12 September 2008
Reference: Ramon Bultron Managing Director Asia Pacific Mission for Migrant(APMM) Tel. (852) 94773141

Once cornered and exposed, there is nothing to expect from a government that is negligent to the plight of its own nationals overseas but cover ups, deceptions, mud-slinging, and sly maneuverings.

In this aspect, Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait, Ricardo Endaya, is his boss personified. Glora Macapagal-Arroyo's track record of being the consummate denial queen is well-known.

Instead of answering concrete questions of how he serves and protects migrant workers, Endaya resorts to rumor-mongering and baseless accusations against critics of his negligence and inefficiency when it comes to problems of Filipino migrants in Kuwait. It is of no surprise that Endaya is relieved of Lebria's termination from his job for a thorn to his side has been too conveniently removed.

Endaya's "spite" of Migrante International and its coordinator in Kuwait, Gil Lebria, is patent in his attempts to discredit the group's and Lebria's reports of lack of protection by the Philippine government to Filipino workers who are experiencing problems in Kuwait. Worse, there have been cases wherein embassy officials such as Labour Attaché Leopoldo de Jesus have been the ones to even discourage complainants from pursuing their grievances.

Such was the case, for example, of the three complaining workers of Al Essa Medicare Co. who have been "persuaded" by the Labor Attaché to just sign a compromise agreement lest they would stay longer in Kuwait. By that time the three had already been terminated and had to buy their own food and other necessities with no assistance from the Embassy.

Endaya needs to be reminded as well of the case of seven Al Jassim truck drivers who were arrested and subsequently deported on May 17 for allegedly instigating a strike, all that the Embassy could say was that they should abide by the law of Kuwait and respect the decision of the Kuwaiti authorities. But upon returning home, the workers stated that they were allegedly told by an Immigration officer that there were no valid grounds for their deportation.

Also, the Ambassador has yet to explain why three cleaners namely Noel Lacbayan, Julius Balron and an unidentified third were sacked and deported by National Cleaning Company.

These are just some of the cases of ineptitude and total disregard of worker's right to service and protection that Migrante International and Lebria exposed and made known in the Philippines and in Kuwait.

But instead of acting on these, Endaya has tried to circumvent these issues by maligning Migrante International and Lebria. His media antics are but desperate attempts to deflect the public's attention to the grave plight of Filipino workers under his responsibility.

These are actions that have GMA's trademark.

Corruption cases against GMA have been endless – the ZTE scandal, the fertilizer fund scam, the existence of the "Jose Pidal" account and the secret transfer of the OWWA fund to PhilHealth, to name a few. In all these issues, GMA has used deception, media maneuvers and dirty tricks to shift the people's focus in the hope that her crimes will be eventually forgotten.

But they won't be. Ambassador Endaya is deluding himself if he thinks that his neglect of Filipino migrants shall just go away. Much the same way that GMA shall never go scot-free of her offenses against the Filipino people.

The concrete issues of services and protection to Filipino migrants remain. When it comes to these matters, Endaya's claims and pronouncements hold no sway