Why do we allow our women to be abused abroad?

The new social cancer. Unrecorded in the history of today's human sufferings, to paraphrase Rizal, in Noli, are the countless cases of rape, murder, sexual molestations, sexual harassments, acts of lasciviousness, physical and verbal abuses, detentions, unjust deprivation of food and medicine to hungry and sick DHs, and other forms of cruelties,inflicted upon our domestic helpers in the hands of masters, employers, agency owners, brokers and other middlemen in the business of human trading euphemistically referred to as recruitment and deployment of maids.

Deployment without adequate safety nets. The question is: Why do we allow our women to be deployed to countries with rampant cases of abuses and without sufficient safety nets for our women workers? Why have we not insisted on covering them with Bilateral Labor Agreements as condition to, and prior to, their deployment?

Is government justified to just say that it is the right of every citizen to travel and seek employment abroad? Is the worker armed with sufficient information about the country of destination in order to make an informed choice and an intelligent decision? Is government not mandated to afford full protection to labor, local or overseas? Does that mandate not include protecting them from their own naivete and ignorance, shielding them from their own recklessness and lack of foresight?

Should not government exercise extraordinary diligence to avoid cases similar to those of Flor Contemplacion, Delia Maga, Sarah Balabagan and Jakatia Pawa, to name but a few?

Why do men allow their wives to work abroad? It is the duty of the husband, as head of the family, to work and earn a living, to provide enough for the family. If he is incapable, then he should not venture into marriage in the first place. He should be ashamed to even receive money remitted by his wife from her salary as domestic helper.

There should be a law punishing irresponsible husbands who suffer their wives to go abroad and become housemaids. It is even more aggravating for husbands to use this money in drinking sessions, drug addiction, in gambling or womanizing. Men who do these should be castrated and jailed. They should feel guilty for squandering money which their wives worked so hard to earned.

How much suffering must wives undergo to fund the vices of irresponsible husbands? Oh, judgment, to paraphrase Mark Anthony, men have lost their reason, and I must pause for a reply. And I do challenge them to reply.Yes, anyone with reason, please do, or forever keep your peace.