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

Quezon City to open night markets for displaced vendors

Two night markets will open in Quezon City this month to provide livelihood to street vendors displaced by road clearing operations earlier this year.

The night markets, called Sari-Sari Kyusi 2019, will open on Nov. 24 at the Ayala Vertis North grounds and at the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) compound near the city hall.

It will be open from 3 p.m. to midnight at the TUCP compound, and from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. at Vertis North. The night markets will be in operation until Jan. 19.

“The Quezon City government wanted to establish and develop a space for street vendors who had lost their livelihood because of the clearing operations,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said during the formalization of the city government’s partnership with Ayala and TUCP on Thursday.

The night markets will be able to cater to some 800 vendors displaced by road clearing operations conducted in line with an earlier directive of President Duterte to Metro Manila mayors. - Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star)

Labor group hits government bid to tax salty food

ILL-ADVISED? Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin calls the proposal to tax salty food ill-advised, considering the vital role played by “tuyo,” (dried salted sardine) “daing” (dried fish) and “bagoong” (shrimp paste) in Filipino diet. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE , Inquirer.net

The labor group Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Monday slammed the government-proposed measure to impose tax on salty food and food ingredients, and instead recommend that government develop healthier, affordable and accessible alternatives than levying tax on salty food.

“With this measure to tax salty food, the government is pushing the poor informal sector workers and their families to fall into deep poverty rather than building ladder to help and empower them,” Gerard Seno, ALU-TUCP national executive vice president, said.

“There is no need to tax salty food and ingredients at this time. We rather strongly recommend government to develop research-and-development-based healthier, cheaper alternatives and options and make these accessible in the market,” he said in a statement.

“But if we raise their income, have developed and made these cheap, healthy food and ingredients alternatives very accessible to the market, then that’s may be the time that we talk about imposing tax on salty food,” Seno said.

Seno said poorly-waged working people and their families are aware that most of their daily meals that they can afford to buy with their meager daily budget are those foods with salty ingredients are mal-nutritious, unhealthy and brings ill-health to their family such as instant noodles, food flavoring, snacks, and dried fish.

However, because of their meager salary, short term, temporary jobs, inadequate social protection safety nets, poor workers have no choice but to purchase these because they are cheaper and more available in the market.

“Workers and the poor informal workers and their families affinity to salty food is bound by their inadequate income and lack of alternatives in the market. They cannot afford to buy healthier food choices and food ingredients with their measly income level,” Seno said.

The country’s minimum wage ranges from the highest at P537 a day and the lowest at P280 a day.

“With these paltry current minimum wage rates amid the rising cost of living, the working poor have no other choice but to buy food with what affords their small income even if it is high with sodium content,” Seno said.

Aside from developing alternatives and raising wages, government must regulate private manufacturing firms to reformulate the standard sodium contents of food, food ingredients and snacks.

Government should also pick up the slack in its responsibility to conduct massive education and information dissemination informing its citizens about other better alternatives and healthier food and ingredients options. - Vito Barcelo