Press Statement
02 August 2014
For reference: Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
Tel. No.: 97585935
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| 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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