MALABON CITY, June 20, 2009—Migrante Middle East (Migrante-ME) chapter assails the Macapagal-Arroyo government for the alleged continuous neglect of low and semi-skilled Filipino migrant workers despite the fact that they are the top dollar earners of the country.

This reaction came after the Institute for Migration and Development Issues issued a report on their analysis of the National Statistics Office (NSO) data on remittances that shows that the low and semi-skilled, not the professionals, are the ones sending more dollars to the country and making the national economy afloat.

In a statement sent to CBCPNews, John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator and formerly a professor of political science and history in a university in Malabon City said household workers and manual laborers that constitute the large percentage of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are more prone to abuse and unsafe working environments.

Monterona said, Migrante chapters in the Mid-East are receiving an average of five cases of abuse daily; 80 percent or four out of five cases involving household service workers or domestic helpers and construction workers such as plant and machine operators and assemblers, and laborers and unskilled workers.

“Based on our records, our Saudi Arabia chapter has received 1,793 cases of OFWs requesting repatriation as of 31 December 2008; 566 of which are runaways (the ones who escaped from their abusive employers) and 1,019 were in various distress situations,” he explained.

Most of the runaways, the former political science professor added, have suffered from different kinds of abuse such as underpayment or non-payment of salaries, unsafe living and working conditions, and longer working hours without additional pay.

Monterona has elaborated, statistically, the cases of OFWs that they have received and processed during that period: out of the 1,793 cases, 26.69% of the runaways and distressed low and semi-skilled OFWs are victims of contract substitution or salary downgrading; 4.45% receives no salary; 2.62% with delayed salary; no food, 1.35%; low salaried, 32.33%; physical abuse, 1.59%; verbal abuse, 0.71%; sexual abuse, 0.08%; abandoned by employers, 0.16%; no Iqama or work permit,0.32%; illegal salary deductions, 0.16%; and victims of discrimination at the workplace, 0.32%.

“They have sought refuge in friends and some at the Philippine Embassy-run Bahay Kalinga and welfare centers,” he said.

He also disclosed that the low and semi-skilled OFWs and household service workers, whenever they are sent or go home, are not given top priority by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to access on its reintegration and livelihood programs.

“Notwithstanding the fact that these workers constitute the largest percentage of OFWs who pay the State’s mandated fees such as US$25 membership to OWWA (Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration) and documentary stamp fees, whenever they are applying for abroad. The fund entrusted to OWWA now amounts to Php.11.7 billion and we believe, that these poor workers deserve genuine assistance, in forms of welfare and social services, as recognition for their huge contribution to the struggling Philippine economy,” stressed Monterona.

Meanwhile, he said, they rarely receive complaints from OFWs, who are working in technical and professional categories, for they are enjoying better working and living conditions and could negotiate what is in their employment contract and has adequate knowledge about their rights as workers. (Noel Sales Barcelona)