Massive displacement of local, foreign workers seen next year

MANILA, Philippines - Many workers here and abroad are expected to be displaced next year, labor groups and recruitment industry officials warned the national government yesterday.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said about 24,000 local government employees are expected to lose their jobs with the setting up of Bangsamoro Transition Council next year.

“Workers employed in municipalities, cities, provincial and regional offices will be displaced once the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is dissolved and taken over by the Bangsamoro Transition Council,” said TUCP executive director Louie Corral.

He said the 24,000 workers are the largest number of employees to be affected as the new Bangsamoro government becomes operational.

The government, Corral said, has the primary responsibility to provide safety nets for these workers who had been serving the bureaucracy quietly.

Corral said the Aquino government apparently has no preparation in place for the impending displacement of government employees.

He called on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to step in and take the necessary course of action.

“We are wondering why the commission has no preparations towards one of very important elements of the transition issue,” TUCP official Gerard Seno said.

Seno said the CSC should ensure that the affected workers would be integrated into the new Bangsamoro government using lateral transfer and merit-based integration rather than leaving their fate to circumstance.

Also yesterday, officials of the job placement industry reported that close to 4,000 Filipino workers employed in US bases in Afghanistan are also expected to be displaced.

Recruitment officials said thousands of overseas Filipino workers are likely to be affected by the impending pullout of US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

They said about 4,000 Filipinos are still working in Bagram Air Base and Kandahar Airfield and only around a thousand will be retained for maintenance of the military facilities.

Some of the workers are expected to return home starting November as their companies closed down after losing bids to supply logistics to the US forces.

But the workers are hoping that they will still be needed by international contractors hired by the US government, the recruitment officials said. - By Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)

Solon wants OFW recruitment, deployment rules revisited

The brutal death of his family's former nanny in Saudi Arabia in September has prompted a party-list lawmaker to call on Congress to review the rules and regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration governing the recruitment and deployment of Filipino workers abroad.

In a privilege speech, Trade Union Congress Party Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza also urged the House of Representatives to investigate the death of Romelyn Eroy Ibañez, 22, who was found almost lifeless in her employer's kitchen last September 10 by the Saudi police.

Ibañez, who was hired as a nursing aide for a medical polyclinic but ended up as a household worker in Saudi Arabia, later died after she was allegedly forced to drink sulfuric acid. She also bore knife wounds in her neck, abdomen and wrists.

Mendoza asked why Ibañez was deployed although she was only 22 when Philippine laws require a minimum age of 23 for overseas domestic work.

Mendoza called for the creation of a team composed of the DOLE Undersecretary and trade union and civil society representatives to look into the POEA's rules and regulations.

Mendoza likewise stressed the need to bolster the legalization of undocumented Filipino workers and for a more intensive crackdown on illegal recruitment and human trafficking.

"There is a darker side to overseas employment, where job applicants are recruited with false promises, made to sign contracts and become the subjects of abuse, exploitation and even cold-blood killings," Mendoza said.

Meanwhile, Mendoza said he will oppose any move to slash the budget of Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), branding the cost-cutting at the expense of OFWs as "bad policy... inhumane, unjust, untimely and even anti-Filipino."

The DFA had P12.69 billion budget in 2010 but the budget was reduced to P10.98 billion for 2011. The legal assistance fund used to hire lawyers has gone down from the legally-mandated P100 million to P27.3 million.

"There are about 10 million OFWs worldwide, who remitted more than $17 billion in 2009, which is expected to hit $18 billion this year. Is this how we treat our OFWs, the saviors of our economy?" Mendoza asked.

Citing the DFA Semi-Annual Report from July to December 2009, Mendoza said there are about 6,956 Filipinos detained, under house arrest or with pending cases in court, with more than 200 Filipinos on death row worldwide.

He called on the DOLE and POEA to review their decisions on their budget and said the government should be more aggressive in forging bilateral agreements based on international labor standards.

Mendoza said it is high time that the government create more decent opportunities at home, especially for the poor and underprivileged.

He urged his fellow House Members to look deeper into the real problems of unemployment and underemployment and spearhead a no-holds barred forum with labor and trade experts to identify, once and for all, the reasons for joblessness in the country. - Melissa M. Reyes, MRS-PRIB