Philippine
government authorities have played down the negative effect of the ban on the
deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 41 countries, saying the
impact "is not going to be very big," as these countries did not
receive too many OFWs.
The Department of Labour and Employment
announced on Wednesday that it had issued the ban because these blacklisted
countries failed to sign international conventions protecting foreign workers
from abuse.
Specifically, the DOLE board resolution posted
on its website said none of these countries had signed agreements with the
Philippines "on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino
workers."
The ban is to take effect within the month.
The administration made a big spin of the decision amid mounting pressure to do
more to protect more than 9 million Filipinos working abroad. OFW remittances
account for 13.5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and the
overseas workers comprise 11 per cent of the total Philippine population of 94
million, making the Philippines one of the world’s largest labour exporters.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said worker deployments to 125 other
countries would continue after Philippine embassies had verified they have laws
protecting foreign workers. The countries affected by the ban include
Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Cuba, North Korea, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan,
Serbia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Some of these countries are strife-torn countries
like Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and Pakistan.
Carlos Cao Jr., head of the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration, said the countries affected by the ban were not
important destinations of OFWs. Most of the countries on the list do not
actually hire many Filipinos workers.
"These are smaller countries with small
markets," said Cao. The ban does not affect Filipinos who are already
there, so they would not have to come home until their contracts expire.
Critics of new directives of the government say the ban could actually have the
opposite effect—by driving Filipinos to work illegally, with even fewer
safeguards than they had before.
The DOLE issued resolutions on deployment
based on the requirements of Republic Act 10022, the amended Migrant Workers
and Overseas Act of 1995. Why the DOLE implemented the requirements only now is
not clear.
In May this year, the POEA listed a total of
125 countries where OFWs can be continuously deployed. Another resolution, No.
7, specified a list of 41 countries where OFWs cannot be deployed for
non-compliance with the guarantees required by RA 10022. The act requires
Philippine diplomatic posts to review all host countries whether they have
existing laws that protect migrant workers, a move, according to DOLE, designed
"to prevent the rampant sexual and physical abuses being committed against
Filipino migrant workers."
Baldoz said a host country may be certified as
compliant with the law if its government has any of the following requirements
that protect the rights of Filipino workers:
1. It has labor and social laws protecting the
rights of migrant workers.
2. It is a signatory to declarations or
resolutions relating to the protection of migrant workers.
3. It has concluded a bilateral agreement with
the government on the protection of rights of Filipino workers.
Every Filipino government since the administration
of President Fidel V. Ramos has been extremely sensitive to the issue of
protecting Filipino overseas workers from abuse by their employers and
injustice after the execution of the Filipino maid (Flor Contemplacion) in
Singapore for the killing of her Singaporean employer.
The Ramos administration suffered a strong
public backlash over the failure of its efforts to obtain a stay of the
execution from the Singapore government. Since then, the protection of Filipino
workers has been a highly sensitive and emotional political issue in the
Philippines in which no president, including the incumbent president, would
want to be perceived as negligent of the welfare of OFWs. This issue is
complicated by the fact that OFWs have remitted more than US$17 billion as of
the latest data in 2009, making the remittances one of the main pillars of the
Philippine economy.
OFWs have been hailed as the real heroes of
the economy, and it is not a myth that if their remittances drastically
dwindle, the economy would collapse. President Benigno Aquino would not want to
be in a position where the economy is undermined by a reduced flow of OFW
remittances.
The economy under his management for the past
12 months faltered, with the GDP falling to around 5 per cent, from a record
high of 7 per cent two years ago. Unemployment and underemployment have been
estimated at 30 per cent—which means that the economy is not creating enough
jobs to catch up with the fast growth of the young labor force.
This further means that the Filipino exodus in
search of jobs overseas is fueled by the shortage of jobs locally and the
economic recession, in which many of the rich Western economies are
experiencing the unacceptable unemployment rate of more than 10 per cent.
The job closures are also sending numbers of
unemployed Filipinos overseas back home.
Fortunately for the Aquino administration, the
41 countries blacklisted in its ban are inconsequential as job destinations for
Filipinos. The problem facing the administration is that the above-cited
conditions weaken its leverage to obtain compliance with the requirements of
Philippine laws on the deployment of Filipino workers by 125 host countries to
guarantee them from abuse.
Without doubt, most Filipinos would be happy
to see our migrant workers humanely treated. Unfortunately, our clout to put
pressure on their hosts is limited.
Amando Doronila
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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