Filipino children among the jailed abroad?

Yesterday's news reported that almost 5,000 of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are, for various reasons, in jail. While most of the detainees are in Middle Eastern countries, there are OFWs jailed in Japan, Hong Kong, Brunei, Singapore and other places.

We have known and visited many of our Filipino detainees in Japan but it came as a shock to us to be told that about 45 of our Filipino children, ages 17 or younger, are now in jail throughout Japan for serious crimes such as murder, burglary, and others.

We have been told that many of these jailed Filipino children have been petitioned for and brought to Japan by their Filipino parent who have stayed in Japan, married, and lived with their Japanese spouses. Some children may have been born in the Philippines, left there with relatives mostly by mothers who left for Japan to work. Initial information seems to show that a number of these children who were brought to Japan, have lived with their Japanese stepfathers in Japan before their arrest.

Future research on these jailed overseas Filipino children, which we hope will be initiated very soon by the Philippine government, can establish more conclusive data about them, for example, whether their Filipino mothers or fathers were married or not to their biological fathers/mothers, how they were raised in the Philippines, how they felt growing up without one of their parents, and more.

Why they committed murder, why they stole, resorted to drugs, assault, or other crimes should be established as well by research so that a program especially designed for children like them can be drawn out and implemented soon to prevent any more of our overseas Filipino children from committing serious crimes.

Because they are considered children of a Filipino parent and a Japanese parent or stepparent, they have either permanent visas or the same visa status and length of stay as their Filipino parent. Those with permanent visas, young as they are, 17 or younger, are reported to be targeted by Filipino non-visa holders for marriage of convenience to ensure longer stay in Japan.

DOLE Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas gave the assurance that our jailed OFWS are assisted in their host countries. We have had the opportunity to work and assist needy Filipinos with certain concerned officers of the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, frequently with Mr. Larry Sumando, but we still have to meet an OWWA officer assisting our detainees.

In our recent visit to Japan, for example, we learned that the body of a Filipino who was murdered in August, has not yet been claimed from a Japanese Police Station and had not yet been sent back to his family in the Philippines. We wondered why OWWA or even the Philippine Embassy in Japan did not know and facilitate the arrangement for the earlier return of our dead OFW.

Then, still on our last visit to Japan, we got more concerned when we received the following message from an attaché of the Philippine Embassy that " the Japanese Immigration could not provide the Philippine Embassy with a list of Filipino detainees in Ushiku." How can the Philippine government representatives assist our Filipino detainees, children or adults, in Ushiku or elsewhere in Japan if they have no way of knowing who have been jailed where?

We pray that these concerns can be addressed immediately by our officials in Japan and throughout the world so that no Filipino detainee or dead will be left alone and unassisted by any Filipino kababayan outside of the Philippines.