MANILA, Philippines—The government should go slow in its labor export policy amid increasing cases of rights violations, threats, and even deaths of Filipinos working abroad, a member of the House of Representatives said Tuesday.
Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said the decision of the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers to strike off the Philippines as a model country for workers protection should alarm President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “on her hustling to seek more jobs for Filipinos abroad, setting aside their protection and welfare.”
The UN Committee on Migrant Workers has deleted the Philippines as a “positive case study of state ratification and implementation” in the document “Guide on Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.”
Ilagan said she supports the UN decision and also noted that even the Omnibus Rules and Regulations Implementing the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, also known as Republic Act 8042, which was supposed to be the Philippine government’s translation of the said UN convention, has not fully protected the OFWs.
“While the Arroyo administration announces thousands of job orders abroad, more and more Filipinos have been victimized by illegal recruiters. This is a clear manifestation that the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs have failed to implement the law,” Ilagan said.
With the President off to another expensive visit to the Middle East for job deals, Ilagan said that the chief executive is “paddling in a sinking boat,” deliberately disregarding the UN Convention and continuing with her program of selling the Filipino work force to other nations.
“Hindi nilalako ang karapatan ng mga OFW, sa halip ito ay dapat pangalagaan at depensahan (OFWs’ rights should not be sold, but instead developed and defended),” said Ilagan, adding that Arroyo’s labor export policy has boomeranged.–Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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