Maltreatment of our OFWs

"Where is our national pride?"

When will our government take notice of what is happening to many of our domestic overseas workers in the Middle East and start planning for the eventual stoppage of their deployment to that region?

Do we no longer have any national pride left that in spite of the maltreatment of our citizens—mostly women—in the hands of abusive employers, the government continuous to turn a blind eye to what is happening?

The latest is the repatriation of about 100 workers who have been abused by their employers. This number is just what we know because they probably could no longer endure the abusive treatment that is why they chose to come back home.

There are a lot more cases that we do not know because many workers choose to remain silent, thinking wrongly that keeping mum is the only choice they have. There have already been a number of deaths, rapes and other cases that our workers are simply too ashamed to ever talk about. Maybe the foreign exchange that these people bring home is more important to the government than our dignity as a people. Yes, there are domestic helpers who are lucky enough to be employed by kind and caring employers. But the evidence so far point to a much bigger number of domestic workers suffering from abusive employers.

There is nothing wrong with leaving home to work overseas. Any kind of labor, as long as it is honest work, is something that we can all be proud of. But we should not send our women to countries whose own women are themselves treated badly. If the women in these countries do not have any civil rights, how do we expect our women to be treated with respect and dignity?

I do not know the exact amount that domestic foreign workers bring to our country but whatever it is, it is not enough to compensate for the damage it is causing to our national pride and to families due to separation. The way some countries view us Filipinos is often correlated with the way we view ourselves as a people. Was it not about two decades ago that a dictionary equated the word Filipino to domestic workers? Recall the violent reaction this prompted from us. If we want to send our citizens to work overseas, we should send them to countries with existing labor laws that ensure the protection of all workers and not to countries who may be richer but do not have labor laws that protect the rights of employees.

It is too much to expect that countries that do not give their own women civil rights will treat our women like the way they are treated here.

The most common reason for Filipinos seeking their fortunes overseas is the lack of opportunities here or that the pay they earn here is not commensurate to the work that they do. This is true. This is perhaps the reason of some complaints that construction workers are now hard to come by because they are all working overseas. These workers like our nurses, engineers, and other professionals are better protected in their work places.

What is difficult and in many cases impossible to monitor are our domestic helpers who live in the homes of abusive employers. We only hear of the brutality after the fact because these workers often do not know where to go to complain or perhaps are just too embarrassed to admit their mistakes. In many instances, it is too late to do anything—and this is the reason they are brought home in coffins like the domestic helper who was killed by her employers and stuffed in a freezer.

There are now enough stories that have come out about domestic helpers not being fed for days or those being kept as virtual slaves. The government must start deploying fewer and fewer domestic helpers until we can finally stop it altogether in three to five years. We know of course that many of our women would still insist to go and work as domestics abroad but regardless of what they want, the government must do something to protect them from themselves.

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RA 10592 of May 29, 2013, the law that might have granted Antonio Sanchez the chance to be set free, certainly created a media tempest. The news coverage is as intense if not more as when the crime was committed in the early 1990s.

Before everyone goes bonkers, it might be well to remember that the law was not passed for the specific benefit of Antonio Sanchez. The law was passed for the purpose of giving all convicted prisoners a second chance in life. In a way, the brouhaha created by the news that a convicted felon who was sentenced to life because of rape and double murder could be blessing because there is now a chance to take a second look at the law.

The law as passed just like many other laws seems to have many infirmities. It gives prisoners who have been convicted of capital and violent crimes the same opportunity as convicts who have committed lesser crimes. Perhaps, that was not the intention of the law. A second look by Congress should therefore be able to remove objectionable provisions. Also, the operative word in the initial news report was about the possible release of Sanchez and not the outright release. And with President Duterte against the release, there is zero chance of it happening.

So relax, folks. Sanchez will not be released anytime soon.