Maids in the Philippines

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