Maids in the Philippines

Published by rudy Date posted on July 4, 2014

Reports of employment agencies advertising Filipino household helpers or maids in malls at discounts in Singapore are appalling. Such agencies have low regard for household workers and Singapore should severely punish those responsible for treating them as commodities.

Singaporean and Philippine authorities must look deeper into the “discount on maids” marketing strategy practiced by agencies in enticing Singapore employers. The maids are brazenly displayed in malls like slaves, and who knows if the same practice is done in other media such as the Internet.

The Singapore Ministry of Manpower, reacting to an Al Jazeera report on the so-called discounts on maids, did the initial right step in condemning the act. It said it required employment agencies “to be responsible and accord basic respect in their practices to both their clients—the employer and [foreign domestic workers]—and expects them to exercise sensitivity when marketing their fees or services.”

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office based in Singapore, meanwhile, suspended the two agencies involved in the misdeed and ordered them to answer allegations about their evil scheme.

In a separate development, the Labor Department suspended the deployment of new hires seeking to work in the United Arab Emirates, after the Middle East country virtually barred the Philippines and other embassies from verifying the contracts of their workers-nationals.

The Philippines cannot stop the migration of poor Filipinos seeking greener pastures abroad, as long as the nation is unable to offer jobs at competitive rates. But the government has the responsibility to stem the tide of poverty by exerting efforts to create job opportunities and fix the economy.

Corruption in government and a form of feudal system that keeps the poor from overcoming its lot have basically fomented poverty in the Philippines. A weak leadership also tends to prolong the deprivation of the majority of the Filipinos. –Manila Standard Today

June 2025

Philippine Environment Month!
“Action for Nature, for the Future!”


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:

  1 Jun – World Day of Parents

  5 Jun – World Environment Day 

  7 Jun – World Food Safety Day 

  8 Jun – World Oceans Day

12 Jun – World Day Against Child Labour

15 Jun – World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 

16 Jun – International Day of Family Remittances 

17 Jun – World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

20 Jun – World Refugee Day 

25 Jun – Day of the Seafarer 

27 Jun – Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day

 

 Daily Observances:

June 6: Migrant Workers Day

June 19: Filipino Youth Day 
June 25: Day of the Filipino Seafarer

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