Singapore has reacted indignantly to a US government report putting it on a human-trafficking watch list and bluntly told Washington to examine its own record on immigration.
The 2010 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by the State Department listed Singapore, a staunch US ally, along with Thailand and Vietnam as countries that failed to prevent women from being forced into prostitution.
"We have read the latest TIP report. It is rather puzzling because the US has not satisfactorily explained how it had arrived at its conclusions," Singapore's foreign ministry said in a written reply to media queries on Tuesday.
"The Singapore government is committed to tackling the TIP issue, and our efforts in dealing with this issue have certainly not weakened since last year. We will respond in detail as appropriate in due course."
Thousands of women from poorer Asian countries such as China, the Philippines and Thailand work as call girls and bar hostesses in wealthy Singapore, a bustling port city where prostitution is legal in designated zones.
Explaining the downgrade for Singapore to the "Tier Two Watch List" where it sits alongside impoverished countries, the US report said some women were tricked into coming to the city-state with promises of legitimate employment but coerced into the sex trade.
The report said that while Singapore launched "some significant new steps" against trafficking, there were no "quantifiable indicators" that the government was identifying more victims or prosecuting more culprits.
In its reaction, the Singapore foreign ministry said the annual US report "is more a political ritual than an objective study".
"How, for example, can the US rank itself in Tier One when it is well known that the US has been unable to stem a flood of illegal workers, many of whom are trafficked by organised criminal gangs?" the ministry said.
"It has not been able to cope adequately with the problem and that is among the reasons why immigration is such a hot political issue in the US.
"The US should perhaps examine its own record more carefully before presuming to pronounce on other countries. Then its reports may be more credible," the Singapore foreign ministry added.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has made women's and children's rights a signature issue, called human trafficking a "terrible crime" as she presented the annual report on Monday.
"All of us have a responsibility to bring this practice to an end," she said.
The report estimated that 12.3 million people were the victims of trafficking in 2009-10, although it said there had been progress over the past decade.
The State Department added a number of Asian nations to its watch list - Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos, Maldives, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Bangladesh, China, India, Micronesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka stayed on the list, unchanged from a year earlier.
North Korea, Burma and Papua New Guinea remained at the bottom level of countries that do not even meet the minimum standards on human trafficking. - Roberto Coloma, June 15, 2010
This story was found at: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/human-trafficking-claims-upset-singapore-20100615-yd72.html
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Trafficking of Pinays to Singapore getting worse
SINGAPORE - Three weeks after having her appendix removed last year, Filipina bar girl Camille was forced by her pimp back to work as a prostitute in Singapore.
Penniless and deeply in debt in a foreign land, 24-year-old Camille, not her real name, had no choice.
She says she had sex with men in hotel trysts arranged by her pimp, who took most of the money, until she sought shelter at the Philippine embassy.
"My wounds barely healed and I was being forced to have sex," she told AFP, breaking into sobs during an interview before flying home earlier this year.
"The pimp had no pity. The men had no mercy. I should have listened to my parents not to come here."
Philippine embassy officials said Camille, a single mother, is among a growing number of Filipina women lured by human trafficking syndicates to Singapore, Southeast Asia's wealthiest economy.
Promised jobs as "entertainers" in pubs and restaurants, many instead find themselves virtually indentured as prostitutes, working to pay back the cost of getting here.
Women interviewed by AFP said they were locked in cramped apartments, given one meal a day and told they owed between 1,000 and 4,000 Singapore dollars (736-2,945 US) to their pimps for bringing them to the city-state.
The sex industry in Singapore -- where prostitution is legal but pimping and public solicitation are not -- is dominated by women from the Philippines, Thailand, China and Vietnam, industry sources said.
The Philippine embassy in Singapore said there were 212 cases of human trafficking involving Filipinas in 2007, up from 125 in 2006 and from 59 cases in 2005.
Of those 212, nearly 30 percent admitted to having engaged in prostitution or said they were coerced into sexual acts, it said.
Filipino consul Neal Imperial described the numbers as the "tip of the iceberg" as they reflected only women who turned to the embassy for help.
The US State Department, in its 2008 Trafficking in Persons report, put Singapore on its list of countries not doing enough to combat the problem. Cambodia and Sierra Leone were among others named.
The report urged Singapore, which has yet to ratify the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, to "vigorously investigate and prosecute both labour and sex trafficking cases".
Responding to the US report, Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said reported cases of forced prostitution fell to 28 in 2007 from 33 in 2006 and 35 in 2005.
Police investigated all 28 cases and found evidence in only one, the ministry said.
Human trafficking experts said Singapore's figures differ from the US report because the police do not consider women as trafficking victims if they arrive voluntarily.
In contrast, the United Nations counts women as victims if they are lured by false promises about working conditions, and if they are exploited.
Singapore should accept there is a problem, said Sallie Yea, an Australian consultant who has researched sex trafficking in Asia. "Singapore is still in the denial mode."
The island-state is an attractive destination, experts said, because women can enter without a visa on cheap flights.
John Gee, of the non-government group Transient Workers Count Too, said acknowledging that human trafficking exists could be embarrassing for the government, which likes to perpetuate Singapore's squeaky clean image.
But he said the government's bid to maintain that image could push it to tackle the issue.
"I'm optimistic that Singapore will actually rise to the challenge and deal with it," he said. - Agence France-Presse, 09/01/2008
Penniless and deeply in debt in a foreign land, 24-year-old Camille, not her real name, had no choice.
She says she had sex with men in hotel trysts arranged by her pimp, who took most of the money, until she sought shelter at the Philippine embassy.
"My wounds barely healed and I was being forced to have sex," she told AFP, breaking into sobs during an interview before flying home earlier this year.
"The pimp had no pity. The men had no mercy. I should have listened to my parents not to come here."
Philippine embassy officials said Camille, a single mother, is among a growing number of Filipina women lured by human trafficking syndicates to Singapore, Southeast Asia's wealthiest economy.
Promised jobs as "entertainers" in pubs and restaurants, many instead find themselves virtually indentured as prostitutes, working to pay back the cost of getting here.
Women interviewed by AFP said they were locked in cramped apartments, given one meal a day and told they owed between 1,000 and 4,000 Singapore dollars (736-2,945 US) to their pimps for bringing them to the city-state.
The sex industry in Singapore -- where prostitution is legal but pimping and public solicitation are not -- is dominated by women from the Philippines, Thailand, China and Vietnam, industry sources said.
The Philippine embassy in Singapore said there were 212 cases of human trafficking involving Filipinas in 2007, up from 125 in 2006 and from 59 cases in 2005.
Of those 212, nearly 30 percent admitted to having engaged in prostitution or said they were coerced into sexual acts, it said.
Filipino consul Neal Imperial described the numbers as the "tip of the iceberg" as they reflected only women who turned to the embassy for help.
The US State Department, in its 2008 Trafficking in Persons report, put Singapore on its list of countries not doing enough to combat the problem. Cambodia and Sierra Leone were among others named.
The report urged Singapore, which has yet to ratify the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, to "vigorously investigate and prosecute both labour and sex trafficking cases".
Responding to the US report, Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said reported cases of forced prostitution fell to 28 in 2007 from 33 in 2006 and 35 in 2005.
Police investigated all 28 cases and found evidence in only one, the ministry said.
Human trafficking experts said Singapore's figures differ from the US report because the police do not consider women as trafficking victims if they arrive voluntarily.
In contrast, the United Nations counts women as victims if they are lured by false promises about working conditions, and if they are exploited.
Singapore should accept there is a problem, said Sallie Yea, an Australian consultant who has researched sex trafficking in Asia. "Singapore is still in the denial mode."
The island-state is an attractive destination, experts said, because women can enter without a visa on cheap flights.
John Gee, of the non-government group Transient Workers Count Too, said acknowledging that human trafficking exists could be embarrassing for the government, which likes to perpetuate Singapore's squeaky clean image.
But he said the government's bid to maintain that image could push it to tackle the issue.
"I'm optimistic that Singapore will actually rise to the challenge and deal with it," he said. - Agence France-Presse, 09/01/2008
Saturday, September 11, 2010
16 OFWs held in Singapore due to unconfirmed e-tickets
Some 16 Middle East-bound Filipino workers were briefly held at an airport in Singapore last week after authorities found they were traveling with unconfirmed electronic tickets (e-tickets).
In a release posted on its website, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the workers were prevented from boarding their connecting flights to Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Riyadh at Singapore’s Changi Airport due to unconfirmed e-tickets.
Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Minda Calaguian-Cruz is thus urging the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to investigate this “new deployment scheme" by no less than accredited recruitment agencies.
The Philippine Embassy said that before the workers’ connecting flights, they were required by their airlines to present at the check-in counter the credit card used to purchase the tickets.
The workers, however, were unable to do so as they were given only photocopies of the credit card by their agencies.
Based on the workers' statements, their employment papers were processed by the POEA, while their agencies gave them two separate tickets — one for their flight to Singapore, and another for their connecting flights to their various Middle East destinations, the release said.
It added that the workers were given photocopies of a credit card to be shown at the airline check-in counter, and were not aware that their connecting flights were unconfirmed.
An unconfirmed flight means the airline has not yet committed to allowing the passenger to fly as scheduled due to a full flight, and the passenger’s name is simply on the waitlist.
The Embassy said the stranded workers were provided shelter at its Filipino Workers Resource Center for three days.
They departed for their respective overseas destinations after the Embassy negotiated their airline tickets with the agencies.
"The POEA should investigate the case and punish those responsible for allowing their deployed overseas workers to leave the country with unconfirmed bookings," Calaguian-Cruz said.
"Workers should personally check with airline companies if their bookings are confirmed; otherwise, their security and safety would be compromised before they can even start to work overseas," she added.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV, September 09, 2010
In a release posted on its website, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the workers were prevented from boarding their connecting flights to Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Riyadh at Singapore’s Changi Airport due to unconfirmed e-tickets.
Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Minda Calaguian-Cruz is thus urging the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to investigate this “new deployment scheme" by no less than accredited recruitment agencies.
The Philippine Embassy said that before the workers’ connecting flights, they were required by their airlines to present at the check-in counter the credit card used to purchase the tickets.
The workers, however, were unable to do so as they were given only photocopies of the credit card by their agencies.
Based on the workers' statements, their employment papers were processed by the POEA, while their agencies gave them two separate tickets — one for their flight to Singapore, and another for their connecting flights to their various Middle East destinations, the release said.
It added that the workers were given photocopies of a credit card to be shown at the airline check-in counter, and were not aware that their connecting flights were unconfirmed.
An unconfirmed flight means the airline has not yet committed to allowing the passenger to fly as scheduled due to a full flight, and the passenger’s name is simply on the waitlist.
The Embassy said the stranded workers were provided shelter at its Filipino Workers Resource Center for three days.
They departed for their respective overseas destinations after the Embassy negotiated their airline tickets with the agencies.
"The POEA should investigate the case and punish those responsible for allowing their deployed overseas workers to leave the country with unconfirmed bookings," Calaguian-Cruz said.
"Workers should personally check with airline companies if their bookings are confirmed; otherwise, their security and safety would be compromised before they can even start to work overseas," she added.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV, September 09, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Singapore defends race policies after UN envoy urges reform
SINGAPORE—Singapore has defended its race policies after a UN envoy called for reforms including lifting restrictions on the public discussion of sensitive issues like ethnicity, language and religion.
The foreign ministry said in a statement issued Wednesday that Singapore could not risk allowing such open discussions, stressing that the government, not the United Nations, would bear the consequences of ethnic strife.
Githu Muigai, the UN special rapporteur on racism, had proposed the reforms on Wednesday, at the end of a week-long visit to the city-state.
Although Singapore had taken steps to foster racial harmony and discourage intolerance, its efforts "may have created blind spots" he said.
Muigai, who will issue a report in June 2011 on Singapore, cited laws prohibiting the promotion of hostility between members of different ethnic groups, which he said limited public debate on race, language and religion.
While the laws were understandable, it was "necessary in a free society" that such restrictions "are not implemented at the detriment of fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."
Muigai said Singaporeans should be allowed "to share their views on matters of ethnicity, to identify potential issues of discomfort and above all, work together to find solutions."
The foreign ministry said it "emphatically" disagreed with Muigai.
Race, religion and language can be discussed in Singapore but the limits were set to strike a balance between free expression and the preservation of racial and religious harmony, the ministry said.
"This balance is only for the Singapore government to determine because only the Singapore government bears the responsibility should things go wrong."
Singapore, a mainly ethnic Chinese nation of five million people with large Malay and Indian minorities, was wracked by race riots in the 1960s.
Race and religion are considered highly sensitive topics to this day despite widespread prosperity, and housing policies are designed to prevent ethnic enclaves from forming.
Muigai also urged Singapore to ratify several international treaties that "enshrine the fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination."
The foreign ministry said it will accede to these conventions "if there is substantive value in doing so and we are prepared to implement all their provisions." - Agence France-Presse/inquirer.net, Posted date: April 29, 2010
The foreign ministry said in a statement issued Wednesday that Singapore could not risk allowing such open discussions, stressing that the government, not the United Nations, would bear the consequences of ethnic strife.
Githu Muigai, the UN special rapporteur on racism, had proposed the reforms on Wednesday, at the end of a week-long visit to the city-state.
Although Singapore had taken steps to foster racial harmony and discourage intolerance, its efforts "may have created blind spots" he said.
Muigai, who will issue a report in June 2011 on Singapore, cited laws prohibiting the promotion of hostility between members of different ethnic groups, which he said limited public debate on race, language and religion.
While the laws were understandable, it was "necessary in a free society" that such restrictions "are not implemented at the detriment of fundamental human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."
Muigai said Singaporeans should be allowed "to share their views on matters of ethnicity, to identify potential issues of discomfort and above all, work together to find solutions."
The foreign ministry said it "emphatically" disagreed with Muigai.
Race, religion and language can be discussed in Singapore but the limits were set to strike a balance between free expression and the preservation of racial and religious harmony, the ministry said.
"This balance is only for the Singapore government to determine because only the Singapore government bears the responsibility should things go wrong."
Singapore, a mainly ethnic Chinese nation of five million people with large Malay and Indian minorities, was wracked by race riots in the 1960s.
Race and religion are considered highly sensitive topics to this day despite widespread prosperity, and housing policies are designed to prevent ethnic enclaves from forming.
Muigai also urged Singapore to ratify several international treaties that "enshrine the fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination."
The foreign ministry said it will accede to these conventions "if there is substantive value in doing so and we are prepared to implement all their provisions." - Agence France-Presse/inquirer.net, Posted date: April 29, 2010
House probe sought vs Filipino trafficking in Singapore
MANILA, Philippines -- A congressional inquiry into the worsening cases of Filipino trafficking in Singapore has been sought by a lawmaker at the House of Representatives.
ARC Partylist Representative Narciso Santiago III said Congress should look into reports that Filipino trafficking in Singapore has reached an all-time high last year because of budget air fares, which aggravated the situation.
From 125 cases of human trafficking in 2006, the number went up by 70 percent or 212 cases in 2007, Santiago said, citing an alleged report by Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Belen Fule Anota.
He said the Philippine embassy in Singapore blamed this to the network of illegal recruiters and "quite possibly, syndicates across borders, which manage to persuade their recruits through various modes of deception and intimidation."
"Filipino victims are pushed to try their luck in Singapore not only because of poverty but also because of the promise of a lucrative job overseas," he said.
"The report states that the existence of a large number of
bars/pubs in Singapore's red light districts fuels the demand for Filipino women," he pointed out.
Based on records, Santiago said, the modus operandi essentially has illegal recruiters promising young women non-existent jobs as waitresses or guest relations officers in restaurants and hotels in Singapore.
"They are each charged a minimum of $100 as recruitment fee in the Philippines and given roundtrip tickets where the return ticket is oftentimes fake, a fake invitation letter, and "show money" for presentation to Philippine immigration officials who scrutinize their financial capacity as tourists," he said.
"But instead of having legitimate jobs, Filipino women reportedly end up working as prostitutes. They are forced to provide sexual services to customers and earn commissions from alcoholic drinks to enable them to pay the $1,000 to $4,000 they allegedly owe their handlers," he further said.
But Santiago said the rise in Filipino human trafficking was also due to budget airfares, which has significantly lowered the cost of travel from the Philippines to Singapore.
These budget airfares, he said, have made it "easier and cheaper for traffickers to do their deed." - Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net, Posted date: August 25, 2008
ARC Partylist Representative Narciso Santiago III said Congress should look into reports that Filipino trafficking in Singapore has reached an all-time high last year because of budget air fares, which aggravated the situation.
From 125 cases of human trafficking in 2006, the number went up by 70 percent or 212 cases in 2007, Santiago said, citing an alleged report by Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Belen Fule Anota.
He said the Philippine embassy in Singapore blamed this to the network of illegal recruiters and "quite possibly, syndicates across borders, which manage to persuade their recruits through various modes of deception and intimidation."
"Filipino victims are pushed to try their luck in Singapore not only because of poverty but also because of the promise of a lucrative job overseas," he said.
"The report states that the existence of a large number of
bars/pubs in Singapore's red light districts fuels the demand for Filipino women," he pointed out.
Based on records, Santiago said, the modus operandi essentially has illegal recruiters promising young women non-existent jobs as waitresses or guest relations officers in restaurants and hotels in Singapore.
"They are each charged a minimum of $100 as recruitment fee in the Philippines and given roundtrip tickets where the return ticket is oftentimes fake, a fake invitation letter, and "show money" for presentation to Philippine immigration officials who scrutinize their financial capacity as tourists," he said.
"But instead of having legitimate jobs, Filipino women reportedly end up working as prostitutes. They are forced to provide sexual services to customers and earn commissions from alcoholic drinks to enable them to pay the $1,000 to $4,000 they allegedly owe their handlers," he further said.
But Santiago said the rise in Filipino human trafficking was also due to budget airfares, which has significantly lowered the cost of travel from the Philippines to Singapore.
These budget airfares, he said, have made it "easier and cheaper for traffickers to do their deed." - Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net, Posted date: August 25, 2008
When casinos came to Singapore
ON A visit to Singapore in April this year, I learned that this prosperous city-state, known for its ethic of hard work and clean living, had finally opened its doors to casinos. “They’re really meant for visitors than for the locals,” the taxi driver told me, sounding almost defensive. Locals and permanent residents, he said, have to pay a levy of S$100 per day (or S$2,000 a year) to enter the gaming rooms. Tourists only have to show their passports.
It had taken more than 20 years for the Singaporean leadership to reconsider its longstanding aversion to casinos. Singapore isn’t exactly known for liberal and free-wheeling debate. But on this question, people were encouraged to speak up. And many did, sensing that the top leadership itself was of two minds about the wisdom of this policy shift. After carefully weighing the expected economic benefits against the social costs, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong faced Parliament on April 18, 2005 to recommend legislation permitting “integrated resorts” with a gaming facility to operate in Singapore.
We have much to learn from the way Singapore tackled the issue of casinos. First of all, the issue was never just about casinos, but about what the country needed to do to become competitive in a fast-changing global environment. The government did not need the casinos to raise money. That much was clear from the start. What the government needed to do was to inject a new vitality into the economy—specifically tourism, and, with it, all the associated businesses on which Singapore heavily relies—airlines, hotels and restaurants, shopping malls, entertainment centers, banks, transportation, etc.
Casinos as such were not essential to this strategy. The government did not favor stand-alone gaming halls that offered nothing but gambling. What drew Singapore’s interest was the concept of the “integrated resort,” in which the casino formed but a small, albeit central, component. The IR is a complex that could include a theme park, a cluster of hotels and restaurants, convention amenities, recreational facilities, shopping malls, museums, theaters and movie houses and so on.
Not having had previous experience in this area, the government requested interested parties to submit a concept of what they could build in two designated places: the Marina Bayfront and Sentosa. Nineteen different concepts were submitted, and from these, the government chose the most attractive and invited their proponents to submit firm proposals. Again, from the beginning, the government had no plan to operate these facilities. Neither did it want the casino component to define the character of these projects. It acknowledged the apprehensions and objections of religious and civic groups, instead of dismissing these out of hand. When it was time to decide, the prime minister took full responsibility, explaining in the clearest language possible what made him change his own initial position on the matter.
“(T)he Government has to balance the economic pluses against the social fallout and the intangible impact on values, and make an overall judgment whether to proceed. For the Government, the key consideration is what serves our national interest in the long term.”
First, he explained what Singapore stood to gain from these integrated resorts-cum-casinos. Essentially, they would be a magnet for expanded economic activity. They would create jobs and enhance the image of the city as an exciting tourist destination and cosmopolitan hub. The actual share of government revenue from these operations seemed peripheral; it was not even mentioned by Lee in his speech. The rest of his statement to Parliament engaged all the objections and reservations about hosting casinos, as if he was trying to allay his own apprehensions.
“(T)here is no doubt that the IRs will be a major plus for Singapore. However, our considerations cannot just be economic. We must also address the non-economic issues—tangible minuses like an increase in problem gambling and broken families, and intangible losses like the impact on Singapore’s brand name and social values.” He answered all these objections point-by-point and in great detail, making no attempt to reduce the immense complexity of the decision he had made by rhetorical means.
He said that his Cabinet came close to banning all Singaporeans from gambling in the casinos, but eventually opted to allow entry to locals who were willing to pay a high entrance fee. If excluded, they might just go somewhere else to gamble, he noted. If they can afford to gamble, then they can afford to pay the levy. But the casinos will not be allowed to extend credit to locals. This is to discourage impulsive and compulsive gambling. More important, a system of exclusions will bar those with financial problems, and those on financial assistance. Close kin may also ask the authorities to ban close family members who have a gambling problem. The basic principle guiding these policies is that gambling is an expense, and not a way to make a living.
Unlike the Philippine government, the Singaporean government, which runs a broad range of state corporations, has no interest in operating casinos as revenue-generating enterprises. Yet it accepts their growing importance as magnets of global tourism and business. On this basis, it has carved a middle ground that assigns a limited place to casinos in its city, even as it continues to espouse the values of thrift and hard work among its people.
By Randy David
Columnist
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: August 11, 2010
public.lives@gmail.com
It had taken more than 20 years for the Singaporean leadership to reconsider its longstanding aversion to casinos. Singapore isn’t exactly known for liberal and free-wheeling debate. But on this question, people were encouraged to speak up. And many did, sensing that the top leadership itself was of two minds about the wisdom of this policy shift. After carefully weighing the expected economic benefits against the social costs, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong faced Parliament on April 18, 2005 to recommend legislation permitting “integrated resorts” with a gaming facility to operate in Singapore.
We have much to learn from the way Singapore tackled the issue of casinos. First of all, the issue was never just about casinos, but about what the country needed to do to become competitive in a fast-changing global environment. The government did not need the casinos to raise money. That much was clear from the start. What the government needed to do was to inject a new vitality into the economy—specifically tourism, and, with it, all the associated businesses on which Singapore heavily relies—airlines, hotels and restaurants, shopping malls, entertainment centers, banks, transportation, etc.
Casinos as such were not essential to this strategy. The government did not favor stand-alone gaming halls that offered nothing but gambling. What drew Singapore’s interest was the concept of the “integrated resort,” in which the casino formed but a small, albeit central, component. The IR is a complex that could include a theme park, a cluster of hotels and restaurants, convention amenities, recreational facilities, shopping malls, museums, theaters and movie houses and so on.
Not having had previous experience in this area, the government requested interested parties to submit a concept of what they could build in two designated places: the Marina Bayfront and Sentosa. Nineteen different concepts were submitted, and from these, the government chose the most attractive and invited their proponents to submit firm proposals. Again, from the beginning, the government had no plan to operate these facilities. Neither did it want the casino component to define the character of these projects. It acknowledged the apprehensions and objections of religious and civic groups, instead of dismissing these out of hand. When it was time to decide, the prime minister took full responsibility, explaining in the clearest language possible what made him change his own initial position on the matter.
“(T)he Government has to balance the economic pluses against the social fallout and the intangible impact on values, and make an overall judgment whether to proceed. For the Government, the key consideration is what serves our national interest in the long term.”
First, he explained what Singapore stood to gain from these integrated resorts-cum-casinos. Essentially, they would be a magnet for expanded economic activity. They would create jobs and enhance the image of the city as an exciting tourist destination and cosmopolitan hub. The actual share of government revenue from these operations seemed peripheral; it was not even mentioned by Lee in his speech. The rest of his statement to Parliament engaged all the objections and reservations about hosting casinos, as if he was trying to allay his own apprehensions.
“(T)here is no doubt that the IRs will be a major plus for Singapore. However, our considerations cannot just be economic. We must also address the non-economic issues—tangible minuses like an increase in problem gambling and broken families, and intangible losses like the impact on Singapore’s brand name and social values.” He answered all these objections point-by-point and in great detail, making no attempt to reduce the immense complexity of the decision he had made by rhetorical means.
He said that his Cabinet came close to banning all Singaporeans from gambling in the casinos, but eventually opted to allow entry to locals who were willing to pay a high entrance fee. If excluded, they might just go somewhere else to gamble, he noted. If they can afford to gamble, then they can afford to pay the levy. But the casinos will not be allowed to extend credit to locals. This is to discourage impulsive and compulsive gambling. More important, a system of exclusions will bar those with financial problems, and those on financial assistance. Close kin may also ask the authorities to ban close family members who have a gambling problem. The basic principle guiding these policies is that gambling is an expense, and not a way to make a living.
Unlike the Philippine government, the Singaporean government, which runs a broad range of state corporations, has no interest in operating casinos as revenue-generating enterprises. Yet it accepts their growing importance as magnets of global tourism and business. On this basis, it has carved a middle ground that assigns a limited place to casinos in its city, even as it continues to espouse the values of thrift and hard work among its people.
By Randy David
Columnist
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: August 11, 2010
public.lives@gmail.com
A tale of 2 Filipinas in Singapore
How dream of better future turns into nightmare
MANILA, Philippines -- Lalaine, 19, was a saleslady for a popular department store when she was lured by a “friend of a friend” to work “for better pay” as a waitress in Singapore only to find that her workplace was a nightclub where she was forced to do a strip-tease and encouraged to have customers fondle her.
Kristine, a recent widow at 23 with two children (her husband died December 2006), was also told of the tremendous earning opportunities (“malaki raw ang kita”) in Singapore by an acquaintance -- a neighbor who was also their barangay (village) chairman. She agreed to a “hostessing” job there, but ended up being a call girl, having sex with different men in different hotels as arranged by her employer.
Lalaine and Kristine are just two of a growing number of young Filipino women being trafficked to Singapore for sexual exploitation, drawn in by the adventure of work abroad on the false promise of a high-paying decent job.
In its Human Trafficking Report of 2007, released this June, the United States’ Department of State noted this increase of Asian women (from People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) being deceived or coerced into sexual servitude in the city-state so much so that it downgraded Singapore from Tier 1 in 2006 to Tier 2 in 2007.
(The State Department has four categories for levels of compliance with the Trafficking in Persons Act, which provides the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking: Tier 1 is the category of countries that “fully comply” with the law. Tier 2 is for countries that “do not fully comply with these standards but making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.” Tier 2 Watch List is for countries “requiring special scrutiny because of a high or significantly increasing number of victims; failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons; or an assessment as Tier 2 based on commitments to take action over the next year.” Tier 3 is for countries that “neither satisfy the minimum standards nor demonstrate a significant effort to come into compliance; countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian and non-trade sanctions.”)
This US State Department report is recognized worldwide. A couple of years ago, Japan reacted to a negative rating by applying more stringent immigration rules against Filipino entertainers.
But while the fate of Filipino entertainers to Japan is relatively well known, that of Filipino “tourists” to Singapore is hidden from the public eye, particularly Philippine authorities who could warn Filipino women of this successful scam.
Other Filipinos living or working in Singapore have noted the increase of Filipino women working as prostitutes in the city-state’s red-light district. “There are all kinds. There are club-based hostesses and there are free-lancers,” says a Filipino expatriate, who himself has gone to these clubs.
To confirm this, INQUIRER.net waited for nightfall on Orchard Road in Singapore. As the sun set, street walkers looking like customers would start arriving, talking in Tagalog or Bisaya or in colegiala English. Some looked like teenagers, some older. Some sit outside department stores, waiting to be approached by customers. Others would be accompanied by foreign-looking men. They would invariably leave with customers. Some would be fetched by a cab after a brief cell-phone call.
But it was back here in the Philippines that INQUIRER.net was able to talk to actual victims of human trafficking, back here where they felt they were safe and open to talk.
Lalaine and Kristine’s troubles resonate with each other, diverging and converging at various points.
On October 21, after paying only P1,500 for the airport terminal fee, Lalaine flew with two other young women to the city-state only to find out that the no-recruitment fee spiel was a trap, that she would work at a night club to “entertain” customers in progressively degenerate ways that would eventually end up in prostitution.
Shortly after arriving in Singapore, they were taken to an apartment on Killiney Road. They were padlocked inside the apartment, fetched before nightfall, and taken back before dawn. They were given 50 Singaporean dollars monthly allowance in advance to cover their expenses. As this is not enough even for food, many Filipinas in this job end up “in debt” with their employers.
The debt racks up when the women’s board and other expenses are counted. Luckily for Lalaine, she had P4,000 with her which allowed her to eat more than the once a day that the other club workers were forced to suffer.
At the night club in the Tanjong Pagar area in Singapore, Lalaine saw fellow Filipinas doing everything to earn their monthly quota of 300 points. (Points may be earned through the drinks that they consume; the minimum price for a drink of 20 Singaporean dollars earns two points.)
“Kaya yung iba talaga kung ano-ano ginagawa para lang maabot yung quota nila, nagpapahawak sa maseselan na parte ng katawan, nagpapadede [That’s why some do everything to meet their quota, they allow themselves to be touched in their private parts, including their breasts],” Lalaine tells INQUIRER.net.
Although the molestation does not earn the women any points, she explains that the club encourages it to get customers to return to the club again and again. “Pakonsuelo raw po [As a come-on],” she says.
“Andaming Pinay dun. Karamihan ng mga babae sa mga club, Pinay. Nung nandun ako, nabilang ko mga 33 kami [There are so many Filipinas there. Most of the women in the clubs are Filipinas. When I was there, I counted 33 of us in the club],” she adds.
During the first few days, she escaped the eagle eyes of the bar manager by sitting at the end of a line of girls at the club during their working hours. But not for long. On her third day, the club manager forced her to do a bar-top strip. This was supposed to raise her earning capacity for the club.
In her conversations with fellow Filipinas, she found out that many of them were not paid anything, allegedly because they owed the club the recruitment fee and the plane fare that got them in Singapore -- notwithstanding that they were lied to about the kind of job that waited for them there and that they were detained when off-duty.
By the seventh day, Lalaine escaped. With her two other companions who couldn’t stomach what they were being forced to do, Lalaine escaped their minder -- a fellow Filipina who accompanies them everywhere when they’re not in the club. They were at an Internet café when she told her minder that she was hungry and was just going out to eat. Her two other companions already got their things from their apartment and escaped while their minder was busy chatting in the Internet.
From the Internet café, they asked to be taken to the Philippine embassy, which took them in and helped them get tickets to return to Manila. After spending 10 hellish days in Singapore, Lalaine and her two companions are back in the country, relatively unscathed.
But Kristine was not as lucky. She actually had to “service” men for a month before finding the opportunity to escape.
Convinced that the Singapore “hostessing” job would be her ticket to feeding and educating her two young boys, she scrounged around and borrowed the P12,000 for the recruitment fee and airfare.
Within the hour of her arrival at around noon, she was given a new SIM card for her cell-phone and booked into a hotel. While taking a shower, mentally preparing herself for her night job, she received an insistent phone call from a man, demanding that she go down to the lobby.
Again by phone, she was ordered to take a cab -- one was already waiting for her outside the hotel -- to get to another hotel. At the second hotel, she met her first customer. Forced into such a situation in a strange land, she did as was expected of her and had sex with a stranger.
Kristine got her instructions from the phone. “Hindi ko talaga nakita itong mamang ito. Parang sinusundan lang talaga ako at alam ang lahat ng kilos ko. Pati pagpunta ko sa 7-11 alam [I never saw this man. It’s as if he was just following me and seeing all my actions. Even my short trip to the 7-11 was monitored],” Kristine tells INQUIRER.net.
This became her routine for the next couple of weeks, never meeting any of her fellow sex workers except at hotel lobbies, while waiting for the instructions of their invisible minder, who would leave them their share of the fee with the hotel receptionist. One of her fellow victims told her that she has been at the job for three months, accumulating not the money that she was supposed to earn for her family back home but debts.
Although not physically shackled, Kristine felt that she was not free. She was determined to leave the job she did not sign up for. “I did not go to Singapore to be a prostitute. I wanted to earn money for my kids. I called up my mother and told her about my situation. She asked what she could do. I told her I would take care of it,” she says.
Afraid, confused, and alone, Kristine was nonetheless able to escape with the help of a Singaporean taxi driver who heard her crying at the back of the cab. With his help -- he took her luggage from the hotel so that whoever was monitoring her wouldn’t suspect that she was leaving for good, she left not for the next customer but for the Philippine embassy.
When she returned home, Kristine immediately filed a case of illegal recruitment against her recruiter-neighbor.
For many Filipinos, Singapore is another land of opportunity. The growing number of Filipino professionals working in the city-state attests to this reality. But another reality exists: Filipino women are being deceived into sex jobs there.
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: November 06, 2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Lalaine, 19, was a saleslady for a popular department store when she was lured by a “friend of a friend” to work “for better pay” as a waitress in Singapore only to find that her workplace was a nightclub where she was forced to do a strip-tease and encouraged to have customers fondle her.
Kristine, a recent widow at 23 with two children (her husband died December 2006), was also told of the tremendous earning opportunities (“malaki raw ang kita”) in Singapore by an acquaintance -- a neighbor who was also their barangay (village) chairman. She agreed to a “hostessing” job there, but ended up being a call girl, having sex with different men in different hotels as arranged by her employer.
Lalaine and Kristine are just two of a growing number of young Filipino women being trafficked to Singapore for sexual exploitation, drawn in by the adventure of work abroad on the false promise of a high-paying decent job.
In its Human Trafficking Report of 2007, released this June, the United States’ Department of State noted this increase of Asian women (from People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) being deceived or coerced into sexual servitude in the city-state so much so that it downgraded Singapore from Tier 1 in 2006 to Tier 2 in 2007.
(The State Department has four categories for levels of compliance with the Trafficking in Persons Act, which provides the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking: Tier 1 is the category of countries that “fully comply” with the law. Tier 2 is for countries that “do not fully comply with these standards but making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.” Tier 2 Watch List is for countries “requiring special scrutiny because of a high or significantly increasing number of victims; failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons; or an assessment as Tier 2 based on commitments to take action over the next year.” Tier 3 is for countries that “neither satisfy the minimum standards nor demonstrate a significant effort to come into compliance; countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian and non-trade sanctions.”)
This US State Department report is recognized worldwide. A couple of years ago, Japan reacted to a negative rating by applying more stringent immigration rules against Filipino entertainers.
But while the fate of Filipino entertainers to Japan is relatively well known, that of Filipino “tourists” to Singapore is hidden from the public eye, particularly Philippine authorities who could warn Filipino women of this successful scam.
Other Filipinos living or working in Singapore have noted the increase of Filipino women working as prostitutes in the city-state’s red-light district. “There are all kinds. There are club-based hostesses and there are free-lancers,” says a Filipino expatriate, who himself has gone to these clubs.
To confirm this, INQUIRER.net waited for nightfall on Orchard Road in Singapore. As the sun set, street walkers looking like customers would start arriving, talking in Tagalog or Bisaya or in colegiala English. Some looked like teenagers, some older. Some sit outside department stores, waiting to be approached by customers. Others would be accompanied by foreign-looking men. They would invariably leave with customers. Some would be fetched by a cab after a brief cell-phone call.
But it was back here in the Philippines that INQUIRER.net was able to talk to actual victims of human trafficking, back here where they felt they were safe and open to talk.
Lalaine and Kristine’s troubles resonate with each other, diverging and converging at various points.
On October 21, after paying only P1,500 for the airport terminal fee, Lalaine flew with two other young women to the city-state only to find out that the no-recruitment fee spiel was a trap, that she would work at a night club to “entertain” customers in progressively degenerate ways that would eventually end up in prostitution.
Shortly after arriving in Singapore, they were taken to an apartment on Killiney Road. They were padlocked inside the apartment, fetched before nightfall, and taken back before dawn. They were given 50 Singaporean dollars monthly allowance in advance to cover their expenses. As this is not enough even for food, many Filipinas in this job end up “in debt” with their employers.
The debt racks up when the women’s board and other expenses are counted. Luckily for Lalaine, she had P4,000 with her which allowed her to eat more than the once a day that the other club workers were forced to suffer.
At the night club in the Tanjong Pagar area in Singapore, Lalaine saw fellow Filipinas doing everything to earn their monthly quota of 300 points. (Points may be earned through the drinks that they consume; the minimum price for a drink of 20 Singaporean dollars earns two points.)
“Kaya yung iba talaga kung ano-ano ginagawa para lang maabot yung quota nila, nagpapahawak sa maseselan na parte ng katawan, nagpapadede [That’s why some do everything to meet their quota, they allow themselves to be touched in their private parts, including their breasts],” Lalaine tells INQUIRER.net.
Although the molestation does not earn the women any points, she explains that the club encourages it to get customers to return to the club again and again. “Pakonsuelo raw po [As a come-on],” she says.
“Andaming Pinay dun. Karamihan ng mga babae sa mga club, Pinay. Nung nandun ako, nabilang ko mga 33 kami [There are so many Filipinas there. Most of the women in the clubs are Filipinas. When I was there, I counted 33 of us in the club],” she adds.
During the first few days, she escaped the eagle eyes of the bar manager by sitting at the end of a line of girls at the club during their working hours. But not for long. On her third day, the club manager forced her to do a bar-top strip. This was supposed to raise her earning capacity for the club.
In her conversations with fellow Filipinas, she found out that many of them were not paid anything, allegedly because they owed the club the recruitment fee and the plane fare that got them in Singapore -- notwithstanding that they were lied to about the kind of job that waited for them there and that they were detained when off-duty.
By the seventh day, Lalaine escaped. With her two other companions who couldn’t stomach what they were being forced to do, Lalaine escaped their minder -- a fellow Filipina who accompanies them everywhere when they’re not in the club. They were at an Internet café when she told her minder that she was hungry and was just going out to eat. Her two other companions already got their things from their apartment and escaped while their minder was busy chatting in the Internet.
From the Internet café, they asked to be taken to the Philippine embassy, which took them in and helped them get tickets to return to Manila. After spending 10 hellish days in Singapore, Lalaine and her two companions are back in the country, relatively unscathed.
But Kristine was not as lucky. She actually had to “service” men for a month before finding the opportunity to escape.
Convinced that the Singapore “hostessing” job would be her ticket to feeding and educating her two young boys, she scrounged around and borrowed the P12,000 for the recruitment fee and airfare.
Within the hour of her arrival at around noon, she was given a new SIM card for her cell-phone and booked into a hotel. While taking a shower, mentally preparing herself for her night job, she received an insistent phone call from a man, demanding that she go down to the lobby.
Again by phone, she was ordered to take a cab -- one was already waiting for her outside the hotel -- to get to another hotel. At the second hotel, she met her first customer. Forced into such a situation in a strange land, she did as was expected of her and had sex with a stranger.
Kristine got her instructions from the phone. “Hindi ko talaga nakita itong mamang ito. Parang sinusundan lang talaga ako at alam ang lahat ng kilos ko. Pati pagpunta ko sa 7-11 alam [I never saw this man. It’s as if he was just following me and seeing all my actions. Even my short trip to the 7-11 was monitored],” Kristine tells INQUIRER.net.
This became her routine for the next couple of weeks, never meeting any of her fellow sex workers except at hotel lobbies, while waiting for the instructions of their invisible minder, who would leave them their share of the fee with the hotel receptionist. One of her fellow victims told her that she has been at the job for three months, accumulating not the money that she was supposed to earn for her family back home but debts.
Although not physically shackled, Kristine felt that she was not free. She was determined to leave the job she did not sign up for. “I did not go to Singapore to be a prostitute. I wanted to earn money for my kids. I called up my mother and told her about my situation. She asked what she could do. I told her I would take care of it,” she says.
Afraid, confused, and alone, Kristine was nonetheless able to escape with the help of a Singaporean taxi driver who heard her crying at the back of the cab. With his help -- he took her luggage from the hotel so that whoever was monitoring her wouldn’t suspect that she was leaving for good, she left not for the next customer but for the Philippine embassy.
When she returned home, Kristine immediately filed a case of illegal recruitment against her recruiter-neighbor.
For many Filipinos, Singapore is another land of opportunity. The growing number of Filipino professionals working in the city-state attests to this reality. But another reality exists: Filipino women are being deceived into sex jobs there.
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: November 06, 2007
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Filipina maid inherits millions from Singaporean employer
SINGAPORE-- A devoted Filipina maid inherited six million Singapore dollars (more than four million US) from her late employer after more than 20 years of service, a newspaper report said Wednesday.
"I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money," the 47-year-old single woman -- identified only by the pseudonym "Christine" -- told the Straits Times in an interview.
The maid refused to be named in public for fear of possible threats to her life in the impoverished Philippines, where wealthy people have been kidnapped for ransom and some killed by their abductors.
The windfall, including cash and a luxury apartment near the Orchard Road shopping belt, came from the estate of her employer Quek Kai Miew, a medical doctor and philanthropist who died last year at 66.
The maid had also taken care of the doctor's late mother, and was told that she would be a beneficiary of her employer's will when it was drawn up in 2008.
"There were no secrets between us. I was not surprised at all when she told me how much I was going to get," the maid recalled.
"Christine" was devastated when Quek died a year ago, as the two were inseparable, and temporarily moved in with the doctor's nephew for solace.
"It was heartbreaking for me as I saw more years with Doctor Quek than with my own mother. I would break down every time I thought about her. I could not be by myself," she said.
"I was always beside her. Wherever she went, I was with her."
The maid, who is now applying for permanent residency in Singapore, said her newfound wealth had not changed her lifestyle.
"I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person," the maid, dressed simply in a blouse and slacks with short-cropped hair, was quoted as saying.
"I am still who I was before. I cannot behave differently because I have money now. Even my Filipino maid friends here still treat me the same."
Nearly 200,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, work in affluent Singapore, which has a population of five million. - Agence France-Presse/Inquirer.net, Posted date: July 21, 2010
"I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money," the 47-year-old single woman -- identified only by the pseudonym "Christine" -- told the Straits Times in an interview.
The maid refused to be named in public for fear of possible threats to her life in the impoverished Philippines, where wealthy people have been kidnapped for ransom and some killed by their abductors.
The windfall, including cash and a luxury apartment near the Orchard Road shopping belt, came from the estate of her employer Quek Kai Miew, a medical doctor and philanthropist who died last year at 66.
The maid had also taken care of the doctor's late mother, and was told that she would be a beneficiary of her employer's will when it was drawn up in 2008.
"There were no secrets between us. I was not surprised at all when she told me how much I was going to get," the maid recalled.
"Christine" was devastated when Quek died a year ago, as the two were inseparable, and temporarily moved in with the doctor's nephew for solace.
"It was heartbreaking for me as I saw more years with Doctor Quek than with my own mother. I would break down every time I thought about her. I could not be by myself," she said.
"I was always beside her. Wherever she went, I was with her."
The maid, who is now applying for permanent residency in Singapore, said her newfound wealth had not changed her lifestyle.
"I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person," the maid, dressed simply in a blouse and slacks with short-cropped hair, was quoted as saying.
"I am still who I was before. I cannot behave differently because I have money now. Even my Filipino maid friends here still treat me the same."
Nearly 200,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, work in affluent Singapore, which has a population of five million. - Agence France-Presse/Inquirer.net, Posted date: July 21, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Door narrows for foreign workers in Singapore
SINGAPORE — Construction workers from Bangladesh, hotel staff from the Philippines, waitresses from China, shipyard welders from Myanmar, technology professionals from India -- Singapore has them all.
For years the rich but worker-starved city-state, built by mainly Chinese immigrants, had rolled out the welcome mat for foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004-2007.
But with one in three of the five million people living on the tiny island now a foreigner and citizens complaining about competition for jobs, housing and medical care, the government is taking a fresh look at its open-door policy
With the grumbling getting louder and general elections expected to be called before they are due in 2012, the government has unveiled measures to reduce reliance on foreigners and assure citizens they remain the priority.
"There are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb," Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in February.
He said the government will make it costlier for companies to hire foreigners by raising the levies they must pay for every non-Singaporean or non-resident they hire.
The government also earmarked 5.5 billion Singapore dollars (3.9 billion US) over the next five years to upgrade Singaporean workers' skills to boost their productivity, make them more competitive and raise incomes.
It imposed measures to cool down rising home prices, also blamed on foreigners buying into the property market, and pledged it will further tighten the process of accepting permanent residents and new citizens.
Of Singapore's population of nearly five million last year, 533,200 were permanent residents and 1.25 million were foreigners on employment passes, along with their families, official statistics show.
"I think it is shaping up to be one of the hottest issues in Singapore today," political commentator Seah Chiang Nee told AFP.
Economist Song Seng Wun of CIMB-GK Research said that apart from helping local companies rise up the value chain, the new measures will also address potential election issues.
Singapore's last elections, held in 2006, saw the ruling People's Action Party returned to power for six years, continuing its uninterrupted rule over the island since 1959.
"The government has to be seen doing something in areas that are potential flashpoints," Song said.
Disenchantment over foreign workers gained momentum during a severe economic slump that began in the third quarter of 2008, when trade-reliant Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession.
Drastic job and salary cuts were implemented, affecting many white-collar workers.
In coffee shops, Internet forums, letters to newspapers and sessions with members of parliament, citizens became more vocal about the rapidly growing numbers of foreigners in their ranks.
The most common complaint is that Singaporeans are losing jobs to foreigners who are willing to accept much lower salaries.
"Foreigners are a damn pain in the butt. I seriously wonder if they are here to work or just snatch jobs from our locals," said one posting on the popular online forum sammyboy.com.
"The country is fast becoming an unfamiliar place to many Singaporeans. The sense of national pride is disappearing by the day," said a posting by Nur Muhammad on The Online Citizen.
Seah, who runs the political website www.littlespeck.com, said much of the resentment comes from Singaporeans who have to compete directly with foreign engineers, accountants, hotel managers and IT professionals.
"Most Singaporeans do not feel angry against low-skilled foreign workers... It is more aimed at those who come in as white collar workers and get the jobs that Singaporeans can do," he said.
Citizens have also complained about having to share space in crowded trains with a large number of foreigners, or compete with them for places in government schools and public housing.
Foreign labourers are accused of loitering, spitting in public and leaving litter behind. Another sore point for locals is dealing with waitresses and sales people who can hardly understand English.
Some employers have argued they do not hire Singaporeans for certain jobs because locals are choosy and often lack the natural social and communication skills in service professions like manning hotel front desks.
In some ways, Singapore is a victim of its own success.
A campaign in the 1970s for families to have only two children was so effective that the country is now well below the 60,000 babies needed per year just to naturally replace the resident population.
Efforts to reverse the trend have failed as increasingly affluent couples marry at a later age and opt for just one child or none at all.
Officials, economists and business executives admit that with Singaporeans procreating less, the country will need foreign workers in the long term, while making sure citizens' interests are addressed.
Singapore's founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, who advises the cabinet of his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in January that "we've grown in the last five years by just importing labour."
"Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many foreigners," Lee said.
"The answer is simple: We check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you'll do it with one worker, like the Japanese do." - By Martin Abbugao (AFP), 14 March 2010
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Honest OFW returns misplaced S$16,000 in Singapore
MARITES PEREZ GALAM, 33, head waitress at Imperial Herbal Restaurant in Singapore, found “gold” in a rest room, fought the temptation to keep it, and helped return it to its owner.
The owner, an Indonesian mother who was accompanying her deaf son to Singapore for a surgery, couldn’t thank her enough.
In a long-distance phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Galam said this was how it happened:
At about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, during her second shift, she stepped out of her work area to go to the common rest room of the VivoCity shopping mall. In the cubicle she used, she saw the raggedy gold wallet on top of the tissue box.
“Pero di mo talaga pag-iinteresan kasi lumang-luma na, naagnas na, at sira na. Flat din sya (You won’t really take any interest in it because it was very old, worn to shreds, and scruffy. It was also flat),” she said.
When she inspected the wallet, it contained S$16,600 (P485,085) wrapped in a white sheet of paper. Even then, she wasn’t blinded by the money.
“Hindi kasi akin (It wasn’t mine),” she told the Chinese Singaporean mall manager to whom she surrendered her find.
An hour and a half later, the owner of the money, accompanied by her son and the mall manager, came to her and hugged her.
While Galam couldn’t completely understand what the Indonesian mother was saying, she could feel the gratitude in her tears and her embrace.
“I think she tried to say thank you and God bless you,” she said in Filipino.
Philippine Ambassador to the city-state Belen Fule-Anota later met with Galam and commended her for the deed.
The envoy said Galam is a model for the thousands of Filipinos who work and live in Singapore: hardworking, self-sacrificing, and honest.
Her story also saw its way to a Chinese magazine in Singapore.
Galam’s husband, who is also in Singapore, is still trying to find work. The Galam couple, originally of Nueva Vizcaya province, left their four children — ages ranging from 4 to 15 years old — October last year to earn more money so that they would lead a decent life.
With her deed, she already showed them how.
(1 Singapore Dollar = 30.31778 Philippine Peso)
Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net, 09/20/07
The owner, an Indonesian mother who was accompanying her deaf son to Singapore for a surgery, couldn’t thank her enough.
In a long-distance phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Galam said this was how it happened:
At about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, during her second shift, she stepped out of her work area to go to the common rest room of the VivoCity shopping mall. In the cubicle she used, she saw the raggedy gold wallet on top of the tissue box.
“Pero di mo talaga pag-iinteresan kasi lumang-luma na, naagnas na, at sira na. Flat din sya (You won’t really take any interest in it because it was very old, worn to shreds, and scruffy. It was also flat),” she said.
When she inspected the wallet, it contained S$16,600 (P485,085) wrapped in a white sheet of paper. Even then, she wasn’t blinded by the money.
“Hindi kasi akin (It wasn’t mine),” she told the Chinese Singaporean mall manager to whom she surrendered her find.
An hour and a half later, the owner of the money, accompanied by her son and the mall manager, came to her and hugged her.
While Galam couldn’t completely understand what the Indonesian mother was saying, she could feel the gratitude in her tears and her embrace.
“I think she tried to say thank you and God bless you,” she said in Filipino.
Philippine Ambassador to the city-state Belen Fule-Anota later met with Galam and commended her for the deed.
The envoy said Galam is a model for the thousands of Filipinos who work and live in Singapore: hardworking, self-sacrificing, and honest.
Her story also saw its way to a Chinese magazine in Singapore.
Galam’s husband, who is also in Singapore, is still trying to find work. The Galam couple, originally of Nueva Vizcaya province, left their four children — ages ranging from 4 to 15 years old — October last year to earn more money so that they would lead a decent life.
With her deed, she already showed them how.
(1 Singapore Dollar = 30.31778 Philippine Peso)
Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net, 09/20/07
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