Government too busy on migration forum to save OFWs

Brod Renz Valenzuela is a very active member I think of the International Association of Migrants. He had been sending me all the different information regarding Filipino Migrants found in different countries and the difficult situation they regularly face just to earn a little amount for their families and naturally also for the government. Apparent in the news below is the fact that the migrants are appreciated mainly for what they are sending sending home but not for their sacrifices.

Government too busy on migration forum to save OFWs


Migrante International today said the Arroyo government and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) are too busy preparing for the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) instead of saving the lives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Atty. Junaib Ali of the Office of the Undersecretary on Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) in a dialogue with the families of OFWs in death row in Pampanga last Wednesday said 40 personnel of DFA were pulled from their work to focus on the GFMD, according to Migrante spokesperson Garry Martinez,.

“It seems like the government is too pre-occupied with this forum to give attention to the plight of OFWs. Right now, another OFW was sentenced to death by firing squad in Taiwan ,” Martinez said.

Cecilia Alcaraz a.k.a. Nemencia Panaglima Armia was sentenced to death for the murder and robbery of a Taiwan national in the evening of Sept. 12, 2007.

On September 19, 2007 Taiwan Police arrested Alcaraz on suspicion of murder after a woman’s body was found in a garbage bag in front of a store in Yencheng District.

After two months of detention, Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office indicted Alacaraz and asked for the death sentence for her alleged involvement in the crime.

However, Armia never admitted the crime and pointing to two Taiwan nationals who really killed the victim. Armia said she was framed-up.

Families of Armia fear for her life after an OFW was beheaded in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia last October 14.

“Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the GFMD will focus on the 'person' itself, the migrants. But on Tuesday the country was again terrified by the execution of OFW Venancio Landion, Obviously, the government’s effort is not enough to save the lives of OFWs, said Martinez ”

Martinez said there are still 29 OFWs in death row. Under the Arroyo government, seven Filipinos have been executed abroad, he added.







“These deaths are apart from different human rights violations being experienced by OFWs all over the world,” Martinez said.

Martinez cited the thousands of stranded OFWs in the Kish Island and Oman , the hundreds of thousand undocumented migrants being deported by Malaysian government, victims of illegal recruitment, human trafficking, non-payment of wages, physical, mental and sexual abuse, and mysterious deaths among others.

Luxurious forum
“Facing with all these serious cases, the government will shamelessly spend millions of pesos for a forum which do not include the migrants”, Martinez said.

One thousand five hundred foreign delegates will come to the GFMD, “an informal multilateral and state-led multi-stakeholder process” that is open to 192 member states of the United Nations.

“With $225 lowest rate per day at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel or Php10, 575, the forum will spend 15.9 million a day for accommodation alone. This figure will be ten times over if other expenses will be considered” said Martinez .

“While the GFMD will spend about P150-M, families of OFWs on death row who no longer receive remittances, get no financial assistance from the government,” Martinez said.

Migrante challenge the Arroyo government to re-channel these funds to the assistance of distressed OFWs and their families’ welfare.

Martinez also urged all representatives of host countries to the GFMD not to go in Manila on October 28-30 and instead take concrete measures in protecting OFWs in their own countries.

He said these same countries are the ones who are conducting crackdown on undocumented Filipino migrants, inhumane deportation of refugees, torturing them to forcibly admit crimes they did not commit, and inflicting various human rights violations on OFWs.

On their part, Migrante together with the International Migrants Alliance will hold the International Assembly of Migrants & Refugees (IAMR), whereby genuine migrant groups and organizations together with migrant support organizations and institutions, are gathered to discuss their own issues, ventilate them and formulate positions and action plans while the GFMD activities are ongoing.###