Holy Land itinerary of sacred stones, iconic churches and olive groves into a poignant spiritual retreat.
Along with a keen knowledge of Jerusalem’s history, Schlossberg carries a Bible from where she reads a verse or two to help illuminate what Christ said or did at a particular site, and what His believers today can draw from the place apart from a souvenir photo.
At the place known in the Gospels as the Garden of Gethsemane, for example, she quoted passages from Matthew and then explained: “This is the place where Jesus could have said “no” to his crucifixion.
“I always encourage [tourists] to pray here because this is where Jesus had His last temptation,” she told the Inquirer during a recent tour.
Top spots
At the Basilica of the Agony, Schlossberg said the structure shelters the rock where Jesus perspired blood while in deep prayer. Nearby is the spot where Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
At Shepherds’ Field chapel in Bethlehem, which tradition holds to be the spot where an angel announced the birth of Christ to shepherds, Schlossberg got her group to sing Christmas carols—never mind if it was still a few months away.
On the slopes of the breezy Mount of Olives, on the site called Dominus Plevit, “this is where Jesus wept for Jerusalem,” she said. Behind her stretched the low-rise panorama of the Old City and its most famous landmark, the golden Dome of the Rock.
With this breathtaking backdrop, she retraced how the great city rose, fell and rose again through centuries of invasions and conflicts while uniquely becoming host to three major religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
“This city has seen so many conflicts up to this day, that if there would be World War III, it would probably start here,” Schlossberg said in half-jest. ”I pray to God it will never be divided again.”
Tragedy in the air
Schlossberg, a native Manileña, began her life-changing trip to Jerusalem, up in the clouds.
In September 1983, a Soviet jet fighter shot down Korean Airlines (KAL) Flight 007 when it strayed over prohibited Soviet airspace, killing all 269 passengers and crew, including Schlossberg’s father Alfredo and cousin Edith.
Schlossberg was then a successful accountant based in New York: the University of the East accounting graduate migrated to America in 1971 and married Bert Schlossberg, an American whom she met in a Bible study group in 1975.
Devastated by the tragedy, her widowed mother Roberta asked the Schlossberg couple to accompany her on an eight-day “consolation tour” of Jerusalem.
Where she belongs
“After the tour, on our flight back to the US, I could not stop crying on the plane. I shed more tears on that flight than on the day I left the Philippines,” Schlossberg said. ”My mind cannot understand it, but my heart could not deny it.”
When her husband asked why, her reply was plain yet firm: “I belong to Israel!”
Three years later, the “intense longing” was still there. By then, Schlossberg had taken to playing Hebrew music at home and “was still bugging” her spouse.
“Perceiving that there must be something beyond this longing, Bert said we should ask our Church [community] to pray with us as we seek direction from the Lord. He said that probably the Lord was leading us to immigrate to Israel.”
Moving to the Holy Land
The couple and their four young children (then aged between 2 and 12 years old) finally “uprooted” themselves, rented out their ”beautiful home” in America and moved to the Holy Land in 1988.
Although her husband Bert is a Jew born in Brooklyn who became a Christian in his teens, Schlossberg said “it was difficult when we started again.”
“The culture shock, the language difficulty, the high cost of living, the loneliness of having no family and friends, the absence of Christmas which ironically is not really celebrated [the way Filipinos do it] here,” she said.
Schlossberg herself lost 18 pounds adjusting to her new life. No longer was she the “ambitious ‘Exie,’ the Filipina in mini skirt,” of her New York days.
In that former life, she once literally fell ill due to stress and office intrigue following a quick promotion, she said. She often “felt empty inside” if not for the Bible studies.
The verse
In 1992, she thought of resuming her accountancy profession in Israel until she read this verse: “Go back to your own people and tell them the wonderful things that God has done for you.”
Did God, after taking her to America and then to Israel, want her to go back to the Philippines? she then wondered. She realized later that the verse meant fellow Filipinos in Israel.
“I dropped the idea of registering in an accounting school. I [asked] the Lord [for a sign]. I asked Him [for] a chance to meet the Philippine Ambassador. I had no idea who the ambassador was,” Schlossberg said.
Two days later, she bumped into then Ambassador Rosalinda de Perio Santos during Mass at Notre Dame Church in Jerusalem.
“That opened the door to a new beginning for me. ‘Amba’ and I became very good friends and had weekly Bible study meetings at her home in Herziliya,” she recalled.
She became more involved in the activities of the Filipino community in Israel.
She played host to visiting compatriots, among them the UP Singing Ambassadors and the late Sen. Blas Ople. She provided temporary shelter for Filipinos left homeless by employment problems, and gave spiritual counsel to Filipino patients in hospitals.
Tour guide
How she got an Israeli license to be a tour guide was also a result of Bible consultations and unexpected events.
Schlossberg had inquired about the job with the Ministry of Tourism in August 1994 although she was already a month late. Nevertheless, she had this inexplicable feeling that she could still make it.
A few days later, Bert came home with some big news: “Honey, there are two applicants who did not pass. You can still apply!”
She took the entrance test and worried about her Hebrew language skills. Yet one woman in the examining panel averred that somehow she “understood every word I said, and that changed the mind of the others [in the panel], including the archeologists.”
Touring nonbelievers
Schlossberg went on to finish the two-year course on tour guiding.
She said she enjoys her job, which she considers a calling. The only time it becomes “difficult” she said, is when she’s giving a tour to “nonbelievers” or tourists “who just want to hear the history... This is where Jesus prayed, and that’s it. It’s like the fire inside me is [being] suppressed,” she said of the experience.
She once accompanied a “group of mayors” from a communist country who warned her early in the tour: “No Bible, no Bible!”
Favorite pilgrims
Her favorite pilgrims, of course, are the Filipinos. “When we come together, we all sound like happy birds perking with life and excitement.”
“They are the easiest to guide and this opinion is shared by almost all tour guides in Israel. They are the most sought-after by guides, maybe in the same way that Filipino caregivers [in Israel] are most desired by elderly citizens and Filipino women are most pursued by Israeli men,” Schlossberg said.
For her kababayan (compatriots), she reserves a piece of Holy Land trivia: At the Church of the Pater Noster, written on its walls are versions of the “Our Father” in 116 languages, including four Filipino dialects— Tagalog, Pampango, Ilonggo, and Cebuano.
Filipinos are therefore amply represented at the Pater Noster, which also stands on the Mount of Olives, where according to ancient beliefs Christ “will come back, riding on a cloud.”
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:26:00 08/11/2009
MANILA, Philippines—With a name like Exaltacion Cruz-Schlossberg, she was meant to take you on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, bringing you to places where Jesus Christ walked, suffered and died, and where, based on ancient beliefs, the Second Coming would commence.
With her trademark “sunflower” umbrella keeping her cool under the Judean sun (and making it easier for her touring group to spot her in the crowd), Schlossberg said she believes she has fulfilled God’s calling.
“This not just a job, [it’s] more of a calling; [it’s] what God wants.” she said.
Known among Israeli friends as Romema, which is Hebrew for Exaltacion, she is the only Filipino tour guide licensed by the Israeli government.
If her visitor-clients are willing to listen, she can transform the Holy Land itinerary of sacred stones, iconic churches and olive groves into a poignant spiritual retreat.
Along with a keen knowledge of Jerusalem’s history, Schlossberg carries a Bible from where she reads a verse or two to help illuminate what Christ said or did at a particular site, and what His believers today can draw from the place apart from a souvenir photo.
At the place known in the Gospels as the Garden of Gethsemane, for example, she quoted passages from Matthew and then explained: “This is the place where Jesus could have said “no” to his crucifixion.
“I always encourage [tourists] to pray here because this is where Jesus had His last temptation,” she told the Inquirer during a recent tour.
Top spots
At the Basilica of the Agony, Schlossberg said the structure shelters the rock where Jesus perspired blood while in deep prayer. Nearby is the spot where Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
At Shepherds’ Field chapel in Bethlehem, which tradition holds to be the spot where an angel announced the birth of Christ to shepherds, Schlossberg got her group to sing Christmas carols—never mind if it was still a few months away.
On the slopes of the breezy Mount of Olives, on the site called Dominus Plevit, “this is where Jesus wept for Jerusalem,” she said. Behind her stretched the low-rise panorama of the Old City and its most famous landmark, the golden Dome of the Rock.
With this breathtaking backdrop, she retraced how the great city rose, fell and rose again through centuries of invasions and conflicts while uniquely becoming host to three major religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
“This city has seen so many conflicts up to this day, that if there would be World War III, it would probably start here,” Schlossberg said in half-jest. ”I pray to God it will never be divided again.”
Tragedy in the air
Schlossberg, a native Manileña, began her life-changing trip to Jerusalem, up in the clouds.
In September 1983, a Soviet jet fighter shot down Korean Airlines (KAL) Flight 007 when it strayed over prohibited Soviet airspace, killing all 269 passengers and crew, including Schlossberg’s father Alfredo and cousin Edith.
Schlossberg was then a successful accountant based in New York: the University of the East accounting graduate migrated to America in 1971 and married Bert Schlossberg, an American whom she met in a Bible study group in 1975.
Devastated by the tragedy, her widowed mother Roberta asked the Schlossberg couple to accompany her on an eight-day “consolation tour” of Jerusalem.
Where she belongs
“After the tour, on our flight back to the US, I could not stop crying on the plane. I shed more tears on that flight than on the day I left the Philippines,” Schlossberg said. ”My mind cannot understand it, but my heart could not deny it.”
When her husband asked why, her reply was plain yet firm: “I belong to Israel!”
Three years later, the “intense longing” was still there. By then, Schlossberg had taken to playing Hebrew music at home and “was still bugging” her spouse.
“Perceiving that there must be something beyond this longing, Bert said we should ask our Church [community] to pray with us as we seek direction from the Lord. He said that probably the Lord was leading us to immigrate to Israel.”
Moving to the Holy Land
The couple and their four young children (then aged between 2 and 12 years old) finally “uprooted” themselves, rented out their ”beautiful home” in America and moved to the Holy Land in 1988.
Although her husband Bert is a Jew born in Brooklyn who became a Christian in his teens, Schlossberg said “it was difficult when we started again.”
“The culture shock, the language difficulty, the high cost of living, the loneliness of having no family and friends, the absence of Christmas which ironically is not really celebrated [the way Filipinos do it] here,” she said.
Schlossberg herself lost 18 pounds adjusting to her new life. No longer was she the “ambitious ‘Exie,’ the Filipina in mini skirt,” of her New York days.
In that former life, she once literally fell ill due to stress and office intrigue following a quick promotion, she said. She often “felt empty inside” if not for the Bible studies.
The verse
In 1992, she thought of resuming her accountancy profession in Israel until she read this verse: “Go back to your own people and tell them the wonderful things that God has done for you.”
Did God, after taking her to America and then to Israel, want her to go back to the Philippines? she then wondered. She realized later that the verse meant fellow Filipinos in Israel.
“I dropped the idea of registering in an accounting school. I [asked] the Lord [for a sign]. I asked Him [for] a chance to meet the Philippine Ambassador. I had no idea who the ambassador was,” Schlossberg said.
Two days later, she bumped into then Ambassador Rosalinda de Perio Santos during Mass at Notre Dame Church in Jerusalem.
“That opened the door to a new beginning for me. ‘Amba’ and I became very good friends and had weekly Bible study meetings at her home in Herziliya,” she recalled.
She became more involved in the activities of the Filipino community in Israel.
She played host to visiting compatriots, among them the UP Singing Ambassadors and the late Sen. Blas Ople. She provided temporary shelter for Filipinos left homeless by employment problems, and gave spiritual counsel to Filipino patients in hospitals.
Tour guide
How she got an Israeli license to be a tour guide was also a result of Bible consultations and unexpected events.
Schlossberg had inquired about the job with the Ministry of Tourism in August 1994 although she was already a month late. Nevertheless, she had this inexplicable feeling that she could still make it.
A few days later, Bert came home with some big news: “Honey, there are two applicants who did not pass. You can still apply!”
She took the entrance test and worried about her Hebrew language skills. Yet one woman in the examining panel averred that somehow she “understood every word I said, and that changed the mind of the others [in the panel], including the archeologists.”
Touring nonbelievers
Schlossberg went on to finish the two-year course on tour guiding.
She said she enjoys her job, which she considers a calling. The only time it becomes “difficult” she said, is when she’s giving a tour to “nonbelievers” or tourists “who just want to hear the history... This is where Jesus prayed, and that’s it. It’s like the fire inside me is [being] suppressed,” she said of the experience.
She once accompanied a “group of mayors” from a communist country who warned her early in the tour: “No Bible, no Bible!”
Favorite pilgrims
Her favorite pilgrims, of course, are the Filipinos. “When we come together, we all sound like happy birds perking with life and excitement.”
“They are the easiest to guide and this opinion is shared by almost all tour guides in Israel. They are the most sought-after by guides, maybe in the same way that Filipino caregivers [in Israel] are most desired by elderly citizens and Filipino women are most pursued by Israeli men,” Schlossberg said.
For her kababayan (compatriots), she reserves a piece of Holy Land trivia: At the Church of the Pater Noster, written on its walls are versions of the “Our Father” in 116 languages, including four Filipino dialects— Tagalog, Pampango, Ilonggo, and Cebuano.
Filipinos are therefore amply represented at the Pater Noster, which also stands on the Mount of Olives, where according to ancient beliefs Christ “will come back, riding on a cloud.”
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Filipinos in Italy pay most to remit money
ACCORDING TO WORLD BANK STUDY
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:46:00 08/09/2009
MANILA, Philippines—Filipinos around the world pay between $6.93 and $19.05 to remit $200 to their families back home, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) quoted a World Bank study of global money transfer charges as of the first quarter of 2009.
In a statement, the TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia spend the least in remittance fees, paying an average of $6.93, whether they transmit $500 or $200.
Those in Spain follow next, shelling out an average of $12.42 to dispatch $500, or $10.64 to transfer $200. Filipinos in Germany pay out an average of $13.06 to forward $500, or $11.07 to convey $200.
Migrant Filipino workers in the United States spend an average of $12.79 to send $500 home to their families in the Philippines, or an average of $11.45 to remit $200. Filipino workers in the United Kingdom shell out an average of $17.75 to wire $500, or $14.40 to transfer $200.
But those in Italy spend an average of $22.28 to send $500, or $19.05 to remit $200.
Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development, described the average remittance costs as "oppressive and burdensome."
"They are definitely excessive, considering that in this day and age of modern technologies, seamless and cost-efficient money transfers are already possible through such platforms as the Internet and international mobile telephone short-messaging," he said.
He said any potential savings realized by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from lower remittance charges would surely allow more funds to flow into the Philippine economy.
Herrera said the Philippines should combine forces with other top remittance-receiving countries such as India and Mexico, and find ways to step up pressure so that multinational banks would reduce their money transfer fees.
Annual remittances from OFWs have steadily grown from just $105 million in 1975 to a whopping $16.426 billion in 2008, making the Philippines the world’s fourth-biggest collector of money from migrant workers.
In the five months to May this year, remittances from OFWs reached $6.98 billion, up $190 million or 2.8 percent compared to the $6.79 billion they wired home in the same five-month period in 2008.
Western Hemisphere leaders, at the Special Summit of the Americas in Monterey, Mexico, way back in January 2004, had called for the cost of remittances to be cut in half.
This call was echoed by the finance and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven (the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan) who also declared in April 2004 that, "on remittances, we will continue to work on our initiatives to reduce barriers that raise the cost of sending them and integrate remittance services in the formal financial sector."
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:46:00 08/09/2009
MANILA, Philippines—Filipinos around the world pay between $6.93 and $19.05 to remit $200 to their families back home, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) quoted a World Bank study of global money transfer charges as of the first quarter of 2009.
In a statement, the TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia spend the least in remittance fees, paying an average of $6.93, whether they transmit $500 or $200.
Those in Spain follow next, shelling out an average of $12.42 to dispatch $500, or $10.64 to transfer $200. Filipinos in Germany pay out an average of $13.06 to forward $500, or $11.07 to convey $200.
Migrant Filipino workers in the United States spend an average of $12.79 to send $500 home to their families in the Philippines, or an average of $11.45 to remit $200. Filipino workers in the United Kingdom shell out an average of $17.75 to wire $500, or $14.40 to transfer $200.
But those in Italy spend an average of $22.28 to send $500, or $19.05 to remit $200.
Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development, described the average remittance costs as "oppressive and burdensome."
"They are definitely excessive, considering that in this day and age of modern technologies, seamless and cost-efficient money transfers are already possible through such platforms as the Internet and international mobile telephone short-messaging," he said.
He said any potential savings realized by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from lower remittance charges would surely allow more funds to flow into the Philippine economy.
Herrera said the Philippines should combine forces with other top remittance-receiving countries such as India and Mexico, and find ways to step up pressure so that multinational banks would reduce their money transfer fees.
Annual remittances from OFWs have steadily grown from just $105 million in 1975 to a whopping $16.426 billion in 2008, making the Philippines the world’s fourth-biggest collector of money from migrant workers.
In the five months to May this year, remittances from OFWs reached $6.98 billion, up $190 million or 2.8 percent compared to the $6.79 billion they wired home in the same five-month period in 2008.
Western Hemisphere leaders, at the Special Summit of the Americas in Monterey, Mexico, way back in January 2004, had called for the cost of remittances to be cut in half.
This call was echoed by the finance and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven (the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan) who also declared in April 2004 that, "on remittances, we will continue to work on our initiatives to reduce barriers that raise the cost of sending them and integrate remittance services in the formal financial sector."
OFW voter registration very low
By Sammy Martin, Reporter
The Manila Times
Saturday, August 08, 2009
The more than two million votes from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that can be the swing votes for national candidates in the 2010 presidential elections may be in limbo because Congress has not yet amended the Absentee Voting Act of 2001.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez on Friday said that the law should be amended since it requires migrant Filipino workers to return to the country within three years after exercising their voting rights.
“We have brought this matter to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee, which has the jurisdiction after the law was enacted, but sorry to tell you that no action on its part [has been taken] until now,” Jimenez told reporters at the Balitaan sa Rembrandt weekly forum.
He said that they are trying to convince the oversight committee to delete the provision that requires overseas Filipinos workers to go home within three years after exercising their right to vote.
According to him, deleting that provision would encourage more migrant Filipino workers to register and vote in the 2010 polls.
Jimenez said that only 159,000 OFWs have complied with the requirement and are ready to exercise their right to vote.
“We haven’t reached 10 percent among the expected two million new absentee voters,” he added. “Our request for amending the measure is sleeping on the table of [he oversight committee] since the Twelfth Congress.”
If a Filipino abroad fails to comply with the requirement to go home within three years after voting, his or her sovereign rights would be temporarily withheld. To regain the sovereign rights, he or she must pass a series of questioning for the rights to be restored.
“There are OFWs who are not documented and they can be traced easily by the host country if they fail to return after three years. Some OFWs have a contract of more than three years especially [the] professionals,” Jimenez said.
With the oversight committee supposedly not acting on the need to amend the absentee voting law, the Comelec expects a minimal turnout of registrants from migrant Filipino workers since their work is more important to them.
Many of them, Jimenez said, are eager to vote in next year’s polls.
He cited a test voting that the Comelec conducted in Singapore in 2007 through the Internet that proved effective.
The Manila Times
Saturday, August 08, 2009
The more than two million votes from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that can be the swing votes for national candidates in the 2010 presidential elections may be in limbo because Congress has not yet amended the Absentee Voting Act of 2001.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez on Friday said that the law should be amended since it requires migrant Filipino workers to return to the country within three years after exercising their voting rights.
“We have brought this matter to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee, which has the jurisdiction after the law was enacted, but sorry to tell you that no action on its part [has been taken] until now,” Jimenez told reporters at the Balitaan sa Rembrandt weekly forum.
He said that they are trying to convince the oversight committee to delete the provision that requires overseas Filipinos workers to go home within three years after exercising their right to vote.
According to him, deleting that provision would encourage more migrant Filipino workers to register and vote in the 2010 polls.
Jimenez said that only 159,000 OFWs have complied with the requirement and are ready to exercise their right to vote.
“We haven’t reached 10 percent among the expected two million new absentee voters,” he added. “Our request for amending the measure is sleeping on the table of [he oversight committee] since the Twelfth Congress.”
If a Filipino abroad fails to comply with the requirement to go home within three years after voting, his or her sovereign rights would be temporarily withheld. To regain the sovereign rights, he or she must pass a series of questioning for the rights to be restored.
“There are OFWs who are not documented and they can be traced easily by the host country if they fail to return after three years. Some OFWs have a contract of more than three years especially [the] professionals,” Jimenez said.
With the oversight committee supposedly not acting on the need to amend the absentee voting law, the Comelec expects a minimal turnout of registrants from migrant Filipino workers since their work is more important to them.
Many of them, Jimenez said, are eager to vote in next year’s polls.
He cited a test voting that the Comelec conducted in Singapore in 2007 through the Internet that proved effective.
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