Taipei, Taiwan—There are some 123,000 documented Filipinos who work in Taiwan, which is about the size of Luzon from Batanes to the tip of Laguna. A smaller number, some 2,000, are estimated to be unregistered.
The majority work in the factories and assembly-line operations are clustered around and north of Taipei, the capital, and major manufacturing hubs south in Taichung and Kaoshiung. There are also those who work in agricultural and fishing communities in Hsinchu, Tainan, Yilan County and Pingtung, the southernmost county from whose Orchid Island (Lanyu), you could already view the Philippines. And there are some Filipinos married to Taiwanese, and have raised their children here.
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office, along with labor attachés and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s representatives in the major cities of Taiwan, constitute the face of our government to our OFWs in this island republic. Likewise, we have trade and tourism attachés whose job it is to promote foreign direct investments and trade, as well as an increasing flow of Taiwanese visitors to the Philippines.
Over the past five days, we touched base with our government’s representatives here as well as business associations in Taipei and Taichung. But more significantly, we were able to meet hundreds from among our OFW community in these capitals.
Perhaps the most poignant part of our visit was a conference with 17 disadvantaged and distressed OFWs at the Ugnayan center in Taichung. Five of them were female caretakers who left their employers because of violations of the work contracts they had entered to. Mercifully, no one complained of physical abuse. Their complaints centered on long work hours without adequate compensation as well as no days off. Fleeing these work conditions, they sought shelter in the Ugnayan center run by Fr. Joyalito Tajonera, a Maryknoll missionary who has made it his special crusade to help distressed OFWs in Taiwan.
There were five male fishing vessel workers who disembarked from a Taiwanese port because of unbearable working conditions and harassment from their ship captain. They came from Occidental Mindoro. They filed a case against their former employer and while waiting for the adjudication of their complaint, they are given free board and lodging by the Ugnayan center.
A Filipino was stabbed by another co-worker 12 times in different parts of his body, and miraculously survived. He too waits at the Ugnayan center as he seeks justice in court.
But more than just giving food and shelter to our distressed kababayans, Ugnayan, with the help of MECO, OWWA and the labor attaches, give training in alternative livelihood, such as baking, computer lessons, industrial sewing, even language lessons to those who want alternative sources of livelihood.
It is a testament to the perseverance of our OFWs that they suffer the loneliness of separation from kith and kin, just to be able to provide for their families back home. Fortunately for them, the work conditions in Taiwan are somewhat better than in other places. There certainly are problems, and we have sat with both their leaders in the Filipino community as well as our labor and welfare officials here to listen and learn about their plight.
At Sunday mass in Taichung, on the 33rd anniversary of Ninoy Aquino’s death at the tarmac, we were asked by Fr. Joy Tajonera to say a few words before some 500 kababayans. The celebration of holy mass was preceded by a very appropriate song, “Hawak Kamay,” the lyrics of which summed up the spirit of “ugnayan.” We spoke how our OFWs are bound as a community by three F’s: Family, Faith and Flag. The families back home for which they toil in foreign lands amid a different, sometimes harsh culture. How they seek comfort in their faith, and use it as a means to bond as brothers and sisters in religious gatherings as well as through community efforts such as those spearheaded by Ugnayan. And the flag, which is the symbol of their nation as well as the government the economy of which depends in large part to the earnings brought home by the Filipino diaspora.
We told them that MECO, which is the government’s representative mission in Taiwan, is always ready to assist them not only with their documentary requirements, but beyond, such as through “hawak-kamay” with Fr. Joy’s Ugnayan mission, along with the DoLE and OWWA representatives.
And we explained President Duterte’s marching order to us: “Always look after the welfare of our OFWs in Taiwan.”