Help finally coming for displaced OFWs

LOS ANGELES: Filipino community leaders described as “too little, too late” an offer of assistance being extended by the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to 11 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded here.

The leaders of the newly formed group, Kapatid Ko (loose translation: My Brother, My Own), said that the workers were wary of the Labor department’s move because they have not received any assistance from Manila as of Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

“Now, they’re saying that help is coming, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” said Tony Dorono, the president of the Filipino Migrant Center, on Monday night. “I don’t want to say this, but this is like a case of too little, too late. So, we’ll see.”

Dorono added that the community leaders were still meeting with the workers on Monday night to map out plans should the promised assistance does not materialize.

“I understand where the workers are coming from because they feel like the officials who are supposed to look after them are not paying attention to their needs,” he said.

The workers had a meeting on Monday afternoon with top Labor officials led by Undersecretary Danilo Cruz, Administrator Carmelita Vinzon of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Labor Attaché Luzviminda Padilla, the head of the Washington, D.C., branch of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).

The Labor officials, who came from a conference in Mexico, were apparently under orders from President Benigno Aquino 3rd to immediately act on the request of the workers, who have stayed at the house of a Filipino-American pastor’s home since September.

The meeting was held at the office of Consul General Mary Jo Aragon, who, the workers said, had regularly checked or met with them.

In that meeting, the workers reiterated that they had never received any assistance from POLO, and that they fled their job sites because there was no one from whom they could ask for help or advice.

They also voiced misgivings at the suggestion of Padilla for them to return to Mississippi to either return to their jobs or seek shelter assistance from local charities there.

But what incurred the workers’ ire was Padilla’s alleged suggestion for the workers to consider being repatriated to the Philippines.

“How can we go home, when we are over our head in debt?” Normal Paul Yaranon, the group’s spokesman, said in Filipino.

Yaranon added that they took offense at Padilla’s repeated statement that they have been getting help and that it was they who refused the assistance being offered to them.

“Lagi nilang sinasabi na tinutulungan kami, na para bang kami pa ang may kasalanan. Pero anong tulong—hangin. [They keep saying we’re getting help, making us look like liars. What help are they talking about—nothing],” he said. –Jun Medina, Special Correspondent, Manila Times