Labor protests envoy’s threat to deport OFWs

by Vito Barcelo and Maricel V. Cruz, Manila Standard, Feb 28, 2019

Labor groups slammed the Chinese ambassador Wednesday for warning Manila against deporting illegal Chinese workers, saying Beijing would do the same to Filipinos working in China.

The Partido Manggagawa and the Federation of Free Workers said that Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua’s threat was blatant blackmail and the government should grow enough of a spine and have the Department of Foreign Affairs file a diplomatic protest.

“We stand for the protection of all migrant workers everywhere and thus oppose threats and plans for deporting en masse both Filipino and Chinese migrant workers,” said Rene Magtubo, PM national chairman.

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo admitted that Jianhua had told him that China would “do the same” if the Philippines would hastily deport Chinese illegals.

But he later went on TV to say the ambassador had issued no threat.

“The Chinese government did not make a threat,” Panelo said in an interview on GMA News TV.

“We were discussing what the government would have done if another government would recklessly deport their nationals not in accordance with law,” he said.

But in a statement, FFW president Sonny Matula said the Chinese envoy’s action was “bullying and bordering on interference in the affairs of a sovereign state.”

The labor groups said migrant workers should not made pawns in a diplomatic war and also must not become scapegoats in a failed government policy.

“It is the Chinese investors bringing in Chinese workers that must be made responsible for their crimes. Everybody’s hypocritically talking of upholding the law by evicting Chinese workers but turn a blind eye to the violations by Chinese investors,” Magtubo said.

“The root of the problem is the Duterte administration’s lax policy with regard to the entry of Chinese capital and loans. The government itself created the problem because of its subservience to the interests of the Chinese government and Chinese capitalists,” the PM said.

Magtubo said that instead of mass deportations of migrant workers in the Philippines and China, the two countries should forge a bilateral labor agreement to protect migrant workers.

“Such an agreement must secure decent wages, benefits, working conditions and jobs including the freedom to unionize. Further, to plug the gaping loophole that facilitates illegal migration, labor deployment abroad must be through government channels instead of private agencies,” the labor group added.

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao, meanwhile, urged President Rodrigo Duterte to prioritize the hiring of Filipino workers in government projects.

Casilao issued the statement against the backdrop of rising unemployment.

“He promised to create jobs by proposing to rebuild industries and factories, and vowed to end labor contractualization, but we all know now, that they were just trapo promises, worse, more Filipino workers are jobless, and rubbing salt into the wound, the number of foreign workers is swelling,” Casilao said.