Press Statement | SONA or no SONA, OFWs and our rights are not in Aquino’s agenda

Press Statement

02 August 2014

For reference: Dolores Balladares

Chairperson

Tel. No.: 97585935

Dolores Balladares. UNIFIL- HK (downloaded Photo)

For five years straight, Filipino migrants did not hear from President Aquino what we have been waiting to hear since he got elected: OFW rights, resolutions to our problems and the truth of the people’s condition.

Instead, in the latest fairytale telling of Aquino amongst mostly his cohorts and those benefiting from his continued patronage, Filipino migrants were treated to scenes right out of a bad script complete with rosy statistics, sound bytes against critics, and emotional appeal that do not answer the burning questions Filipinos inside the country and abroad are waiting to be answered.

Where’s the accountability in the Disbursement Acceleration Fund? How will the cleanup against corruption fare if the rot is right inside Malacañang? How are the basic day-to-day issues of the people going to be addressed – employment, access to services, food, shelter, land? What is there in store for the dream of millions of Filipinos overseas to go back and live decently in our own homeland?

Aquino in his speech almost broke down. But then again, whose lives are broken by his socio-economic policies that only benefit the few? Who have shed tears waiting in vain for protection and services that his government is responsible to give? 

Petitions after petitions, submissions after submissions, and still, Aquino had conveniently ignored OFWs and our concerns. We don’t need a pat on the head because of what Filipinos overseas did to help the Yolanda victims – OFWs did relief work out of compassion for our compatriots back home.

What OFWs need are actions to effectively address overcharging and illegal collection of recruitment agencies that he once promised to do; scrapping of mandatory and useless payments such as the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC); sufficient on-site services for those who are in need, and; jobs back home that will not force thousands of Filipinos everyday to leave their family behind.

While services and protection to those in need such as the OFWs in distress and victims of calamities are much delayed if not totally absent, assistance and protection are made available and delivered swiftly to foreign powers and monopolies as shown in his signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA, in his mining policies, and in giving permission - just before the SONA - for 100% foreign ownership of banks.

Who really are Aquino's bosses?

Aquino and his champions are gearing to continue the grand heist of the people’s money while millions of Filipinos in the Philippines and abroad suffer from his illusion of economic growth, his pathetic and late as usual responses to crisis situations, and his favouring of his kind over the interest of the poor like his refusal to redistribute the land of his clan in Hacienda Luisita.

With two more years in office, OFWs do not see any sign that change will come. For as long as Aquino protects the status quo, no amount of emotional appeal will move the people reeling from poverty, oppression and repression.

OFWs may not be in Aquino’s agenda. But his ouster – be it by impeachment, resignation or popular revolt – is definitely in ours.#

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The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
4 Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel. (852) 3156-2447     Fax. (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
Website: http://www.unifil.org.hk
Blog: compatriots.blogspot.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/unifilhk