Stringent rules hamper OFW repatriation efforts

Stringent and at times discriminatory regulations imposed by local government units in treating returning constituents have provided a major setback in the national government’s efforts to repatriate stranded and displaced overseas Filipino workers.

This complaint aired by officials of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration prompted the House Committee on Overseas Filipinos to call local executives to a virtual meeting that would attempt to resolve the issue.

OWWA officials disclosed that a number of LGUs have barred returning constituents despite the fact that they have tested negative for COVID-19.

National government agencies such as OWWA have claimed helplessness in reasoning out with LGU executives as the latter insist that they they have the authority to protect their localities from COVID-19 threat and are protected by the local autonomy provisions of the law.

Many LGUs are reportedly overcautious in granting clearances for the return of OFWs who are actually their constituents.

TUCP party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza, chairman of the House Committee on Overseas Filipino Welfare, advised officials to seek President Duterte’s intercession on behalf of returning OFWs.

“We have to get around that problem. If the President can just speak to the political leadership of local government units, I think this will be resolved,” said Mendoza, who presided over a virtual meeting on the repatriation operations for the thousands of displaced and stranded OFWs.

In the meantime, Mendoza said the committee will attempt to resolve the controversy by inviting LGU executives to a virtual meeting.

Invitations will be sent to the heads of Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines and the League of Provinces of the Philippines. Presidents of League of Cities of the Philippines and League of Municipalities of the Philippines may also be asked to participate in the meeting.

Both the Department of Foreign Affairs and OWWA gave positive reports about the bid to repatriate OFWs from various parts of the world, especially those from the Middle East.

DFA Underscretary Sarah Lou Arriola said the processing of the return of 50,000 OFWs is expected this month.

On the other hand, Director Alice Visperas of the International Labor Affairs Bureau revealed that the total number of displaced Filipinos abroad has reached 341,701.

At least 70,533 have been repatriated while 21,107 are ready to go home.

There are at least 169,000 OFWs who are displaced temporarily or permanently who have not yet signified any intention to go home.

Of the number of OFWs abroad, at least 5,353 have tested positive for COVID-19, said Visperas. - by Ben Rosario

TUCP slams Kuwait’s fake autopsy report on OFW’s death

File photo / Manila Bulletin

Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) strongly condemned the ‘fake’ autopsy report submitted by the Kuwaiti government after the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) autopsy report showed that slain domestic helper Jeanelyn Villavende was raped and brutally murdered.

In a statement, the TUCP said that the attempt to whitewash the brutal murder of Villavende through the autopsy report submitted to the government’s Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) became apparent after NBI found out that her death is not merely due to physical injuries as indicated in the Kuwaiti official autopsy report but due to grave injuries and brutal sexual abuse.

“We strongly condemn this so-called fake autopsy report submitted by the Kuwaiti to the Philippine government. This is completely a willful dishonest attempt of the Kuwaiti government to cover up the heinous crime committed by the Kuwaiti national principal suspects and whitewash the gruesome act of inhumanity,” TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said.

“The Filipino people and the overseas Filipino workers in particularly are demanding the Philippine government to make a strong response and condemn this unacceptable act of bad faith on the part of the Kuwaiti government,” Mendoza said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Overseas Foreign Workers Affairs wants investigate the circumstances that led to Jeanelyn’s death and how these can help improve the current policy of the government and strengthen the government processes and mechanisms in providing care and assistance to OFWs particularly who are in distressed.

Mendoza said the congressional probe will also look into the discrepancies in the alleged employment contract of Jeanelyn with her Kuwaiti employer and the memorandum of agreement on the employment of domestic workers between Kuwait and Philippine governments.

The committee will also look into the desire of OFWs in the region for redeployment or relocation rather than repatriation in case the government raises coverage of Alert level 4 to cover other countries in the Middle East. Under Alert level 4, the government is directed mandatory evacuation of Filipinos plan in the light of the rising tension in the region.

“The special meeting will seek the facts around Jeanelyn’s death, how we can improve the implementation of government to government employment agreement and a binding employment contract of OFWs particularly those of Household Service Workers who are the most vulnerable of all OFWs,” Mendoza said. - Vito Barcelo

Labor group presses for total HSW ban on Kuwait

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines president Raymond Mendoza said the Philippine government should impose a total deployment ban for the protection of Filipino HSWs.

Edd Gumban

MANILA, Philippines — As the remains of slain Filipina domestic helper Jeanelyn Villavende return home today, the country’s largest labor group has pressed the government for a total ban on the deployment of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) to Kuwait.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) president Raymond Mendoza said the Philippine government should impose a total deployment ban for the protection of Filipino HSWs.

“We should stop the deployment of the most vulnerable sector, we should just develop local jobs so our workers won’t be forced to seek employment overseas,” Mendoza stressed.

Mendoza noted that 200 Filipino workers have died in Kuwait in the last four years, including Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found stuffed inside a freezer in 2018.

“Currently, there are 280 runaway Filipina workers staying in the embassy shelter in Kuwait,” Mendoza further disclosed.

Louie Corral, TUCP president, said there are also 30 unresolved cases in Kuwait of Filipina workers who allegedly committed suicide or died of unknown causes.

Following Villavende’s death, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered a partial ban on deployment of HSWs to Kuwait.

Bello said the government would only lift the partial deployment ban if the Kuwaiti government can fully serve justice for the death of Villavende. Based on initial investigation, Villavende was maltreated by her employers and was beaten to death. Her employers are now detained.

A certificate of embalmment from Kuwait showed that she died due to heart and respiratory failure brought by multiple injuries of the vascular system, Bello bared.

Villavende’s body, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), is set to arrive from Kuwait at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at 4:30 p.m. today and would immediately be flown to her home in General Santos.

Bello said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is extending airport and other necessary assistance to Villavende’s bereaved family.

The labor chief said he asked the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an autopsy on Villavende’s remains to validate the findings from Kuwait.

The family of the Filipina worker met Bello at his office yesterday afternoon. Bello said the Philippine government is giving the Kuwaiti government time to file an appropriate case against the employers of Villavende.

Corral said the filing of charges would not bring back Villavende, but the government can still protect other HSWs by imposing a total deployment ban to Kuwait.

For its part, the Blas Ople Policy Center said the government should look into the failure of some recruitment agencies to monitor the workers they have deployed abroad.

It noted that there are numerous welfare cases involving Filipino HSWs in Kuwait. There are 257,000 Filipinos employed in Kuwait. Of the number, more than half or 59 percent are HSWs. - Robertzon Ramirez, Rudy Santos, Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)

PH eyes forced repatriation

Duterte wants military on stand-by amid ‘evolving crisis’ in Middle East

AFP file photo

The government would consider forced repatriation of some 7,600 Filipinos in Iran and Iraq should condition there endanger their lives, the Palace said Monday as the President urged Congress to allocate funds for a massive Middle East evacuation.

“If the conflict poses a risk to their safety, then the government will do it,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

President Rodrigo Duterte this week ordered the military to prepare to evacuate some 7,600 Filipinos in Iran and Iraq amid increasing tensions in the Middle East after a US airstrike killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, last week.

The military was put on standby in case the repatriation of Filipinos from Iran using Philippine air and naval assets becomes necessary.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said the military is prepared to execute the President’s directives, calling it an “important and crucial task.”

“It is more than a transport sortie. It is a humanitarian mission dedicated to take from harms way our fellow Filipinos and bring them to safety,” AFP spokesman Edgard Arevalo said in a statement.

The tension between the United States and Iran is expected to drive oil prices up, and the country’s economic managers are preparing measures to cushion the impact, Panelo said.

In a speech Monday, Duterte said he is expecting Iran to “retaliate soon” and act aggressively against the US after an American airstrike killed their top general.

“If that happens, then we have a trouble because most of our OFWs are stationed, majority of them are in Saudi Arabia. I am not as bright as the others, those with strategic minds might want to do it for us. Let’s start with a standby fund,” Duterte said following the signing of the 2020 budget.

Duterte, who previously ordered the military to prepare its resources for the evacuation of Filipinos, said the task would be “a gargantuan effort.”

He also appealed to Congress to set aside a day or two to discuss the effects of the US-Iran conflict, which he called an “evolving crisis.”

The President also raised the possibility of creating an oversight committee to ensure the funds on standby will not be used for corruption.

“I’m really nervous. Iran seems to be hell-bent on a retaliation, which I think will come. It’s a matter of time,” he said.

“We do not know what could be the end result of this crisis. It could lead to a protracted war. It could be a wide-scale strike. Whatever it is, we Filipinos are really in peril,” Duterte added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority says there are about 1.26 million Filipino workers in the Middle East, which includes Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Defense Department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said the President has tasked the AFP to prepare its air and naval assets to evacuate Filipinos if war erupts in the Middle East.

He said this order came after the Chief Executive called for an emergency meeting with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, newly-appointed AFP chief-of-staff, Lt. Gen. Felimon T. Santos, Jr., commanders of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, Philippine National Police chief, and their principal staff on Sunday afternoon.

The meeting, he said, was conducted to ensure the safety of Filipinos working in the Middle East especially those deployed in Iran and Iraq, whose well-being could be endangered in the event of open hostilities.

“The sole agenda was how to ensure the safety of our countrymen in the Middle East especially those in Iraq and Iran as the tension between the US and Iran rises. There are 1,600 and 6,000 Filipinos in Iran and Iraq, respectively,” Andolong said.

Santos said the AFP is ready with a plan to evacuate Filipinos if the need arises.

“Right now, we are ready to deploy anytime,,” Santos said at a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Filipinos in Israel to refrain from going to the Golan Heights and areas near the borders of Gaza and Lebanon due to the heightening tension between the US and Iran.

In an advisory, the DFA through the Philippine Embassy in Israel declared in particular the snow resort in Mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights, which borders Syria, as a no-go zone for Filipinos there.

Mt. Hermon was the target of a rocket attack fired from Syria in January last year.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, meanwhile, said the government should look at relocating instead of repatriating thousands of Filipino workers in the Middle East.

In a statement, the TUCP said the “scarce job opportunities, domestic jobs-skills mismatch, and the labor market’s inadequate compensation and unattractive work benefits are the main reasons why most OFWs in the Middle East prefer to relocate than be repatriated back to the country in case of evacuation due to rising armed conflict in the region.

“Most of the OFWs groups stationed in Jordan and Qatar prefer to relocate to another country in the region than be repatriated back to home country in case there is a need for them to be evacuated,” TUCP Spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said. by MJ Blancaflor and Rey E. Requejo With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Vito Barcelo and PNA

Labor group blames high power rate

THE Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) yesterday said the purchasing power of workers in Cebu and other parts of the country are greatly affected by the high cost of electricity.

ALU-TUCP education director Art Barrit said that business operations are no longer competitive due to high power rates in the country. As a result, most employers can hardly comply with the minimum wage order set by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (NWPC).

“Our economy is fueled by the remittances of OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers), not by FDI (foreign direct investment) which posted only $4 billion last year, whose total FDI in the Asean region registered at $120 billion,” Barrit said.

Based on their study, Barrit said the biggest budget outlay and the business operation is not the salaries in wages of the ordinary workers but on power and electricity.

“This is the reason why workers are asking Malacañang to review and revisit the Epira (Energy Power Industry Reform Act) and to have a cap on power rates,” Barrit said.

A letter dated June 17, 2014 was sent to President Benigno Aquino III through Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) Sec. Linda Dimapilis-Baldoz and Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras by the Nagkaisa Labor Convenors.

“It has been 59 days today since you said you will meet us again to give your response to important various issues we raised with you and your cabinet during the nationally shown pre-labor day breakfast dialogue on April 29, 2014,” read the letter.

“With our local unions and members nationwide egging us for your feedback we would highly appreciate if you let us know if you are still inclined to meet with Nagkaisa to give your response to the issues on the table,” the letter further read.

Barrit said the labor sector has been asking Malacañang for a meeting on the power issue. Relatively, the Aquino administration is amenable to their proposals. - By Elias O. Baquero / SunStar