New excuse for junket: Fact-finding

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers have found a new way to go overseas at taxpayers’ expense: fact-finding missions.

A group of congressmen led by Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello and Democratic Independent Workers Association (DIWA) party-list Rep. Emmeline Aglipay recently went to Saudi Arabia on such a mission.

The group said many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia toil under conditions of “virtual slavery,” with unpaid salaries, poor working conditions, maltreatment and physical abuse among their top troubles.

The lawmakers issued the statement yesterday after a five-day visit to Saudi Arabia along with other members of the House committee on overseas workers’ affairs.

Other members of the delegation who visited various parts of the kingdom, including OFW shelters, were Compostela Valley Rep. Carmen Zamora-Apsay and COOP-NATCCO party-list Rep. Cresente Paez.

According to Aglipay, the June 2010 records of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh showed that there are some 1.8 million OFWs in Saudi Arabia, about 70 percent of whom are skilled and professional workers and the rest, non-skilled or non-professionals.

Almost all distressed OFWs are non-skilled workers and household service workers, she said.

Bello, who chairs the committee, said most of the women in the shelters are victims of physical violence, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

“The testimonies of the women in the shelters revealed in many cases a situation of virtual slavery,” Bello said.

“A working day of 18 to 22 hours, constant threat of sexual abuse from employers to whom the women gave the term ‘maniacs,’ and beatings, sometimes with the use of hot irons, by the wife of the employer,” he added.

The common problems and complaints of OFWs are delayed and unpaid salaries, overwork, maltreatment, documentation, poor working conditions, sexual harassment and rape.

Aglipay said the domestic helpers are the most vulnerable in Saudi Arabia since they are specifically exempted from Saudi Labor Law.

She said the OFW shelters in Riyadh and Jeddah run by the Philippine government with the help of some NGOs are overcrowded due to the large number of runaways.

The lawmakers said Filipino women should be strongly discouraged from going to Saudi Arabia owing to the maltreatment and sexual abuse likely to befall a number of them.

She said the Philippine embassy is doing everything to source funds for tickets to repatriate distressed OFWs, but Saudi law requires that an exit visa be secured before anyone, living or dead, is allowed to leave the country.

“The more difficult cases of repatriation are the undocumented or TNT (tago ng tago) cases where the embassy has to negotiate for their repatriation with the Saudi government,” Aglipay said.

Still more problematic are the children who are born out of wedlock, some even products of rape. Not only are the children undocumented but their mothers might also be found liable for a crime since it is a crime (immorality) under Saudi law for a woman to even be seen with a man who is not her husband, father, son or brother, more so if the woman had sexual relations with a man who is not her husband.

“The trip also revealed collusion between unscrupulous recruitment agencies in Manila and their counterparts in Saudi Arabia that result in household workers being paid significantly less wages than they agreed to before leaving the Philippines,” said Bello, who also recognized the “vital but unsung role played by Philippine overseas labor offices.”