THE WORLD RECESSION is starting to bite into the pockets of Filipinos, especially those working abroad. Overseas Filipino Workers are seeing their wages shrink by 15-30 percent in Hong Kong, while in Japan and South Korea many newly hired Filipinos are classified as "trainees", meaning they don’t need to be paid minimum wages and are not fully protected by the labor laws of these two countries.
To make matters worse, the South Korean government has initiated a round of crackdowns on undocumented foreign workers in the country. A recent story that I read in a newspaper said that 7,000 Filipinos working illegally in South Korea would be headed home before Christmas.
According to Migrante, the activist group for migrant Filipino workers, this year’s crackdown is the worst ever and it claimed that the South Korean government was offering selective amnesty to some of the illegals. Korean government figures from more than a year ago place the number of illegals in the country at 10,517, with 20,324 documented unskilled workers and 9,807 industrial or technical trainees.
"Many former trainees are running away, and thus become undocumented workers, because of the deplorable working conditions they have to suffer. As trainees they are given allowances instead of wages, many are forced to work during holidays and when they experience industrial accidents, they are not entitled to compensation," said Pastor Jones Galang, spokesman of the group Kasamma-Ko.
Migrante has come down particularly hard on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao, claiming they have sold out the Filipino worker in Hong Kong and Taiwan by secretly agreeing to across-the-board wage cuts which came into effect last November. In Hong Kong current wages were cut from 15-30 percent, while in Taiwan all newly hired OFWs face salary cuts of 20 percent from previous levels.
According to Migrante, Arroyo agreed to these significant wage cuts on the condition that Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea would not cut back on the total number of Filipinos they hire every year. The group also charges that the Philippine government is supporting the new trainee schemes in South Korea and Japan, in an effort to keep OFW deployment figures up at any cost.
"Furthermore, Mr. Tiglao, President Macapagal-Arroyo now also vigorously supports the ‘trainee system’ being applied in Korea and Japan. The trainee system is an exploitative scheme labor importing countries use to skirt around minimum wage laws and exploit migrant workers by paying them allowances that are at an inhumane wage level. President Arroyo now exerts much effort to deploy as many Filipinos as she can as trainees to the said countries," said Migrante in an open letter to Tiglao, after he had written to an OFW group in Hong Kong defending the government’s policy.
With the economy in the doldrums, the Arroyo administration is desperate to keep unemployed Filipinos seeking jobs abroad, no matter how low their wages are. In this global recession, employers naturally have the upper hand in dictating employment terms, and increasingly squeezed employees have no choice but to bitterly accept salaries being slashed and benefits shrunk. Let’s just hope this recession doesn’t last too long.
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Absentee voting rights may be delayed
IN MORE disturbing news for OFWs, Empower, the global coalition for the political empowerment of overseas Filipinos, sent out an action alert last week warning that the Philippine Congress was now planning to pass an absentee voting bill that would not come into effect until the 2007 elections instead of in 2004.
Understandably, Empower was extremely peeved, saying in a press release: "We have waited 14 long years to pass this law. To be told that we have to wait another six years to vote when we have a perfect opportunity to vote in 2004 is an outrage!"
Surprisingly one of the two congressmen proposing the delay in the House of Representatives is freshman Teddy Locsin of Makati. The other is Rep. Ronnie Zamora. They have been chosen to rewrite the absentee voting bill and have been told by congressional leaders that it must come into effect only for the 2007 elections because of fears its introduction before that could favor the incumbent administration.
"That the incumbent president/administration may benefit if absentee voting is implemented in 2004 is sloppy speculation," said Empower, pointing out that no incumbent Philippine president has ever won re-election except for Ferdinand Marcos in 1969.
"It has been 14 long years of waiting for Congress to act! Enough of dilly-dallying! Enough of the excuses! Justice delayed is justice denied. We want our fundamental rights and dignity as citizens in the 2004 elections," concluded Empower.
Empower is asking all OFWs to lobby Congress to pass the absentee voting bill in time for the 2004 elections. OFWs are asked to send polite letters requesting that to any senator or representative they personally know. Contact information is available at www.congress.gov.ph.
In addition, OFWs are requested to also send letters to:
1. Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr: Fax (632) 931-5883 or e-mail [email protected]
2. Rep. Ronnie Zamora: Fax (632) 931-6722 or e-mail [email protected]
3. Speaker Jose de Venecia: Fax (632) 931-5071 or e-mail [email protected]
4. Rep. Carlos Padilla: Fax (632) 931-5691.
5. Chairman Alfredo Benipayo, Commission on Elections: [email protected]
Although by the time this column appears Congress will be on its Christmas break, please do send the letters of support in. This is an important issue for all OFWs, who deserve the right to vote in Philippine elections. Happy Holidays to all of my readers!
