The Exodus: Pinoy Migrant Workers (OFW/OCW)

[smokingunmanila]

Originally Posted by ThisFire

It is a big factor, but I don't think Pilipinas is the most reliant on remittances. Mexico has a lot going on too, as well as India.

Ibon Foundation???? may think-tank department ba yan? all I know is...all their research is against the government...so I don't even read any of their research...

[laquacherra]

Originally Posted by Ady001

we're slowly realizing that kahit baguhin mo pa ang leader, dapat magbago muna ang sarili mo. Why do Filipinos succeed overseas and not here?

imo it will happen the day Pinoys learn not to pee anywhere and everywhere

[crappypants]

Originally Posted by Ady001

Thankfully I agree with you. Yes, we need more stability. A lot of Pinoys have caught the EDSA fever, and now, we're slowly realizing that kahit baguhin mo pa ang leader, dapat magbago muna ang sarili mo. Why do Filipinos succeed overseas and not here? Why are there Filipino mayors in the US and still manage to maintain status quo?

they both need to change. the leaders and the constituents.

[smokingunmanila]

Originally Posted by laquacherra

imo it will happen the day Pinoys learn not to pee anywhere and everywhere

oops..I'm guilty

[Animo]

An ABS-CBN Europe Bureau exclusive

Almost three years have passed since the bloody train bombings in Madrid, Spain claimed the lives of 191 people and injured almost 2,000 others but the family of the Filipino fatality in the tragedy has yet to put it behind them.
Considered to be the worst Islamic terror attack in Europe, Madrid will mark the third anniversary of the train attack on March 11, a day the Ferrer family doesn’t want to relive.

Twenty-year-old Rex Ferrer was on his way to an Iglesia Ni Cristo chapel when the bombs exploded, an incident believed to have been perpetrated by an al-Qaeda linked terror group.

Rex was the only Filipino who died in the terror attack.
The memory was too unbearable that Arturo and Anita Ferrer, who both work as household helpers, decided to go home to the Philippines for good.
With their son gone forever, they said they have lost interest in working. Even their daughter, Liezl, does not want to study anymore in Madrid, they added.

"Talagang masakit pa din kaya sabi ko uuwi na lang kami (It still hurts that’s why I told my family that we will just go home)," Arturo said.
"Pagkatapos magtrabaho sa bahay lang yan, kapilya… masakit [noong mawala siya] kaya lang wala kaming magagawa. Hanggang doon na lang siguro ang buhay niya (After work, he would either go straight home or go to the chapel. It was painful when he died but we couldn't do anything. Maybe it was his time)," Anita said.

As Spanish citizens, the Ferrer family received an apartment house, monthly pension and cash from the Spanish government. They also received a gold medal and diploma de honor from King Juan Carlos.

Authorities have already arrested 29 suspects, 15 of them are Moroccans and nine are Spaniards. The trial of the accused only started a few days ago.
"Yung mga nakabilanggo ngayon na sangkot sa aksidenteng ito sana naman mabigyan [kami] ng hustisya. Pagbayaran nila ang ginawa nila dahil talagang masakit talaga sa amin (Those responsible should pay for what they have done because it was really painful for us)," Arturo said.

The Ferrer family is now preparing for their homecoming in Santiago, Isabela. They said that they will start a small business in the province as they hope to find peace in their own homeland.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=68675

[Animo]

Bills to Speed Children's Moves to U.S., Give Military Pensions Show Political Assertion



The adult children of Filipino immigrants such as Candida Romulo, 72, of Oxon Hill have been required to wait up to 16 years to immigrate to the United States. (Photos By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)


By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 4, 2007; Page A06

Amid the wrangling over immigration reform, virtually everyone in Congress appears to agree on one point: Filipino-born veterans who fought alongside U.S. troops during World War II deserve a break.

Denied the right to immigrate to the United States until 1990, they came hoping that their children could follow them here later, just as other groups have done. But the adult children have been required to wait twice as long -- up to 16 years -- as anyone else. With the veterans often too old and sick to travel home, many have died while waiting to be reunited with their families.

Now, after several longtime backers have risen to key positions in Congress, Filipino American advocates are hopeful that legislation will be pushed through to exempt the veterans' children from the immigration delay. They also are optimistic about a potentially more controversial bill that would grant Filipino veterans military pensions.

About 5,000 veterans in the United States would stand to benefit from a change in immigration provisions, and an additional 10,000 in the Philippines could be eligible for pensions.

To many in the 2-million-strong Filipino American community, the issue represents a chance to cement their political identity in a nation where they have long felt invisible, even though Filipinos rank second, behind Mexicans, in the number of immigrants living in the United States.

"Historically, we Filipinos have always been looked down on as your little brown brothers -- as these acquiescent people who would just accept anything Uncle Sam would do to them," said Jon Melegrito, communications director of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations. "This is about asserting who we are as a people and how we served this country. . . . It's a call to action to stop acting like colonial slaves and to start acting like first-class citizens."

The effort builds on an association with the United States that dates to 1898, when the United States acquired the Philippines from Spain after winning the Spanish-American War.

Laws and discriminatory practices against all Asian immigrants kept Filipino numbers in the United States low through the first half of the 1900s. But in the Philippines, many residents were taught English and raised to think of themselves as something akin to Americans.

Celestino Almeda, 90, a veteran who lives in Alexandria, remembered that the director of his elementary school in Manila led students in a pledge of allegiance to the American flag every morning.

"We also celebrated all the holidays: Washington's birthday, Armistice Day," Almeda said. "In our mind, it was like America was our mother country."

When Japan invaded the Philippines in 1941, more than 200,000 Filipinos joined Americans in waging a fierce resistance, enduring such horrors as the Bataan death march and the grueling guerrilla campaign that followed. Technically, the Filipino fighters were under overall U.S. command. But within months of the Allied victory, Congress stripped most of them of their rights as foreign veterans of U.S. forces -- including the opportunity to become U.S. citizens -- on the grounds that the Philippines was about to be granted independence.

Even so, the Philippines continued its close affiliation with the United States. Thousands of Filipinos joined the U.S. Navy, which until recently had major bases there. By 1970, there were more Filipinos in the U.S. Navy than in the Philippine Navy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...030301331.html

[lumpia]

Actually the BBC did a recent news report on OFWs. Sadly, the report has a negative bias, as most BBC reports on the Philippines usually have, but it sorta hits the nail on the head in terms of the financial disparity in wages at home and abroad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/new...tm?bw=bb&mp=wm

When I see these reports, the first thing I think is "why can't they negatively portray Indonesia or Thailand for once? The Philippines, through OFWs, actively contributes to the economies not only of the Philippines, but the host countries in which they work in! Why insult that?" Maybe western media (especially the BBC) sets out to purposely derogatize the country, although I'm totally speechless as to why!

[kiretoce]

Target: More jobs to curb diaspora
By Jeanette P. Malinao Saturday, March 10, 2007

Leading a country thankful for overseas workers’ remittances and that carried out training programs to send “super maids” abroad, President Arroyo yesterday went beyond her usual speech on the improved economy to speak of another dream.

“We hope for the day when enough good jobs are created in the Philippines so that hardworking Filipinos don’t have to go abroad for their work,” Arroyo said before 300 participants of the Philippine Development Forum.

“We see a day when going abroad for a job is a career choice, and not the only option for work,” added Arroyo.

That statement deviated from her pronouncements last year when she received flak for announcing in a roundtable discussion on jobs and livelihood that the Philippines will be training “super maids.”

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to give a significant boost to the Philippine economy. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Amando M. Tetangco Jr. estimated that the OFW remittances for 2007 will reach $14.7 billion, or five percent higher than in 2006.

But in yesterday’s Philippine Development Forum held at the Marco Polo Hotel, Arroyo said her national agenda is to create “good paying jobs” and have stable prices so Filipinos won’t have to leave the country.

She said her government will move to bring “the benefits of a strong economy to every Filipino in every province.”

“Our solid indicators give us a fighting chance to achieve at least a seven percent growth rate moving forward to 2010. We aim to buttress confidence even more by a unifying leadership and political stability at all levels,” she added.

Amid the campaign season for this May’s elections, Arroyo reiterated that she will leave the campaigning to the candidates as she focuses on her “national agenda for good jobs and stable prices.”

World Bank director for the Philippines Joachim Von Amsberg, however, warned that the initial success of the country’s fiscal management “could lead to dangerous complacency.”

“However, based on the presentations of the Cabinet members, we perceive that the success inspires this government to be more ambitious and determined to pursue further reforms with renewed energy for better results. This is most welcome,” said von Amsberg.

Cited in the development forum is the need for all sectors and places in the Philippines to feel the benefit of the economic growth, and to address the “perception” that many existing anti-corruption initiatives “do not yet add up to a fully credible program of good governance.”

“It would be useful to establish clear indicators that can serve as a tool for gauging the effectiveness of the ongoing (anti-corruption) measures,” Von Amsberg said.

There was a suggestion to use “integrity development reviews” to assess the vulnerability of government agencies to corruption.

Also, Von Amsberg said that one effective way of “signaling government’s serious commitment” to anti-corruption efforts would be to “prioritize allocation of budgetary resources in this area,” such as increasing the budget of the Office of the Ombudsman.

[sugarboy]

This is sad news:

Incest on the rise with feminization of overseas labor

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:16pm (Mla time) 03/09/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- As more Filipino mothers leave for work abroad, incest between a daughter and the father who are left behind has become an emerging social problem, a non-government organization said Friday.

However, the Kanlungan Center said the scandalous nature of incest has kept the problem hidden despite its growing seriousness.

Loida Bernabe, program officer of Kanlungan's direct support and development program, acknowledged receiving only one call for help on an incest case but added she believes the problem is more common than believed.

“Nangyayari talaga ito dahil malayo sa pamilya at ang tingin sa mga anak ay pag-aari [It really happens because of the distance between spouses and because children are viewed as possessions],” she said.

She spoke of a runaway maid in Singapore who wrote to Kanlungan September last year about her 13-year-old daughter’s account of being raped by her father.

The mother said she had already asked a relative to take the girl away but worried about her nine-year-old daughter, who with her six-year-old son, remained with her husband.

Bernabe said she referred the case to the archdiocese in Mindanao to which the overseas Filipino worker’s (OFW) hometown belonged.

On Thursday, International Women's Day, Senator Pia Cayetano also called public attention to “an emerging problem in labor-exporting countries like the Philippines.”

The senator, who returned recently from New York where she represented the Philippine Senate at the 51st Session of the Commission for the Status of Women, noted that older daughters of women OFWs are made to take on the roles left by their mother, sometimes as “substitute spouses.”

"This disturbing phenomenon of the girl-child being turned into substitute spouse has been happening in our country along with the feminization of labor migration," said Cayetano, who noted that women now comprise 70 percent of Filipino workers deployed abroad.

“The problem remains largely unreported, however, due to its sensitive nature and mainly because of the fear of the girl-child to file a formal complaint against her own father which would bring severe stress and shame to her and her family," the senator said.

As a result, she said the abused daughter is forced to become an "adult" at an early age, depriving her of the opportunities and rights of being a child.

She described the phenomenon as one of the most damaging social impacts of labor migration, one that can never be measured by any of the government's socio-economic indicators or captured by statistics on labor export.

The international forum-session, entitled "A parliamentary perspective on discrimination and violence against the girl child," was jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), of which Cayetano is first vice president of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW).

Cayetano presented the problem of incest among families left behind by OFWs at the forum-session, which stressed the need to push for national laws and policies to protect girls from violence and abuse.

[crappypants]

my god how awful. what kind of fathers can do that to their own child. an absent spouse in an excuse? what about single fathers with children because of divorce. Ganyan ba kamanyakes mga kalalakihan ngayon at pati sariling anak pinagnanasahan marame namang mga prostitutes diyan sa tabe tabe. putulen na lang mga yan pag hindi makontrol.

[Lili]

Originally Posted by sugarboy

This is sad news:

Incest on the rise with feminization of overseas labor

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:16pm (Mla time) 03/09/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- As more Filipino mothers leave for work abroad, incest between a daughter and the father who are left behind has become an emerging social problem, a non-government organization said Friday.

However, the Kanlungan Center said the scandalous nature of incest has kept the problem hidden despite its growing seriousness.

Loida Bernabe, program officer of Kanlungan's direct support and development program, acknowledged receiving only one call for help on an incest case but added she believes the problem is more common than believed.

“Nangyayari talaga ito dahil malayo sa pamilya at ang tingin sa mga anak ay pag-aari [It really happens because of the distance between spouses and because children are viewed as possessions],” she said.

She spoke of a runaway maid in Singapore who wrote to Kanlungan September last year about her 13-year-old daughter’s account of being raped by her father.

The mother said she had already asked a relative to take the girl away but worried about her nine-year-old daughter, who with her six-year-old son, remained with her husband.

Bernabe said she referred the case to the archdiocese in Mindanao to which the overseas Filipino worker’s (OFW) hometown belonged.

On Thursday, International Women's Day, Senator Pia Cayetano also called public attention to “an emerging problem in labor-exporting countries like the Philippines.”

The senator, who returned recently from New York where she represented the Philippine Senate at the 51st Session of the Commission for the Status of Women, noted that older daughters of women OFWs are made to take on the roles left by their mother, sometimes as “substitute spouses.”

"This disturbing phenomenon of the girl-child being turned into substitute spouse has been happening in our country along with the feminization of labor migration," said Cayetano, who noted that women now comprise 70 percent of Filipino workers deployed abroad.

“The problem remains largely unreported, however, due to its sensitive nature and mainly because of the fear of the girl-child to file a formal complaint against her own father which would bring severe stress and shame to her and her family," the senator said.

As a result, she said the abused daughter is forced to become an "adult" at an early age, depriving her of the opportunities and rights of being a child.

She described the phenomenon as one of the most damaging social impacts of labor migration, one that can never be measured by any of the government's socio-economic indicators or captured by statistics on labor export.

The international forum-session, entitled "A parliamentary perspective on discrimination and violence against the girl child," was jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), of which Cayetano is first vice president of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW).

Cayetano presented the problem of incest among families left behind by OFWs at the forum-session, which stressed the need to push for national laws and policies to protect girls from violence and abuse.

I don't think that that was the right venue to present this "so-called emergent issue" (if it is such) considering that it was based only on isolated incidents or anecdotal account. I think discussing this before an international forum puts our menfolk in such a bad light. It is a disservice to the name of the Filipinos, in general -- the OFWs eking an honest living abroad and those left behind. The good senator would have done much better to address the issue within our own backyard. She is a senator and is in a good position to do so. But to air it in such an international and public venue when there is not substantial basis to support it, for me, is injudicious. This will only give rise to sensationalism and a snowball effect. If these cases do happen, it may not be as big as it is projected to be. They say the crime remains hidden because of its scandalous nature. If so, it is better to address this within our own venue through the empowerment of these women support groups and the enforcement of law, instead of making a spectacle out of it by presenting it before an international body just for the sake of being able to present a topic in a conference.

There are also underlying causes of such incest --- not just the libido, but perhaps excessive drinking by the perpetrator which befuddles the mind and judgment of the person.

[crappypants]

actually it is more common. if you watch the filipino news there is almost always an incest incident reported , mostly in farflung areas in the province or in the close quarters dwellings of the lower income group.

[Lili]

Originally Posted by crappypants

actually it is more common. if you watch the filipino news there is almost always an incest incident reported , mostly in farflung areas in the province or in the close quarters dwellings of the lower income group.

Still, it was not right to present it before an international body. And you know how the press would rather zero in on really sensational cases.

These things happen not only "labor-exporting" countries. These things happen even here in America and elsewhere.

[kiretoce]

Reintegration facility for returning OFWs opens
03/12/2007

Skills training, local job placement and assistance for entrepreneurial opportunities are among the services available for free to returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at the National Re-integration Center in Intramuros, Manila.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and International Office for Migration (IOM) director general Brunson McKinley inaugurated Monday the newest project of Labor Secretary Arturo Brion.

McKinley said it was the first of its kind that he has seen across the globe.

“This is something new, something unique to the Philippines," Brion said in a brief talk to reporters. “We hope this can be fully operational over the next year or two."

Also formally opened was the Migration Information Resource Center (MIRC). This is a library at the Re-integration Center located at the corner of Solana and Victoria St. in Intramuros Manila.

During the ceremony, Brion and McKinley signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on the technical cooperation arrangements of DOLE and IOM in the establishment and management of the MIRC.

The DOLE-MIRC, Brion said, shall promote information exchange on migration and support efforts of migration stakeholders in uplifting the welfare of the overseas Filipino workers and their families through research and formulation of migration policies and programs.

The MIRC is envisioned as the central unit of a planned Philippine Migration Information Resource System that will link the libraries of other government offices, non-government organizations, and academic institutions.

"The library complements the DOLE's thrust for better information sharing as a way of firming up policy and program responses to migration and development," said Institute for Labor Studies Executive Director Gigette Imperial.

The ILS, the policy and advocacy arm of DOLE, will take charge of the management and operation of the MIRC. It will be open for use not only to DOLE officials and employees but also to the public, including policymakers, researchers, students, and returning OFWs.

The library accepts donations of books, journals and other migration-related information resources.

Brion said the Department of Labor and Employment will have a registry of OFWs and non-governmental organizations in order to link them up not only for job opportunities here or overseas, but also for counseling and other needs.

Part of the economic reintegration services is the advocacy for savings and wise use of the earnings of OFWs as well as an encouragement to OFWs to send their remittances to the Philippines through the banking system.

He said DOLE will link up with banks to lower the cost of remittances and to offer investment instruments for OFWs.

“This will entail a lot of finance counseling that we at DOLE do not have capacity to deliver. So, for the National Reintegration System to be successful, we have to develop a number of partnerships with other government agencies, NGOs, banks and other associations who have an interest in OFWs," Brion explained to reporters.

The facility is a “One-Stop Center" providing various reintegration services for OFWs and their families, as well as a “Service Networking Hub" to facilitate the delivery of services by cooperating stakeholders/service providers to address the migrants’ and their families’ needs, including the development of their communities.

It was also designed to develop, implement, and evolve progressive and responsive reintegration programs for OFWs and their families that are attuned to their communities’ needs in order to maximize the benefits of migration for development, among other provisions.

With the Center, Brion said the Philippines “has succeeded in establishing a full global circuit for OFWs beginning from their departure, until their return and reintegration to the local social and economic mainstream."

The establishment of the Center is consistent with Republic Act 8042, or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, which prescribed the establishment of a Re-placement and Monitoring Center (for OFWs); as well as Presidential Executive Order 446 issued on July 12, 2005, which authorized the Secretary of Labor to coordinate the implementation of initiatives to enable OFWs to rejoin, and contribute to the development of the Philippine Society.

The Center, through an “assistance desk," intends to provide basic services to OFWs and their families such as face-to-face and online responses to queries; evaluation and channeling of requests for assistance; job search assistance for local or overseas employment; assistance for entrepreneurship orenterprise development; training or retooling assistance; psychosocial services; facilitating participation in Brain Gain Movement Initiatives; linking OFW assistance to LGUs and Communities; introduction to Special Retirement Program; information on Special Remittance Package, and Investment Portfolios; among others.

“We have taken the practical steps to ensure that the phenomenon of global migration will have long term benefits for OFWs and their families and will have positive impact on national development," Brion said.

“Indeed, the Center shall act as the reentry doorway for economic and social reintegration, which assures a process of brain gain, in lieu of drain or loss of talent and human capital for the country, reducing the social costs of migration as we endeavor to assist returning OFWs and their families," he said.

The facility is initially funded with P7 million drawn from the budget of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

[kiretoce]

RP's labor deployment system is world's standard -- IOM
March 13th, 2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Despite problems with illegal recruitment, irregular and distressed workers, and the so-called brain drain, the Philippines' labor deployment system is the world's standard, said Brunson McKinley, director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

McKinley, who is here for the launching of the National Reintegration Center, among other reasons, said: "The Philippines has [a] clear advantage on labor migration over all countries in the countries."

He said the country's system of recruitment, contracts, training, welfare, insurance, and protection of rights are all in place.

"It is not perfect but it is good," he told reporters after the dinner hosted by the labor department in his honor Monday night.

"The Philippines is doing a very good job. It is not by accident that the Philippines is considered the model in labor migration where systems that work are in place. The whole world can learn from the Philippines as globalization of labor is growing all around the world," he added.

McKinley said that as a pioneer in the field, the Philippines should now move up the overseas workforce ladder. He said that in the beginning, the country was deploying workers to more basic jobs.

"We see that in the seafarers. A generation ago, Filipinos were sailors, now they're officers and captains," he said.

The IOM chief said he foresees a big growth in labor migration especially since working abroad is now easier than it used to be.

"The demographic trends show that there are more spaces for foreign workers to work in," he said. "This is the end result of a freer labor market and general prosperity in the world."

The Philippines has some eight million Filipinos working and living outside the Filipinos. And the number continues to increase as more than 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day.

[kiretoce]

South Korea ups job quota for Filipino workers

South Korea’s labor ministry has increased by 20 percent this year’s job roster quota of the Philippines to 12,000, from 10,000 in 2006.

Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) attributed the quota increase to the Filipino laborers’ good performance last year.

The higher quota makes the Philippines the biggest labor exporter among 14 countries covered by Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS), a government-to-government hiring scheme intended to curb the problem over illegal recruitment.

Baldoz said Thailand and Vietnam got 11,000 quota each, Indonesia and Mongolia got 9,000 each, and Sri Lanka, was given 8,000. Other countries have quota ranging from 1,000 t0 5,000 workers.

The EPS replaced the Alien Industrial Trainee System (AITS) that allowed hiring through private recruiters. Korea had abolished the trainee scheme and stopped issuing trainee visas since Jan 1, 2007.

As a result, Philippine licensed agencies that used to hire trainees for Korea could no longer recruit workers under the trainee scheme.

Under this scheme, Korean employers can only get foreign workers legally through the EPS. The POEA is the only government agency authorized to implement the scheme in the Philippines.

Sound migration policies

Baldoz said the increased quota for the Philippines “underscores the confidence of Korea in the soundness of our labor migration policies and the competence of the government overseas employment agencies to deliver the required services."

The Philippines and South Korea have a memorandum of understanding on the deployment of Filipino workers.

Baldoz said the additional job quota given to the Philippines effectively debunks speculations that the quota will be reduced due to the alleged increase in the number of overstaying Filipinos in Korea.

“The rate of increase of illegal foreign nationals was one of the criteria used in the country allocation so the insinuation was proved wrong with the increase of quota," Baldoz said.

Korea’s labor ministry reported that from January to November 2006, a total of 2,053 foreign workers left their employers illegally. Mongolians topped the list with 687; Thais, 621; Indonesians, 246; Filipinos, 231; Vietnamese, 193; and Sri Lankans, 84.

The other criteria used were the employers’ preference, labor contract cancellation, speed of deployment process, and number of industries looking for prospective workers.

Korean language test

The POEA is currently administering the registration of prospective overseas workers for the May 6 Korean Language Test (KLT) as a requirement for employment under the EPS.

Registration has been going on until April 20 at the Occupational Safety and Health Center on North Avenue corner Agham Road in Quezon City.

A brief commotion marred the first day of the registration on April 2 when hundreds of job applicants forced open the compound’s gate to gain entry into the compound.

The language test will be held on May 6 at the University of the East (UE) and San Sebastian College in Manila. Test venues for Cebu and Davao applicants have not been determined.

The original quota for the Philippines was for 9,000 Filipino males and 1,000 females for this year, mostly as factory workers.

Factory jobs in South Korea pay an average of $700 a month, excluding overtime pay, which is pegged at 150 percent of regular rates.

Baldoz said over the past three years, the EPS has employed 14,000 overseas Filipino workers.

Applicants should pass the Korean Language Test and the medical requirement for inclusion in the ‘Roster of Jobseekers’ to have a chance to be hired by a Korean employer, Baldoz said.

Simultaneous registration for KLT are going on at the POEA regional offices in Cebu (mezzanine floor of LDM building on MJ Cuenco Avenue corner Legaspi Street in Cebu City) and Davao (2nd floor of AMYA II building on Quimpo boulevard corner Tulip Street, Ecoland).

The May 6 KLT is the fifth that Korea has scheduled in the Philippines and eight other labor-exporting countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

The test covers 25 questions with 100 score for ‘listening’ for 40 minutes and another 25 questions for reading with 100 score for 50 minutes.

In order to pass, the applicant must get at least 40 points in each test domain, and an overall score of at least 120 points for the two tests.

[kiretoce]

Toiling abroad for survival
By Isabel Escoda 12 April 2007

It's no secret that for some time now Filipinos have often been looked upon as the world's servants. Known for being amiable English-speaking people from an impoverished Asian country, Filipino migrant workers have made themselves indispensable in countless households in developed countries around the globe.

It's also no secret that this fact infuriates many members of the Filipino elite who detest being lumped with the menial class.

In the early days, when the role of master and servant was clearly delineated, wealthy Westerners sometimes employed Chinese cooks as well, which gave them some cachet among the upper classes, even in the democratic United States. It was, I believe, a William Faulkner novel which featured a southern tycoon who employed a Filipino whose status was just a step above the black workers on his plantation. Lurking about in the southerners mansion, the man did his master's bidding and performed the menial tasks.

The Filipino manservant then was something of a novelty; the Filipina housemaid today is a commonplace.

Globalisation has seen huge numbers of inhabitants of the Third World, as it's often been called, heading for the First World on such a massive scale that it's become quite unacceptable to speak about servants. This would be because there are also a number of migrants in the nursing, entertainment, computer, accounting and other trades which put them in a different category from the servant class.

Similarly, the word slave has almost completely vanished from the language and only surfaces now and then when referring to sexual domination, as in "sex slave".

In the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, the ruling class referred to their servants as muchachos or criados and often treated them like chattel. There was, of course, no notion of human rights during that period of rampant feudalism, when the Spanish pejorative expression used to describe the native was tao.

In the American-sponsored Commonwealth era, politicians used that Tagalog word when they began voicing their concern for the common tao, meaning the ordinary citizen, the man in the street.

The Tagalog use of alipin (slave) which became alila (servant) and finally katulong (helper) likewise marked a historical shift toward a more democratic attitude.

In English, its generally no longer politically correct to refer to one's "maid", but to "the help", thus investing her with some respect and dignity.

During Imelda Marco's time, she gave a grandiose title to the street sweepers, labelling the women as Metro Manila aides. This was ostensibly to make them feel better despite the fact they had to wear lurid red and yellow uniforms and were paid a pittance.

Later there was Cory Aquino who, after one of her first foreign trips as the newly-installed president, returned to relate happily that the mayor of Rome had informed her about the faithful Filipina retainer his family had had for some years.

Soon after this, the phrase "the nation's heroes" began to be bandied about, growing more popular as thousands more migrant workers left the country.

Using that piece of hyperbole has highlighted the condescension displayed by Manila officials toward the millions of Filipinos who have to toil away from their country in order to survive.

The implication contained in those hollow words about heroism is that it's a noble thing to prostitute oneself on the altar of capitalism _ and prop up your government in the process.

In the US today, it's the Mexicans who have been storming the employment gates so as to do the dirty work which Americans prefer not to do. The Latino hordes chasing the American dream are the modern-day heroes who mirror the Filipino experience.

But it isn't just wealthy Westerners who take advantage of destitute migrant workers. The report last year about a Filipino family in the US who kept their maid in virtual slavery showed that Filipinos abuse their own kind, too.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dr Jefferson Calimlim and his wife Elnora were charged with trafficking and harbouring an illegal alien. Their maid, Erma Martinez, who hails from Camarines Sur province, was kept in their home in virtual slavery, hidden from the eyes of outsiders for two decades.

After US Immigration officials took the Calimlims to trial, Erma spoke of her ordeal of working nonstop for her employers who had lied to her about her visa for 20 years.

There are, of course, countless employers of all nationalities around the world who maltreat their hired help.

Cases of cruelty toward Filipino and Indonesian women in Singapore and Malaysia are commonplace, as they are in Hong Kong where the South China Morning Post featured an editorial on the topic recently.

It said that despite this being the 21st century, life for some domestic workers in the territory is akin to bonded slavery, one in which women (from around Southeast Asia) are forced to endure unreasonable hardship.

One Chinese letter writer to the newspaper responded by acknowledging that treating servants as slaves is deeply rooted in the traditional Chinese mindset.

Sadly, not just Chinese, but Filipinos at home and abroad sometimes behave just as disgracefully toward those in their employ.

The caste system is gradually being eradicated in the world's largest democracy, India, but one still finds class and racist attitudes everywhere.

Still, there's hope in the fact that a nation like Britain, during its recent Walk of Witness, has apologised publicly for its role in the slave trade of past centuries.

But present-day slavery in other countries is something that, sadly, may still be with us for some time to come.

[kiretoce]

More than 10% of Philippine population work outside of their homeland
By Cesar Torres, April 18, 2007

This is probably a first in the history of mankind. More than 10% of Philippine population of 89.5 million are in Diaspora. We are working in various capacities all over the world. We have remitted $15 billion to the homeland in 2005, according to the London-based Economist, an amount which is equivalent to 15.2% of Philippine Domestic Product for that year. Two-thirds of our people rely on us. Obviously, under normal circumstances, we should be given a little importance.

The powerful people in the Philippines cannot just consign us to a position as a lucrative and dependable source of Philippine foreign exchange to help stabilize our economy.

As a matter of fairness and in the national interest, we have to be represented in the affairs of government. When there is massive and legitimate dissatisfaction with the quality of national leadership and system of governance, our people can no longer continue to mass by the millions on a major street in Metro Manila like what happened in 1986 and 2001, in Edsa I and Edsa II, to demand that presidents depart from Malacañang. Resorting to ”direct democracy” through mass actions can no longer guarantee a peaceful change in power. The potential risks have become deadly.

Consequently, less dramatic and less potentially dangerous was the enactment of two legislations by the Philippine Congress affecting overseas Filipinos. In 2003 a law allowing “Dual Citizenship,” Republic Act 9225, was passed. It allowed natural-born Filipino citizens who may have lost their Philippine citizenship due to naturalization as citizens of a foreign country to re-acquire their Philippine citizenship. As of January 2007, the Bureau of Immigration had approved the application for dual citizenship of more than 24,000 former Filipinos.

In the same year, the Overseas Absentee Voting Law (OAVL) was also enacted. This law allows qualified Filipinos outside of the homeland to exercise their right of suffrage.

The latest figure from the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Foreign Affairs indicate that some 504,000 Filipinos have registered as Overseas Absentee Voters.

It is noteworthy that based on the available data, in North and South America as of January 19, 2007, the Consulate General in San Francisco tops the list of the number of registered absentee voters at 4,800 out of a total of 13,083. For the same period, Los Angeles recorded 154 and Honolulu 20. Needless to say, the figures in these two cities are dismal, considering the great number of Filipinos in those places.

The San Francisco Consulate General also accounts for some 6,500 dual citizens out of the 24,000 or so all over the world. This is more than 27% of the total worldwide. In fact, about 50 Filipino Americans are sworn in as Filipino citizens every week.

Participation in Philippine governance by exercising the right of suffrage is one way of being involved more closely in the affairs of the homeland. The Overseas Absentee Voters and the dual citizens who have registered to vote can help in the selection of the more qualified and competent legislators. It is unfortunate, however, that the right of suffrage is confined to voting for President, Vice President, Senators, and Party List representatives. Overseas Absentee Voters would prefer to vote for their congressmen and governors because they have a direct impact on their hometowns and communities more than senators and Party List representatives.

Aside from participating in the election of their Senators, Party List Congressmen, Presidents and Vice Presidents, there is now an intensifying clamor among the 10 million Filipinos all over the world that they should have the right to be voted on as candidates for political offices without renouncing their other citizenship. It is argued that the right to vote implies the corresponding right to be voted on. If one is a dual citizen of, say, the United States and the Philippines, and U.S. laws do not prohibit Philippine citizenship while retaining American citizenship, Global Filipino Nation advocates such as Dr. Jose V. Abueva, Victor Barrios, Lito Gutierrez, Carmen Colet, Evelio Flores, Aida Barrios, Morgan Benedicto, University of San Francisco Professor Jun Jun Villegas of the Global Filipinos Coalition, UP lawyers Johannes Ignacio and May Ann Teodoro, journalists such as Greg Makabenta and Perry Diaz in the United States, and other concerned civic Filipino leaders all over the world such as Bong Amora, Sultan Rudy Dianalan, Bong Karno, Gerry Cuares in the Middle East, and Jun Aguilar and Leo Santiago whose network extend to sailors and Filipino workers all over the world, passionately argue that dual citizens should have the right to be candidates for political office or to be appointed to public offices in the Philippines.

This advocacy is now being hotly contested in the Philippines. Theodore Makabulos Aquino or Kuya Ted, a nephew of the assassinated martyr Ninoy Aquino, who is both a Filipino and an American citizen has filed his certificate of candidacy as an independent candidate for Senator this May 14, 2007 election. A graduate of the University of the Philippines, president of the UP Alumni Association of America, a volunteer in the Transfer of Knowledge and Technology program to the Philippines of the United Nations Development Program, an engineering and environmental consultant in America, the Comelec has disqualified his candidacy because he has not renounced his American citizenship. A request for reconsideration has been submitted. As we go to press, a decision is now being awaited. If the decision is adverse, then off to the Philippine Supreme Court it will be. It is imperative that the highest court in the land should rule on this critical issue.

In these critical times when mankind is faced with the deadly challenges of terrorism, global warming, globalization, intensifying poverty, environmental degradation, revolutionary movements, and hunger in the Philippines, our leaders cannot continue to lean on traditional and hackneyed ideas of citizenship and political participation. In California, the eight largest economy in the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not only a dual citizen. He is a Triple Citizen. He is American, Austrian, and European Union Citizen. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is a dual citizen. He is American and Mexican. The Philippines needs to take this “New Reality”, in the words of Mr. Robert Ceralvo, an outstanding Filipino and IT engineer, into consideration.

In addition to the foregoing types of representation, the Philippines can learn from the system in Italy. Italians who are outside of Italy, those in what are known as “Foreign Constituencies,” are represented in the Italian legislature. Six senators and twelve deputies represent these “Foreign Constituencies” in the Italian legislature.

After the election on May 14, it is more or less certain that the issue of Charter Change will be addressed again. We are not familiar with all the details of the draft Philippine Constitution that the House of Representatives wanted to impose on the Filipino people. Whatever it is, the 10 million Filipinos can no longer be regarded as just brutalized and maligned domestic helpers and exploited Filipinos. They have every right to participate in shaping the kind of society that their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, relatives, and fellow Filipinos are hoping for – the dream of a progressive, peaceful, respectable, and just Philippine society. They are paying with their lives, with their misery, with their pain for this dream.

[kiretoce]

DEMAND AND SUPPLY

The world knows from first hand experience with our OFWs that we are good workers and top notch professionals, making them the best incentive to come here and invest. And one of these days, their talents would be used to bring to the motherland the economic gains they helped bring for the countries they worked in.

A Filipina graced the cover of the New York Times magazine last weekend. No, she isn’t a supermodel or a celebrity. She is much better than that. She is an OFW. Rosalie Comodas Villanueva, who grew up in the tough neighborhood of Leveriza, is a nurse at Al Rahba Hospital in Abu Dhabi. She makes $24,000 a year — compared to the $1,200 she made while working here at home. Her parents have been taking care of her two children for years. The lengthy feature honors OFW sagas, Rosalie’s, her family’s and many others like her.

There is no more doubt that our OFWs are now a world class phenomenon. Nearly 10% of our 89 million people live abroad. About 3.6 million are OFWs, another 3.2 million have migrated permanently, largely to the United States, and 1.3 million more are thought to be overseas illegally. There are a million OFWs in Saudi Arabia alone, followed by Japan , Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. OFWs are in at least 170 countries, and about a quarter of the world’s sailors come from the Philippines. They send home $15 billion a year, saving not just the economy but a succession of governments from a rebellion by the jobless and hungry poor.

I once made the joke that there is no need for our people to learn English because in a few more years, the world will understand Tagalog. Imagine all the Filipina nannies from Hong Kong to Rome to Toronto and London and who’s going to say they aren’t teaching more than a word of Tagalog to the young children they are taking care of. I think it was writer Jessica Zafra who once declared that we will one day conquer the world: today their bedrooms and bathrooms but tomorrow, the world!

Indeed, as Jason DeParle, the author of the lengthy NYT magazine article observed, the Philippines has exported labor for at least 100 years. The pineapple plantation workers of Hawaii, who left the Philippines in the early 1900s come to mind. Greg Macabenta traced an early colony of Filipinos in the New Orleans area, descendants of Filipinos who might have jumped ship during the Galleon trade between Acapulco and Manila.

This modern migration we are seeing today took shape 30 years ago under Ferdinand Marcos. And we were not alone. A number of Asian and Latin American countries were sending migrants abroad for the same reasons. A growing number of economists see migrants, and the money they send home, DeParle wrote, as a part of the solution to global poverty.

This view of effectively making the poor pay for development is distasteful. "It risks obscuring the personal price that migrants and their families pay. It could be used to gloss over, or even justify, the exploitation of workers. And it could offer rich countries an excuse for cutting foreign aid and other development efforts," DeParle wrote.

The worse part is how the phenomenon makes it easy for governments to develop a dependence on worker remittances. Migrants all over the world, according to DeParle, sent home some $300 billion last year. In contrast, the world spent $104 billion on foreign aid.

According to DeParle, the Philippines, which received $15 billion in formal remittances in 2006, ranked fourth among developing countries behind India ($25 billion), China ($24 billion) and Mexico ($24 billion). "Remittances make up three percent of the GDP in Mexico but 14% in the Philippines.

DeParle continues: "Despite fears that the money goes to waste, a growing literature shows positive effects. Remittances cut the poverty rate by 11% in Uganda and six percent in Bangladesh, according to studies cited by the World Bank, and raised education levels in El Salvador and the Philippines.

"Being private, the money is less susceptible to corruption than foreign aid; it is also better aimed at the needy and ‘countercyclical’ — it rises in response to slumps and natural disasters. Remittances help reduce government borrowing costs, saving the Philippines about half a billion dollars in interest each year… And consumption among the poor is hardly a bad thing."

The downside, DeParle writes, "is the risk of dependency, among individuals waiting for a check or for rulers (like Marcos) who use the money to avoid economic reforms… No country has escaped poverty with remittances alone. ‘Remittances can’t solve structural problems,’ said Kathleen Newland of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington research group. ‘Remittances can’t compensate for corrupt governments, nepotism, incompetence or communal conflict…’"

Then… there are the social costs. "Among the biggest worries, in the Philippines and beyond, are the ‘left behind’ kids, who are alternately portrayed as dangerous hoodlums and consumerist brats. Some people fear that their gadgets and clothes, sent from guilty parents abroad, corrupt village values."

Still, studies have found out that overall, "the migrants’ kids did better in school, had better physical health, experienced less anxiety and were more likely to attend church…one theory is that remittances compensate for the missing parent’s care. The study found migrants’ kids taller and heavier than their counterparts, suggesting higher caloric intake, and much more likely to attend private school… There is no doubt that migration has costs… The point is that not migrating has costs, too — the cost of wrenching poverty."

The growth in migration, DeParle admits, "has roiled the West, but demographic logic suggests it will only continue. Aging industrial economies need workers. People in poor countries need jobs. Transportation and communication have made moving easier. And the potential economic gains are at record highs… with about one Filipino worker in seven abroad at any given time, migration is to the Philippines what cars once were to Detroit: its civil religion. A million Overseas Filipino Workers left last year, enough to fill six 747s a day."

This is why for me, the OFW phenomenon is a source of hope for the future. As I told a group of foreign businessmen last week, " with all our negatives in factors of production important to investors, it seems our real plus factor lies with our human resource. I am banking my hope in that large population of OFWs who will one day come home with new ideas, new dreams and a stronger determination to make political leaders accountable."

The world knows from first hand experience with our OFWs that we are good workers and top notch professionals, making them the best incentive to come here and invest. And one of these days, their talents would be used to bring to the motherland the economic gains they helped bring for the countries they worked in.

[venntro]

S.Korea to offer foreigners residency to ease skills shortage

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea said Wednesday it will grant skilled foreign manual workers permanent residency to ease a chronic labour shortage in small- and medium-sized industries.

The justice ministry said in a statement that the move, to take effect next January, is also aimed at increasing the nation's industrial competitiveness and at boosting tax revenues.

At present, only foreign professionals are eligible for permanent residency if they have at least five years of work experience and certificates of qualification.

They should also have property, a basic understanding of the Korean language and culture and no criminal record.

Officials quoted by Yonhap news agency expect the new system to attract 2,500 to 4,000 experienced foreign manual workers to South Korea by around 2009.

There are now about 500,000 foreign workers, including illegal aliens, in the country, according to ministry statistics.

South Korea is faced with a rapidly aging population due to one of the world's lowest birthrates. In January, the labour ministry said it plans a law that will ban companies from discriminating against elderly job-seekers.