Take care of OFWs, Aquino urges host countries

June 23, 2006
Updated 09:16am (Mla time)
Juliet Javellana
Inquirer

FORMER President Corazon Aquino yesterday called on countries that were destinations of millions of overseas Filipino workers to protect them from abuse and exploitation.

In her keynote speech at the opening session of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and Liberal International held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Aquino said labor migration could be a force for convergence and stability.

“As countries seek closer economic integration, and as bilateral and regional agreements are being forged, migration barriers are also falling down fast. It is in the economic interest of destination countries if they open their doors to migrant labor and accord fair and good treatment to migrant workers,” Aquino said.

She said it was likewise the duty of countries sending overseas workers to ensure that they did not end up in the hands of crime syndicates and cruel employers.

Labor migration was one of the issues on the agenda of the CALD-ALDE-LI attended by some 100 parliamentarians and officials from 30 countries in Asia, Europe and North America and hosted by Liberal Party and Senate President Franklin Drilon.

The phenomenon has two faces that both countries of origin and destination must grapple with, Aquino said.

“One side shows economic opportunity and a brighter future for their families,” Aquino said. “The other side tells the sad and gripping stories of harassment, racial discrimination, xenophobia, cruelty and even death in the hands of foreign employers.”

While overseas workers are deemed modern-day heroes for their dollar remittances that keep their countries’ economies afloat, Aquino said countries of origin like the Philippines have to bear the “grim economic and social consequences” of labor migration.

She noted a United Nations report that said that of the $240 billion migrant workers sent home to their families in 2005, $167 billion went to developing countries. The amount, she said, was bigger than all combined international aid that could be given to these countries.

She said countries of origin also suffer a brain drain, apart from the social cost of broken families, due to long years of separation of workers from their families.

“For instance, in the Philippines, we pride ourselves in being a world supplier of medical and health care professionals. However, years down the road, this will pose a big problem in our health sector,” she said.

The LP hosted the three-day meeting, without its former chair Mayor Lito Atienza of Manila. Atienza and his supporters broke off from the LP to protest the party’s withdrawal of support from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in July last year, and set up his own wing.

“This is the true LP,” Drilon said when asked about Atienza’s absence.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said Atienza and his supporters were deemed resigned from LP.

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