Stop deploying women to work as maids

If there is an advocacy that  is worth uniting the Church, the State and all NGOs, especially the women’s alliances, it is the long overdue shift in our labor migration policy, to stop sending our women abroad to work as domestic helpers in the Middle East, in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan or anywhere in the world for that matter. The POEA, under the joint leadership of Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz,  a God-fearing Secretary of Labor, who used to be an outstanding POEA Administrator and Atty. Carlos S. Cao, Jr.,  a Christian leader as the incumbent administrator, should now go full steam to issue a ban against the deployment of our women from being deployed as household service workers. The best time to bite the bullet is now.

 These women should stay in our country and rebuild their broken marriages and shattered homes, and  the government should target them as beneficiaries of the DSWD’S  Conditional Cash Transfer Program. The TESDA  should train them for entrepreneurship and the DOLE’s Reintegration Program should teach them basic financial literacy.  Their incomes abroad are too minimal compared to the serious damages inflicted on both the dignity of our women and the sanctity of marriages. Their salaries, which are often subjected to various corrupt practices by some unscrupulous recruiters, traffickers and cruel and dishonest employers, are too little compared to the social costs of marital infidelities, juvenile delinquencies and numerous indignities suffered by the hundreds of thousands among our domestic helpers.

 The latest amendments to the Labor Code and the Magna Carta of Migrant Workers, the RA 10022, mandate that our country should stop deploying maids and other lowly workers to countries that do not have legislated safety nets protecting the health, safety and welfare of such workers. And thus, the POEA would only be implementing the legal mandate if it approves a governing board resolution putting a permanent and absolute ban against the deployment of domestic helpers to such countries as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Libya, Egypt, and Syria, aside from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other war-torn labor-receiving countries. And in order to optimize the momentum, even perhaps issue a total ban against deployment of all domestic helpers anywhere in the world.

 The sociologists today are unanimous in their analysis and conclusion that the deployment of wives and mothers has caused tremendous damage to the basic foundation of our nation, the family. Families of female, (and even male) OFWs have become dysfunctional. Spouses have committed marital infidelities and children have turned to drugs and delinquency in the absence of a mother or a wife at home. These children are most likely to grow up with low self-esteem and self-confidence, and are prone to become causes of social problems later on. When the female OFWs come home, after working for 10 to 20 years abroad for their respective families, have no more families to come home to.

 Furthermore, the women abroad are subjected to all forms of indignities. Their passports and cellphones are confiscated. They have no rest days. They are made to perform dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading and deceptive jobs for 12 to 18 hours a day with inadequate food, unsanitary shelter, and with hardly any rest at all. When they get sick, they have no Medicare coverage. Many of them are subjected to sexual, physical, verbal, and other  abuses and harassments. And when they run away, the laws in the host countries consider breaching their work contract as criminal offenses. Thus, having been victimized, they end up in jails as perpetrators of criminal acts, who are bound for deportation after their prison terms. Some of them, in passion and obfuscation, are driven to kill their masters and end up being sentenced to die by decapitation or hanging. Are these the consequences that we are leading our women to face, by continuing to deploy them to such dangerous destinations? 

Only the recruiters, brokers and traffickers are making millions out of this business of selling people to employers who treat them as virtual slaves. I spent six years of my life and career helping women in Malaysia, Kuwait and Taiwan. When trouble comes, the recruiters are nowhere to be found. There are good recruiters. I know them. But they are few. The others are only there for the money. President Aquino, who has a deep respect for women, should now be on top of this drive to stop exposing our women to the grave and imminent dangers to their life, liberty and security. The time has come to stop analyzing and just implement the law. Every year the Executive is mandated to submit a Report to Congress on the implementation of laws. RA 10022 is a law  that has to be implemented now. We should not listen to the recruiters. I am calling on the Church, the women’s organizations and all men and women  of good will and good conscience, to join us in this advocacy to protect our homes, our families and our women. There should be no ifs nor buts. We just have to do it. NOW.