At Apec, Arroyo bats for migrant workers

SINGAPORE—As Asia-Pacific leaders tackled further relaxing trade barriers and galvanizing regional integration in the face of the financial crisis, President Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday asked her counterparts to come up with a framework ensuring the protection and fair treatment of migrant workers.

Ms Arroyo made the pitch for “policies and rules that are fair to the labor-receiving and labor-sending economies and, most especially, the workers” during the first of two closed-door retreats among the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) here.

“Regulatory barriers that distort market signals and prevent businesses from hiring talented people at the proper wage levels must be removed,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said, reading from Ms Arroyo’s Apec summit briefing paper.

“Overly restrictive immigration policies must also be eliminated as to recognize the skills and education of qualified workers regardless of where they are.”

In a speech earlier before a gathering of Filipinos at Fullerton Hotel Friday night, Ms Arroyo spoke from “experience” and pointed to what she described as a major dynamic in the 21st century—the “flow of human capital.”

“I believe in this century, a real global phenomenon—the flow of labor—will determine much about how the world grows and works together. We are also now about to enter a great age of global labor,” she said.

“Today, it is the Filipinos among the leaders, but tomorrow, it will be many, many countries doing this. But we are the pioneers here and we can tell the world that we have to make sure we have to tap the possibilities.”

Ms Arroyo said the Philippines should acknowledge that “trade will expand as far as labor mobility is concerned and the world might as well recognize it for wanting to make it orderly.”

“The more you recognize it, the more orderly you make it, the more you stop the abuse that sometimes preys on global laborers of all walks of life and economic strata,” she said.

“We need also to put order in the flow of human capital because (since) we are pioneers in this new age of global labor, it is our obligation to make sure we protect our workers wherever they may be.”

Remonde said Ms Arroyo’s push for safer and more orderly labor mobility around the world would benefit overseas Filipino workers. Ms Arroyo reported to the Filipino community here that OFW remittances had breached the $11-billion mark as of August.

“I know that this comes from the sacrifices you make to work abroad and send money to your families at home,” she said in Filipino.

Remonde said the government’s approach to labor migration did not necessarily speak of a prevailing policy to send Filipinos abroad because domestic jobs were unavailable.

“We hope to reach a point when working abroad is more of a career choice than a necessity,” he said. –Christian V. Esguerra, Philippine Daily Inquirer