The Philippines has been removed from the US State Department’s human trafficking watch list because of discernible improvements in its efforts to fight modern day slavery, the American Embassy said on 6 June. The latest Trafficking in Persons report lauded the Philippines’ intensified efforts to implement the anti-trafficking law and its progress in prosecuting offenders. However, the country still failed to comply with the minimum international standards to eliminate human trafficking and remains a source, transit and destination country for trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor, the report noted. Washington advised the government to concentrate on prosecuting and convicting traffickers and public officials who have a hand in the crime.
Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) revealed that a human trafficking syndicate is behind the increasing number of Filipinas leaving for Dubai on visit visas who are being forced into prostitution. According to the POEA, illegal recruiters are luring former entertainers in Japan with offers to work as waitresses, salesgirls, mall or hotel employees in Dubai. However, upon arrival in Dubai they are immediately confined to their quarters and told not to communicate with the consulate or embassy. The women are then taken to discotheques and bars to look for clients while closely watched by pimps or caretakers. Baldoz urged all overseas job applicants to watch out for illegal recruiters and trafficking syndicates. She also urged jobseekers to check with the POEA first before finalizing any contract with recruiters.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has started implementing an after-care program for overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returnees in crisis situations. Services under the program include provision of counseling and other psycho-social assistance, food, medicine, temporary shelter and other basic needs. In places like Malaysia, Kuwait, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, and Hong Kong, the department has social welfare attachés to facilitate the repatriation of Offs unable to complete their employment contracts because of abusive employers.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged the government to intensify efforts to inform the public about widespread abuses of OFWs in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The CBCP also warned Filipino jobseekers against taking up jobs in these countries. Officials of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) and Palawan Bishop Pedro Arigo brought up the cases of 17 abused OFWs in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan at a meeting with OWWA, POEA and DFA representatives. ECMI also expressed concern over the apparent lack of government assistance to distressed OFWs in the three countries and the absence of a labor attaché or welfare officer in Syria.
POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz announced the suspension of the deployment of Filipino domestic workers to Jordan based on the recommendations of Philippine Ambassador Jose del Rosario. The envoy expressed concern over an increasing number of distressed domestic workers in Jordan running away from their employers and seeking shelter at the embassy. This sentiment was echoed by the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, which called attention to the widespread abuses committed against OFWs in Jordan as well as in Syria and Lebanon. Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines quoted a source from OWWA claiming that an average of 60 Filipino domestic workers a month run away from their employers in Lebanon due to maltreatment and contract violations.
The Labor Department is helping a domestic worker file abuse charges against her former employers in Lebanon and three manpower agencies responsible for bringing her there. The victim returned from Lebanon on 25 February and was taken to the Philippine General Hospital where she was diagnosed as suffering from a brief psychotic disorder and was also found to have had a miscarriage. Her mental condition was reportedly the result of sexual abuse and separation from her family.
Romy Redelicia, local representative of Blackwater USA, denied that the company has been recruiting Filipinos to serve as mercenaries in Iraq. He clarified that the company has deployed Filipino workers only to Afghanistan where it has a contract with the US State Department to provide security services, such as securing camps, buildings and similar facilities. Redelicia added that the Filipino workers were trained at a firing range at the Clark special economic zone last year because their employment contract required arms familiarization.
According to documents obtained by the newspaper Malaya, there are some 300 Filipinos, mostly former soldiers, who are working as armed personnel of a private military company tasked with securing US personnel and facilities in Iraq. The Filipinos were allegedly recruited by US-based company, Triple Canopy. A retired Philippine Army bomb disposal expert who recently returned from Iraq disclosed that, as security personnel, the Filipino workers had to repel attacks in the camps and were also objects of enemy fire and mortar attack.
According to the newspaper, Malaya, there is a syndicate at the DFA that sells passports unmarked with the stamp, ‘Not valid for travel to Iraq" to OFWs bound for the war-torn Middle East country. These unmarked passports are reportedly sold for P5,000 to P25,000. Meanwhile, the DFA has reiterated its appeal to OFWs to honor the government ban on the deployment of workers to Iraq. The Bureau of Immigration, for its part, said it would strictly monitor all departing OFWs to ensure that the travel ban is enforced.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo welcomed back some 49 OFWs who returned home from Saudi Arabia on 7 June. According to Administrator Marianito Roque of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), 21 of the arrivals were among those pardoned by Saudi King Abdullah for various offenses while the rest came from the Philippine Embassy’s halfway house for distressed OFWs.
An additional 24 Filipino evacuees from East Timor arrived at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on 5 June aboard a Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 cargo plane. They comprised the second batch of overseas Filipinos rescued from the strife-torn territory. Last 28 May, the first batch of 65 Filipino overseas workers and their families were flown by the PAF out of East Timor. There are about 200 Filipinos in East Timor, mostly working as engineers, NGO volunteers and Christian missionaries. Some of them have opted to remain in East Timor despite the security situation.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has confirmed that 20 Filipino crewmembers of the UAE-registered oil tanker, MT Lin1, have been held hostage by Somali gunmen off the coast of Somalia since 29 March. The DFA earlier doubted reports about the hostage-taking since the UN Field Security Coordination Office in Somalia had not monitored such incident. The Somali gunmen are allegedly demanding a $500,000 ransom for the release of the ship and its crew. Meanwhile, DFA spokesperson Gilbert Asuque warned other ship operators and Filipino seafarers to avoid sailing into Somali waters in view of the unstable security situation in that country.
Local Government undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr. has written a letter to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on behalf of the family of an OFW who was killed in Kuwait, to seek justice for her death and to facilitate the repatriation of her remains. Mailene Barroga, 36, was allegedly killed by her Nepalese co-worker last 27 May but her family in Pangasinan has yet to receive any formal communication from concerned government agencies to confirm her death. News about Mailene’s death was relayed to her family by one of her friends and confirmed by a Filipina neighbor in Kuwait. Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has directed Undersecretary Esteban Cornejos Jr. of the Migrant Workers’ Affairs Office to coordinate with Kuwaiti police regarding the progress of investigations.
A prominent Saudi dignitary, Sheikh Abdullah Al Athel, has wired money to the Saudi Embassy in Manila to cover the balance for a P1.6-million house and lot in Cavite that OFW Dennis Delos Santos was paying for before his untimely death. The sheikh had promised delos Santos’ mother when he visited Manila last April that he would fulfill her son’s dream by paying the balance for the property. Dennis, 24, had worked as a personal waiter for Al Athel until his death on 2 February in a car accident.
The caskets containing the bodies of OFWs, Abel Monterola of Cebu and Felix Llorando of Albay, who were both killed in crossfire between security forces and suspected terrorists in Riyadh, had been inadvertently switched. The government has since rectified the mistake but has so far not traced who was responsible for the mix-up.
The POEA stood firm on its decision to suspend some 436 recruitment agencies that failed to post the required one million pesos escrow deposit and denied allegations that the suspension was intended to sabotage the government’s target of deploying one million overseas workers in 2006. Baldoz clarified that recruitment agencies had been given ample time to raise their escrow deposit to one million pesos and their inability to do so raised doubts about their financial capability to continue recruiting workers for overseas employment. Meanwhile, the POEA launched on 14 June a new campaign against illegal recruitment, in collaboration with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). As part of the campaign, the two agencies would be conducting joint anti-illegal recruitment consultations throughout the country to raise public awareness about the seriousness of the problem and how to avoid being victimized by unscrupulous recruiters.
Twenty-two people filed a complaint at the Bacolod office of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Merlyn Estares for illegal recruitment. The victims claimed that Estares recruited them and 28 others late last year for hotel and hospital jobs in Bahrain, for which they paid P15,000 each as “bonds." However, the overseas jobs failed to materialize. During investigations, Esteras pointed to a flight attendant from Cebu named Rachel Sevilla as the one negotiating for the overseas jobs with a certain Mr. Mohammad and the one who has the applicants’ money.
Meanwhile in an entrapment operation at a mall in Mandaluyong City NBI agents arrested another suspected illegal recruiter. The suspect was identified as Rebecca Abrahano-Reyes, who together with certain Abegail Wilson, allegedly collected P217,000 as initial placement fees from each of at least four victims in exchange for caregiver jobs in the US. A check with the POEA revealed that the two were not licensed recruiters.The NBI is preparing to file large-scale illegal recruitment and estafa charges against those responsible for the scams.
Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. revealed that during the first quarter of this year the bureau has denied the entry to the country of some 388 foreigners considered illegal or undesirable aliens. Majority of these foreigners were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport with tampered passports, fake visas and other forged documents. Topping the list were some 134 Japanese suspected of being Yakuza members, followed by 33 Koreans, 32 Chinese, and 10 Indians.
The Bureau of Immigration announced that it has ordered the summary deportation of 11 Indonesians recently arrested for hijacking two ships from Sumatra. The Indonesians were crewmembers of the tugboats, Martha Dini and TK Sentana V, who diverted the vessels bound for Kalimantan to Philippine waters. The Indonesian aircraft police came to pick them up at the Davao airport on 1 June to take them back to Manado, Indonesia.
A rally at Mendiola Bridge near Malacanang is being planned to mark Migrants Day on 14 June. The militant group Migrante International said the rally is intended to protest the alleged government misuse of the migrant workers’ fund and the neglect of the welfare of Filipino workers abroad. According to the group, the protest also aims to draw attention to the plight of thousands of OFWs languishing in foreign jails.
Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron, chairperson of the House committee on health, has authored House Bill 4995, seeking to increase the basic pay of doctors in government service, currently at P15,000 a month, by 30 percent. Biron also proposed the granting of educational benefits to the children of government health professionals, including a full scholarship if they study medicine in public universities or colleges. The move is aimed at reversing the increasing exodus of Filipino doctors for better-paying jobs abroad.
The POEA claimed that its electronic database system has reduced the processing time for validating documents of departing OFWs. According to the POEA, the newly launched OFW e-link Deployment System at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport now enables airport personnel and immigration officers to access the POEA database to make online verification of OFW documents, including the Overseas Employment Certificate.
Vice President Noli de Castro has proposed a reward scheme for OFWs who remit money through the local banking system. According to the proposal, OFWs could earn a raffle coupon for every $100 remittance transaction they make using formal banking channels. With the raffle coupons, OFWs would have a chance to win up to P100,000 and other prizes. Currently, OFWs send an average monthly remittance of between $300 and $400.
According to a study on “Workers’ Remittance Flows in Southeast Asia," by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), remittances sent home by Filipinos working in Hong Kong, China, Japan and Malaysia are primarily spent on food, with the next two priorities being education and clothing. However, for OFWs in Singapore, remittances are spent primarily for education, followed by food, housing and clothing. The ADB study also noted that almost all Filipinos in Hong Kong, China and Singapore and 67 percent of OFWs in Japan send remittances at least once a month.
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