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
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
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Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
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Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
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