RP maids in HK to get government help

President Arroyo dispatched Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas to Hong Kong yesterday to lobby against a 20 percent cut in minimum wages for maids in the special administrative region, where some 152,000 Filipinos work as domestic helpers.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Sto. Tomas was sent on the special mission in response to requests of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for Malacañang’s official representation with Hong Kong authorities.

He denied accusations that the President was "selling out" Filipina maids by backing the pay cut.

Tiglao explained that the Palace cannot make demands or interfere with the policy of a sovereign state, and the best it can do is to request the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region not to push through with the wage cut.

"The President is doing her best, and has sent Secretary Sto. Tomas to get inputs from OFW organizations," he said.

The United Filipinos in Hong Kong, one of the groups protesting the planned cut, accused Mrs. Arroyo of "betraying" them after she reportedly told the press on Friday that she welcomed a proposal by some Filipino workers for a "smaller" cut of 5 to 10 percent.

Mrs. Arroyo was later declared "persona non grata" by enraged Filipina maids working in the former British Crown Colony.

Waving white flags and red banners, they chanted, "No to another wage cut, protect workers’ rights!" as they marched through Hong Kong’s busy downtown streets.

An estimated 152,000 Filipinos and 66,000 Indonesians – and smaller numbers of Nepalese and Thais – work as live-in maids in Hong Kong to support their poor families back home.

Filipinos workers in Hong Kong and elsewhere send home about US $7 billion annually - crucial to the struggling Philippine economy.

For a minimum salary of HK$3,670 (US$471), the maids typically work long hours, six days a week and live in closet-sized rooms. But with the economy sinking fast, many Hong Kong families say it’s becoming harder to pay even the minimum wage, prompting the government to review the salary it sets for maids.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong chairwoman Connie Bragas-Regalado said she did not believe the visit of Sto. Tomas would help.

"The government would gladly accept a wage cut for us as long as it is not 20 percent," Regalado said.

Anna Marie Arce, a domestic helper from Isabela, said the President should fight for the migrants’ rights instead of supporting the wage cut proposal.

"We earn a disgustingly low salary and yet, our President is not a reliable president," said the 34-year-old domestic helper.

Yet, Elnora Alawaq, 55, from Ilocos Norte, believes that Mrs. Arroyo’s words have been misinterpreted and that the visiting labor secretary would clear up the issue.

Hong Kong last slashed the maids’ salary from HK$3,860 (US$495) during a 1999 recession – and the workers complain they don’t get raises when Hong Kong is booming.