On the Death Row
The Overseas Filipino Workers Under the Benigno Aquino Regime
by Liezl Ann Lansang, Amanda Erika Lim, Katrina Maria Perolino
The clock ticks another second, another indication of the imminent danger about to take place. Iron gates clank as they move aside to lead the innocent convicted to her death — a death undeserved and unreasoned for. As the assumed felon takes her final steps of life, the world continues on with resonating injustice — the same injustice she will take her life for.
The Convicted
The drive to feed hungry mouths is the same drive that dictates the exodus of a Filipino to greener pastures, a drive to seek jobs to fend off poverty and have a better fate. These Filipinos are often dubbed as the modern-day heroes of the Philippines as they offer a greatly significant benefit for the country, with remittances increasing economic growth. Many of them, however, fall as victims under the likes of human trafficking, such as in the case of Mary Jane Veloso.
Mary Jane vastly represents the life of the majority of Filipinos — a life deprived of basic necessities and education. Her family works as seasonal cane harvesters in Hacienda Luisita, being subjected to harsh working conditions and paid with wages far below sustenance. Like many others, they are placed under the shackles of poverty caused by the inherent feudal system in the country, where the elites keep reaping their own social and economic benefits and working under the guise of providing jobs for farmers and harvesters — a system that has kept the economy in regress.
There are over 14 million Filipinos working overseas, performing tasks ranging from cleaning toilets to fixing machineries. Dubbed as the modern-day heroes of the Philippines, OFWs offer a greatly significant benefit for the country, with remittances increasing Philippine economic growth. With the rates of unemployment in the Philippines increasing from 7% to 18%, it could easily be deduced that lack of domestic jobs mainly discourages the people to stay in the country. Moreover, salary and benefits ushered by foreign employers are far higher as against the scarce jobs offered in the country, both from the private and public sector. The average wage earned by a factory worker abroad ranges from Php15,000-Php40,000, and varies only per country of employment, as compared to the Php12,000 contractual wage received by factory workers in the Philippines.
A remarkable sum of nurses have left the country for wages ranging Php15,000-Php60,000, in comparison to the average salary of Php16,000 received by nurses employed in the Philippines. Benefits are also offered in more flexible terms in contrast to the Philippines, with leave credits, incentives, and medical benefits and insurance considered as non-deductibles from the average OFW’s salary. Albeit the obvious beneficial margin ushered by foreign employers, the Philippine labor department makes no changes and simply enables the continuing brain and brawn drain in the Philippine labor market. Consequently, many are driven to leave the country and seek better-paying jobs outside — and many fall prey to illegal recruiters and human traffickers, which then puts them in a critical situation.
Veloso’s case is not the first to be dealt with or reasoned out, as hundreds of overseas Filipino workers experience the same terrible fate of facing trials and executions far from the country. The lack of tutelage and protection for OFWs under Philippine laws aggravated Veloso’s case, as well as many others which continue to go unresolved. Framed in a situation they never intended to get into, the heroes now turn into being branded as convicts to be slaughtered and sacrificed in place of the real perpetrators.
The Deceptions
Fed on the fruits of the OFWs’ blood and sweat, the government has patterned a life of deception for the working masses from the very beginning of their course. Having been inefficient in the promotion of jobs in the country, the Philippine government resorted to interim solutions, mainly through endorsing jobs abroad to its people.
Moreover, the government brags a significant amount of growth in the gross domestic product (GDP), and 8% of it accounts for OFW remittances — an obvious proof as to why the government keeps on implementing policies that would lead to the export of its people. In addition, the government has recently made actions adapting international standards, despite it domestically being unnecessary and unprepared for.
For instance, the K-12 policy, enacted under the Aquino administration, sought to increase the number of years to be spent by the students on primary and secondary education. In the course of this new program, students are given the choice to study vocational courses during their final years in school, thus discouraging them to pursue college with the notion that they are already eligible and skilled enough to pursue work even without a bachelor’s degree.
This situation only mirrors the lack of the government’s interest in giving its people the ample education to specialize more in their respective fields — a ploy to accumulate young Filipinos ready to be sold cheap for their labor.
Besides poverty, the lack of education also forced Mary Jane Veloso to go out of the country in search of a better-paying job, since opportunities in the country were scant for people who lacked adequate education. Being deprived of education has also constituted greatly to the worsening of Veloso’s case, since she was not able to defend herself properly in the court proceedings.
In order to narrate her story, the language that she had to use was English — a language that she was barely fluent in. Coupled with a translator who was not able to effectively explain the proceedings to Veloso, the lack of effective communication only aggravated the case.
Thus, Veloso is not only an unfortunate victim of human and drug trafficking. Back in her homeland, she was already a victim of the policies that have kept the masses devoid of due education.
Working under the façade of securing its people jobs, the government has continuously fed the masses with deceptions, only to groom them as the hosts to which they could exhaust financial benefits upon.
The Verdict
Left without any semblance of aid from the government, the abandoned OFWs have been resigned to face their looming trials and execution all on their own.
While some Filipinos get to land decent jobs, many other Filipinos are recruited to engage in illegal activities such as being drug mules; more unfortunate are the cases such as Veloso’s, where they are framed into acts that they did not concede upon. Her case is not an isolated one, for numerous OFWs are being jailed and sentenced abroad without receiving due legal assistance from the Philippine government.
Migrante International has recorded 123 more cases of OFWs on the death row — all equally ignored by the government. DFA itself released data which stated that 6,002 OFWs were recorded to be in jail abroad, as of June 2014. The numbers of such cases are still on the rise, but rather than making concrete actions to help the workers, the government still persists in implementing provisions that further restrict the rights of the OFWs, even in terms of receiving legal assistance.
For instance, the government has ultimately failed in implementing the Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act of 1995. The law, which aims to protect the interest of migrant workers through the signing of pro-labor international treaties, has barely taken effect which is mirrored in the proliferating cases of abuses and death sentences of OFWs. Furthermore, Aquino has recently vetoed the P100-million Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) and the P150-million Assistance to Nationals Fund, both of which were supposedly to be allotted for the direct funding of migrant workers facing trials overseas.
With the LAF terminated in function, Filipinos facing prosecution overseas have no means of representation or bail in terms of finances. In addition to this, the president’s insistence that the fund for OFWs should still undergo the supervision of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would only entail a slower process of funding for the workers. Similarly, the implementation of tax regulation for OFWs, as well as taxation and returns, has been put forward repeatedly but vetoed. Both propositions merely prove that there is no reciprocity in the side of the government, nor any appreciation for its overseas workers.
The greatest number of OFWs sentenced for execution has been reported under the rule of the Aquino administration. In the span of four years that Aquino has manned the nation, 88 OFWs in different nations have been persecuted, with cases ranging from being framed or coerced into drug trafficking, and murder due to self-defense and rape. Since Aquino’s incumbency as president, seven OFWs have been executed, five in China due to illegal drug trafficking.
On the other hand, Carlito Lana and Joven Esteva were the most recent casualties of execution, as both were persecuted for allegedly killing their fellow employees. In spite of statements released regarding the giving of legal assistance, the families of both late OFWs have received little financial assistance or compensation for their loss, nor have they achieved the solace and justice that they continue to fight for. Veloso’s plight falls in the long line of cases unresolved and not given due assistance with by the government as 123 more OFWs await persecution and legal trials, while 7,000 more remain behind bars.
All in all, despite the essential role of the OFWs in enhancing the country’s economic growth, nothing but incompetent assistance and futile laws are implemented by the government for the Filipino workers in return.
Every Filipino remains on the death row so long as the government perpetuates the cycle of mechanizing its people and viewing them as a mere source of cheap labor — a government bent on the refusal to extend a hand to its migrant workers. Justice is not served to the OFWs who are continually enslaved and deprived with the benefits and rights that they must acquiesce as workers and as people.
For those who break their back and boil their blood, fighting injustice and poverty, freedom and incorruptibility is a quest yet to be finished. But hope is not lost. The spirit of the masses and the workers live, no death shall pass by unaccounted for in the continuing fight for justice.
This article was first published in The Manila Collegian Vol. 28 Issue №16–17, May 11, 2015.
