US diplomat: Growth of Philippines economy will help curb human trafficking

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on April 27th, 2013

 

An executive of the United States Embassy in Manila said the growth of the Philippine economy will help reduce the country’s problems with human trafficking or the illegal trade in humans for forced labor or sexual slavery.

During a visa workshop entitled “Temporary Employment Visas and Worker Rights in the US” on Friday, Consul General Michael Schimmel said the Philippines’ rising economy will produce more good jobs, preventing people from falling victim to human traffickers.

“As the economy improves, the potential victims of human trafficking will have more opportunities to find jobs. Job opportunities should be given so that there will be lesser people who will fall prey to human trafficking syndicates,” Schimmel said.

The US embassy aims to combat rampant human trafficking by making registered recruiters aware of visa rules through the Temporary Non Immigrant Worker Visas workshop.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 20.9 million people are affected by human trafficking globally with 11.7 million coming from the Asia Pacific region where the Philippines is located.

The ILO added that 14.2 million are from forced labor epxloitation victims, 4.5 million are sexual exploitation victims and 2.2 million are state-imposed forced labor.
The Philippines currently holds a Tier 2 category in the US Trafficking in Persons Report for 2012 which means that it does not meet minimum standards but is making significant efforts to comply.

Growth drivers
Schimmel mentioned that the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology (IT) industries in particular have been drivers in the growth factor of the economy.
According to a post on the official Facebook page of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, the country is one of the top outsourcing destinations with 490,000 and 270,000 employees respectively in the voice and non-voice categories.

The embassy cited data from the 2012 Business English Index ranking the Philippines on top, ahead of the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.
It added that healthcare and information management are the fasting growing BPO sectors earning $430 million in 2012 alone.

22% rise in tourist visa applications
Meanwhile, a rise in business visa applications was attributed by Schimmel to the unprecedented PHL economy boost.
He said that average visa applicants in Manila, mostly under business and tourism categories have now increased by 22 percent to 1,400 per day since 2011.
Schimmel said the economy boost contributed to a rise of business visa applications in recent years due to Filipinos visiting the US for business trainings.
“Most of the (business) visa applications that we are getting are from those seeking trainings in the US by Filipinos who work in the BPO, IT and customer service industry,” Schimmel explained.

Travel and tourism
He also said there is also a rising trend for Filipinos who are securing visas to travel with their families in the US.
This is attributed to the estimated four million Filipinos in the US along with stable and affordable prices of airfare.
“Most of the Filipino tourists go to America to visit their relatives and loved ones, and we welcome that,” said Schimmel.
Applications for studies, culture and transit visas are some of the most number of visa applications aside from business and tourism.

Andrei Medina, VVP, GMA News

Domestic workers use arts to voice rights in Europe

BY PATRICK CAMARA ROPETA, ABS-CBN EUROPE NEWS BUREAU, ON APRIL 26TH, 2013

LONDON – Over years of campaigning for rights and recognition, domestic workers are finding a stronger voice through visual arts by using every medium and platform they can access as tools for their campaigns.

Vulnerable domestic workers in Europe have been fighting for their rights for many years, often battling against abuse from employers, as well as ongoing changes on immigration policies that seem to ebb and flow depending on the day’s politics, crises and public opinion.

In London, a collective known as Justice 4 Domestic Workers (J4DW) is at the forefront of this struggle, consisted of UK-based domestic workers from different countries including Indonesia, Nigeria, Morocco and the Philippines, where most of them originate.

With the support of UK labor group Unite the Union, alongside a host of philanthropic organizations, the group and their causes are becoming increasingly visible in British society through various art projects since its launch in 2009.

Most recently, in April, the group participated in a public discussion and art workshop hosted by Tate Modern, a museum for contemporary art, together with The Showroom, a gallery supporting artistic community projects.

Dubbed as “Work Like This”, the event featured artists and activists working on projects about domestic work, highlighting a mutual struggle for recognition and visibility in wider society.

“It was interesting to look at how different artists take up this idea of invisibility and visibility, and work in a way that is parallel to the work that Justice 4 Domestic Workers is doing,” explained Nora Razian, curator of adult program at Tate Modern.

Speaking to ABS-CBN Europe, she continued: “It’s very interesting the way they think about making domestic work visible in society. And there’s lots of artists who have constantly brought the subject of domestic work up in their artwork, and art is engaged with making issues visible to a wider public.”

Razian, who has been working with J4DW for a year, also noted a long tradition in art to study domestic work in relation to universal themes of gender equality, labor rights and migration.

“From the 60s and 70s, there’s a long history of artists who have taken up this issue of domestic work, feminism, visibility, and fighting for rights. Of course, now, the idea of domestic work is also tied up with the ideas of gendered migration, women in the home, but also migrant domestic workers, so it’s a broader issue because of the after-effects of globalization,” she said.

Andrea Francke, a UK-based Peruvian artist, was among the speakers at the event. She is currently working on a project that explores what she refers to as “invisible spaces” in domestic work, with particular focus on parenthood and child care.

“I think work can be really useful to raise questions and visibility, and I’m really interested in artwork that propose solutions for it,” she said.

“I didn’t think of domestic work before I had a child. It was a big change, and the realization that domestic work was invisible, and now as a parent I was part of domestic work so I was invisible as well.”

Fighting with paint, brushes

For domestic workers, art projects like this have become a fundamental part of their ongoing campaign for rights and recognition.

“The arts help us to discuss domestic work in society as we work towards the visibility in British society,” said Marissa Begonia, a Filipina domestic worker, human rights activist, and coordinator for J4DW.

“We’ve been working with [arts organizations] to bring out more of what is inside the household. We wanted to connect that to the professional workers who are our employers – the way that we allow them to do their respective jobs, that they have domestic workers doing another set of jobs they’re supposed to do but they are unable to do because they have their own work, so connecting all that through the work of the artist.”

Among their previous foray into the arts was a graffiti project with ASK! and The Showroom, where they spray painted images of domestic workers and slogans on designated public areas.

They have also been involved in various video projects, including a short film for ILO TV, the YouTube channel of United Nation’s International Labour Organization, which has created the ILO Convention 189 to enforce an international standard of decent working conditions for domestic workers, set to take effect on September 2013.

In April, some of the J4DW members were also featured on Hidden Agenda at the House of Commons, an exhibition on modern day slavery organized by the Human Trafficking Foundation, and was opened by UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

“It helps us to rebuild our confidence so that we are able to speak out in public, and to do more campaigning and lobbying,” revealed Begonia.

“Arts has been very useful in terms of our campaign, like when we need to do our slogans. The work that we do is out there, and we use that as visual aids in all the public meetings, rallies, and some exhibitions. We also have loads of artwork that have come out in the media that we now use as a tool for campaigning.”

J4DW is fighting for protection, support, and decent working conditions on behalf of its members, many of whom have experienced abuse from their employers.

The group is also campaigning for better legal rights in the UK, particularly towards the government’simmigration policies in relation to the recent changes on domestic worker visas, which now restricts the ability of migrant workers to stay in the UK.

Becoming visible

Domestic workers across Europe are also getting involved in the arts to raise awareness of their causes, allowing insight into their lives as they navigate issues in employment and immigration.

In Denmark, documentary film “Au Pair” by Nicole N. Horanyi and Heidi Kim Andersen featured Filipinos working in private houses, giving a rare glimpse into their precarious living and working arrangements.

In the Netherlands, a group known as Domestic Workers Netherlands also participated in a shadow play video to encourage the Dutch government to ratify the ILO Convention 189, creatively expressing their thoughts and experiences.

An art project known as Werker Magazine, based in Amsterdam, is also exploring contemporary representations of domestic work through photography and design, which was also presented at Work Like This in Tate Modern.

Led by visual artist Marc Roig Blesa and graphic designer Rogier Delfos, the project collects pictorial records and textual anecdotes from workers around the world, as well hosting live art workshops to collectively discuss and form the project with the help of various groups and communities.

“This project is an attempt to generate from amateur photography practice, a representation of labour, of domestic work, that is horizontal. So we’re asking people from very different backgrounds to contribute, and to translate their experience of domestic work into images,” said Blesa, who has worked with J4DW as part of the project.

The materials are then curated and reworked to create a variety of published artwork, from postcards and calendars to books and web pages, providing a creative public platform for the often private world of domestic work.

Blesa explained: “I am very interested in a practice that empowers people. Because [domestic workers] are often working in very bad conditions, where they are isolated and treated as people who can do nothing good, I think these kinds of projects where we valorize their skills and their knowledge through photography, in this case, is I think very important.”

The artist also reveled their affinity to the plight of domestic workers, drawing a similarity between some of the struggles faced by young artists and other vulnerable labor groups.

“We think it’s very interesting to create bridges, and to approach and create links with other collectives that for other reason are also invisible, they are also in precarious living conditions. It’s not that we think that we are all the same, but we think that there are some aspects of their work that link with our practice as young artists. We are facing a lot of difficulty to be able to continue our practice, since it’s not making money in the beginning, only well-known artists who become really famous can live from that,” he said.

“But I don’t really see it as this kind of a charity. I really like to see my collaboration with domestic workers as people from different fields sharing knowledge and building. We learnt a lot from them also: how to self-organize, how to discuss things, how to fight for better working conditions, so it’s mutual.”

Patrick Camara Ropeta, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Lisa Kristine: Photos that bear witness to modern slavery

Slavery exist everywhere in the World....

 

159 Pinay household workers to be repatriated from Kuwait

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on April 26th, 2013

At least 159 Filipina household service workers will be repatriated in the next few weeks when authorities there allow them to leave.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the OFWs are undergoing the last processing stages and will be repatriated in batches of 50 in the next few weeks.
“Recruitment agencies agreed to pay for their airfare after strong representations had been made by (the Philippine Overseas Labor Office),” the DFA said in a news release.
The DFA said Gen. Abdullak Al-Ali, Kuwait Chief of the Office of Domestic Workers Affairs (ODWA), eased a ban on the 159 OFWs, allowing them to return to the Philippines, “in line with ongoing mutual cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait and the Kuwait government on human rights.”
According to the DFA, the OFWs were subjected to a bureaucratic ban on fingerprinting as part of the repatriation process.

Kuwaitis call for reform
An report of the Reuters news agency said hundreds of Kuwaitis held an opposition rally outside the country’s main court complex earlier this month, calling for the release of activists charged with insulting the Gulf Arab state’s ruler and for steps towards political reform.
Major oil producer Kuwait has avoided the kind of severe unrest that has rocked the Arab region over the past two years but demonstrations about local issues are common and generally tolerated.
People sat on chairs set out in front of a stage in a park and listened to speeches from activists. Police gathered outside the entrance to the court complex but kept their distance from the rally, which was peaceful.

Several people wore orange items of clothing, a mark of a protest movement that peaked towards the end of last year with a march of tens of thousands on the eve of a parliamentary election. Protests have dwindled significantly since then.

“We are looking for our rights, for our right to freedom of speech, the freedom to express your opinion,” participant Ghalia al-Ajmi said. She said the rally was part of a series of gatherings aimed at educating people on such topics.
Rights groups say at least 25 people have been charged with offending Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, mainly on social media websites such as Twitter.
Several have already been sentenced to jail terms of up to five years and some of those under arrest have been housed in the court complex, known as the Justice Palace.
Reuters/VVP, GMA News

Bangladesh building collapse death toll climbs 275

   

• 

  Bangladeshi woman survivor

                                                    

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — "Save us, brother. I beg you, brother," Mohammad Altab moaned to the rescuers who could not help him. He was pinned between slabs of concrete in the ruins of the garment factory building where he worked.

"I want to live," he pleaded, his eyes glistening with tears as he spoke of his two young children. "It's so painful here." Altab should not have been in the building when it collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 275 people. No one should have.

After seeing deep cracks in the walls of the building on Tuesday, police had ordered it evacuated. But officials at the garment factories operating inside ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, authorities said.

The disaster in Savar, an industrial suburb of Dhaka, the capital city, is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve the country's worker-safety standards.

Instead, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where wages, among the lowest in the world, have made it a magnet for numerous global brands. Companies operating in the collapsed building say their customers included retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Dress Barn and Britain's Primark.

On Friday, hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, spent a third day working amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the Rana Plaza building, which housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

Rescuers on Thursday evening found 40 survivors trapped in a room on the fourth floor. Twelve were soon freed, and crews worked to get the others out safely, said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations. Crowds at the scene burst into applause as survivors were brought out, although no other details were immediately available.

An Associated Press cameraman who went into the rubble Thursday morning with rescue workers spoke briefly to Atlab, the man who pleaded to be saved. But the team was unable to free Atlab, who was trapped next to two corpses.

From deep inside the rubble, another survivor could be heard weeping as he called for help.
"We want to live, brother! It's hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live! Please save us," the man cried. It was not immediately clear if he or Atlab were among those later rescued.

After the cracks were reported, managers of a bank that had an office in the building evacuated their employees. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of that police force.

Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said he and his co-workers had gone inside Wednesday morning despite seeing the cracks. He said a factory manager had assured people it was safe.
About an hour later, the building collapsed, and the next thing Rahim remembered was regaining consciousness outside.

Officials said they had made it very clear that the building needed to be evacuated.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend their work.

"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.
As crews bored deeper into the wreckage, the odor of decaying bodies wafted through the building. Bangladesh's junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said 2,000 people had been rescued.
Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, a top military officer in the Savar area, told reporters that search and rescue operations would continue for at least three days after the collapse.
"We know a human being can survive for up to 72 hours in this situation. So our efforts will continue non-stop," he said.

Meanwhile, thousands of workers from the hundreds of garment factories across the Savar industrial zone took to the streets to protest the collapse and poor safety standards.
Shikder said the death toll had reached 275 by Friday morning. The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed.

Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands gathered outside the building, waiting for news. TV reports said hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Dhaka and the nearby industrial zone of Ashulia. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries in those clashes.
After the November fire at the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, there were repeated calls for improved safety standards by labor activists, manufacturers, the government and major retailers, but little progress.

The building collapse highlighted the dangers that workers still face. Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and industry leaders hold great influence in the South Asian nation.

Its garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy. It has grown rapidly in the past decade, a boom fueled by Bangladesh's exceptionally low labor costs. The country's minimum wage is now the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.
Abdul Halim, an official with Savar's engineering department, said the owner of Rana Plaza was originally allowed to construct a five-story building but added another three stories illegally.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished." Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building's owner.

But on the streets of Dhaka, many believe the owners of the building and the factories will ultimately walk free. "Was anyone punished earlier? Was the owner of Tazreen Fashions arrested? They are powerful people, they run the country," said Farid Ahmed, an insurance company official.
The Tazreen factory that burned in November lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm sounded.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the owner of the collapsed building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children's Place and Dress Barn, Britain's Primark, Spain's Mango and Italy's Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was one of its customers.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

The Cato Corp., which sells moderately priced women's and girls' clothing, said that New Wave Bottoms was one of its vendors, but that it had no production with them at the time of the collapse.
Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Benetton said in an email to the AP that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers. Mango said it had only discussed production of a test sample of clothing with one of the factories.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the collapse underscored the "urgent need" for the Bangladesh government, as well as the factory owners, buyers and labor groups, to improve working conditions in the country.

Highlighting failings in the patchwork system that retailers use to audit factories, two of Rana Plaza's garment companies had passed inspections by a major European group that does factory audits in developing countries. But the Business Social Compliance Initiative, which represents hundreds of companies and audited the Phantom Apparels and New Wave Style factories, said its standards focus more on labor issues than building standards.

Human Rights Watch says Bangladesh's Ministry of Labor has only 18 inspectors to monitor the more than 100,000 garment factories in the sprawling Dhaka district, where much of the nation's garment industry is located.

John Sifton, the group's Asia advocacy director, also noted none of the factories in the Rana Plaza were unionized, and had they had been, workers would have been in a better position to refuse to enter the building on Wednesday.
 "Unionizing is Bangladesh remains incredibly difficult and dangerous," he said.

Philippine government preparing shelters for OFW camping outside Jeddah Consulate.

By GMA News, on April 24th, 2013

 

Philippine officials in Jeddah are prepared to move to shelters by Friday some 300 women and children, who were among the more than 1,000 illegal Filipinos camping outside Manila’s consulate in the Saudi Arabian city.

However, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the campers are reluctant to leave as they all want to be housed in one facility.

“Our people in a way did not respond to this offer of an accommodation that includes food, blankets, etcetera because they want to be together in one place,” Hernandez said. “That’s a big challenge for us – to find a place, a big place that could accommodate about 1,000 Filipinos all together.”
In the Philippine government’s plan, a number would be accommodated inside the consulate and the others at a housing compound that was offered by a Saudi-based Syrian businessman.
By weekend, the consulate is expected to transfer majority of the campers to a bigger facility such as a school gymnasium pending approval from school administrators and the Saudi Ministry of Education, he said.

During their stay at the shelters, the Filipinos will be provided with food and other basic necessities, Hernandez said.

The Filipinos, frightened of being sent to jail for violation of Saudi immigration laws, have been camping outside the Philippine consulate for nearly two weeks amid ongoing crackdown by Saudi authorities on foreign nationals without valid work and residence permits.

Departure procedures are tedious as fines would have to be paid and exit documents must be secured before they are granted permission by Saudi authorities to leave Kingdom.
“It’s very tricky and challenging,” Hernandez admitted. “Even if we would like to repatriate our people, we cannot do that because of laws and regulations and the processes that we have to follow in Saudi Arabia.”

In the meantime, Hernandez said the Philippine government is “trying to do everything possible to provide them with the accommodation.”

The consulate has also distributed blankets, mosquito nets, insect sprays, garbage bags, food, water and other basic necessities to the campers. Medical assistance was also provided, Hernandez said.
Michaela del Callar, VVP, GMA News

1.2 M undocumented Asians in US, half are probably Pinoys...

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on April 13th, 2013

Out of an estimated 1.2 million undocumented Asians in the United States, about half are Filipinos, a report of the Asian Journal news site said.

Citing some Asian and Filipino-American immigrant groups, the Asian Journal said on Tuesday the undocumented Filipinos will be “most affected, if certain family-based immigrant visas will be limited or even removed from any proposed reform legislation.”

The Asian Journal said a Filipino Migrant Center’s immigration forum was conducted on April 3 at the First Lutheran Church in Long Beach, California, to address some of the Filipinos’ immigration concerns.

The forum answered several questions about immigration raised by members of the Filipino community in the United States in line with the country’s upcoming comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Panelists Betty Hung of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and policy consultant Cynthia Buiza fielded questions that Filipinos raised about immigration concerns, especially those pertaining to undocumented immigrants.

“There are a lot of undocumented Filipinos in our community – adults and youths. It’s important for them and the immigrant community to understand what is going on so they can make the right decision when this legislation comes out,” the Asian Journal quoted Buiza as saying.
Some questions raised during the forum were:

If a bill is passed, what kind of process should undocumented immigrants expect?
What kind of documents will be needed if a bill is passed?
The report said the US immigration reform is “multi-step process” and undocumented immigrants may be required “to pay a fine, pay back taxes and clear a background check to make sure they don’t have any criminal records.”

Buiza described this particular immigration bill as “generous,” adding that “as long as you don’t have any serious criminal offenses, you should qualify.”
Hung, on the other hand, noted that finding the needed documents can be challenging.
She said some undocumented immigrants either possess no documents or lost them.
Hung advised undocumented people “to keep receipts from their trips to a grocery story, keep bank statements, letters from a clergy that shows you are a member of the church, letters from family relatives, rental agreements, a library card,” according to the Asian Journal.
“Anything with your name on it that you can think of that shows you are and have been here,” said Hung.
“We need our kababayans to come out and make their voices heard,” Buiza said during the forum.
“We need our voices to be heard so those senators know what we want in an immigration reform bill,” said Hung.

According to the 2011 Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos done by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, there were 260,335 Filipinos in the US as of December that year who were not properly documented or without valid residence or work permits.

Over 460,000 petitions
The Asian Journal also said that according to data from the US Department of State as of November 2012, 462,000 petitions filed by Filipinos or from the Philippines are still pending, out of 4.4 million.
According to Buiza, the number of Filipinos who are undocumented or waiting for legal entrance means that they have a “huge stake” when the US Senate’s immigration reform bill comes out.

On Friday, it was reported that US senators plan to unveil a comprehensive immigration bill on April 16, Tuesday. US President Barack Obama’s priorities during his second term in office involved immigration reform.
Gian C. Geronimo, VVP, GMA News

Contingency in place for 16,000 Pinoys in Guam: DFA

By ABS-CBN News, on April 10th, 2013

MANILA – A contingency plan is already in place for Filipinos in Guam amid threats from North Korea.

“Our consulate in Guam also has a contingency plan in case there is a need to repatriate our people there,” Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Raul Hernandez said.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has threatened to target Guam, a heavily-armed United States Pacific Island.

Guam is four hours away by plane from Hong Kong.
The DFA said there is an estimated 16,000 Filipinos in Guam.
“The coordination in monitoring the situation in the Korean Peninsula is being done and we will only act if there is an imminent threat or attack on Guam,” Hernandez said.

Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of US Pacific Command, already told a Senate committee that they have the capability to intercept a missile from North Korea.

Both the US and its ally, South Korea, are ready with their surveillance equipment against any missile launch from North Korea.

In South Korea, meanwhile, the situation remains calm and normal, Hernandez said.
“We still view the development in Korea and in the Korean peninsula with great concern. But we also reiterate for all stakeholders to exercise sobriety,” Hernandez said.

ABS-CBN News

3 Pinoy may face death in Indonesia for drug smuggling.

Agence France Presse

Posted at 04/09/2013 7:08 PM | Updated as of 04/09/2013 7:08 PM

JAKARTA - Three Philippine men could face the death penalty in Indonesia after being caught trying to smuggle methamphetamine with a street value of $2.1 million into the country, an official said Tuesday.

The trio were arrested last week with the 15.3-kilogram (33.7-pound) drugs haul after arriving from Hong Kong at the main airport serving the capital Jakarta, customs official Okto Irianto told reporters.

"They hid the crystal methamphetamine in 15 boxes of milk powder. Each brought five boxes in their suitcase," he said.

The trio, whose names were not released, allegedly carried the drugs -- which the official said had a street value of $2.1 million -- with them in their hand luggage.

The men, one aged in his 40s, one in his 50s, and the third 61, admitted having previously smuggled drugs into other countries, according to Irianto.

"They are professional couriers and this was their first attempt to smuggle drugs into Indonesia," Irianto said. Police are quizzing them to find out more details about the drug-smuggling gang they worked with.

They could face the death penalty if found guilty under Indonesia's tough drugs laws, Irianto said.
Foreigners are frequently arrested for attempting to smuggle drugs into Indonesia, including many on Bali who are held in the resort island's notorious Kerobokan prison.

On Monday Briton Lindsay Sandiford lost her first attempt to appeal a death sentence imposed in January after she was caught arriving in Bali carrying cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.4 million.

Taiwan wage hike benefits Filipino workers.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz

MANILA, Philippines—Thousands of Filipino workers in Taiwan will benefit from the new minimum wage increase approved by the island’s legislative body effective this month.

According to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan has approved a recommended minimum wage increase of monthly paid workers from NT$18,780 (P25,813.30) to NT$ 19,047 (P26,180.29) per month.

“This is good news, not only for the overseas Filipino workers deployed to Taiwan, but for all workers [there],” Baldoz said in a statement.

Baldoz said the adjustment will cover monthly-paid workers, including OFW factory workers and those covered by the Labor Standards Act.

But she said household-based caretakers are not covered by the wage hike and their minimum wage will remain at NT$15,480 (P21,268.90).

Based on Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) records, as of 2012 there were 41,461 OFWs in Taiwan. “We welcome this development as this would benefit a lot of workers. We know the government of Taiwan ensures that the welfare of its workers is well taken care of,” Baldoz said.

There are around 1.7 million workers who stand to benefit from the wage adjustment, the labor chief said.

The Executive Yuan (Executive Branch) agreed to the wage increase as Taiwan’s GDP achieved a growth rate of 3.42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, and first quarter 2013’s GDP growth rate will likely be above three percent because of the reported smooth development of the country’s finance, production management and labor force market situation during the period. Tina G. Santos

Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/71397/taiwan-wage-hike-benefits-filipino-workers#ixzz2PpCk4jSq
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Correct working status, Filipino in Saudi Arabia urged

Philippine Daily Inquirer

2:35 am | Monday, April 8th, 2013

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday urged Filipinos in Saudi Arabia to take advantage of the three-month reprieve granted by Saudi King Abdullah for foreign workers to fix their working status in the kingdom.

“I call on our ‘kababayan’ in Saudi to grab this opportunity to correct your status. Follow the labor laws of your host country and resolve any work violations you might have committed,” Binay said in statement.

He said the government was grateful to the Saudi king for the reprieve and urged Philippine Embassy officials in Saudi Arabia to extend assistance to Filipinos needing to correct their status.

There are 1.5 million Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia and some 20,000 are undocumented.

“Given this number, it is important for our diplomatic offices to work double time to make the most of the three-month grace period,” Binay said.—Christine O. Avendaño

Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/71449/correct-working-status-filipinos-in-saudi-arabia-urged#ixzz2Pp8hlAEH
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Despite new Saudi rule vs foreign workers, Pinoys expected to line up for jobs

Despite a ruling that penalizes firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for hiring more foreign workers than their own citizens, Filipinos are expected to continue flocking to that country for jobs.

An Arab News article on Wednesday quoted Philippine Ambassador to the KSA Ezzedin Tago as saying he expects “hardworking and efficient” Filipinos to continue trooping into KSA because of the diverse economic opportunities there.

 

“I think Filipinos will come here to work although there are efforts to include more Saudis in the local work force,” he told Arab News in an interview.

 

Tago noted that various infrastructure projects in KSA give Filipinos opportunities to work there not just as laborers "but also design engineers, architects and others in related fields."

 

The report also mentioned praises for Filipinos given by KSA politicians, such as Madinah province governor Prince Faisal bin Salman and Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar, both of whom acknowledged the help Filipinos contributed to their country’s development.

 

According to the 2011 Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos done by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, there were around 1,530,218 Pinoy workers in KSA.

 

Saudi was also listed there as the second top destination country of Filipinos.

 

In December, Reuters reported that KSA had begun imposing fees on local firms that hire more foreign workers than local.

 

The report said that as of November 15 last year, private sector employers who hire more foreigners than Saudis must pay a fee of 2,400 riyals ($640) a year for each additional expatriate when they renew an expat's one-year residency permit.

 

The rule does not cover foreigners with Saudi mothers or nationals of other Gulf states.

 

The report quoted a Labor Ministry spokesman as saying that there were no plans to reverse or amend the decision.

 

Administrator Hans Cacdac of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration recently reminded Filipinos applying for jobs abroad to keep in mind the steps to avoid falling victim to illegal recruiters and recruitment.

 

Cacdac recommended that applicants keep an eye out for one or more of the following signs of illegal recruitment:

 

-- the agency asks for immediate payment even if you have concrete job offer yet

 

-- it has no headquarters, or the recruiters conduct house-to-house recruitment

 

-- they like to show pictures of beautiful houses, cars, or land titles, and tell you the same fate awaits you if you work with them

 

He said it is wise to check the list of licensed recruiters through the POEA, the Department of Labor and Employment, or the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

 

Potential applicants can also call agency hotlines for questions or verification, as well as check the POEA website. - Gian C. Geronimo, VVP, GMA News