'Buwaya' Republic

Isn’t it fascinating to note that we have the largest saltwater crocodile in the world? Indeed, this is a “Buwaya” Republic.

Lolong, the monster crocodile is 21-foot and 2,370-pounds. It was caught from the Agusan River in Mindanao and is now the world’s largest crocodile. Lolong has given us such a symbolic parallelism to our country’s government officials we amusingly refer to as buwayas. These are corrupt officials who act like crocodiles.

Amado V. Hernandez, national artist wrote a book in 1983 entitled Luha Ng Buwaya. It depicts the greed for money of the Grande family. Doesn’t it still ring a bell to the present time and remind us of certain families in this society who are very similar to the Grande family?

Apparently, we also have so many young crocodiles in government right now. They seem to be growing quite fast because no one is stopping them from gnawing government resources. We also have the senior ones who continue to devour our wealth. This is precisely why investors do not want to put their money in the Philippines and private entities are scared to put their investments in government bonds. Anyway, if this Administration does not put a stop to corruption we will have more “Lolongs” – hiding within the marshlands of government service.

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By the way, how can this Administration resolve its faux pas? They never seem to learn from their past mistakes. Remember the release of Circular # 1? Well, they had problems pulling it out and putting it in again. Same thing happened to the recent POEA announcement on the ban of OFWs to 41 countries. After the announcement was made, the Department of Foreign Affairs and non-government labor organization Blas Ople Center gave different reactions to the ban. DFA Secretary Alberto del Rosario said that the Philippine government should have ample opportunity to dialogue with these countries. He cited RA 10022 also known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 that took effect in March 2010. It states that OFWs will only be deployed to countries that can guarantee the protection of their rights.

The law requires that a receiving country “has existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers, including migrant workers; is a signatory to and/or a ratifier of multilateral conventions, declarations or resolutions relating to the protection of workers, including migrant workers; and has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino workers.”

The POEA’s issuance of a partial list of 41 countries that failed to protect the rights of Filipino workers is an implementation of the law. However, the DFA believes that there are compelling reasons to defer further action on the list.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz also said that the POEA has approved resolutions seeking restrictions in the deployment of workers to these countries.

Vice-President Jejomar Binay who is the chairman of the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment and chairman emeritus of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking urged jobseekers to heed the deployment ban issued by POEA. He said, “It’s not worth it. Your safety and rights are not assured in these countries. So when you get into trouble, our government will have difficulty to respond immediately.”

So what message is this “Buwaya” Republic sending out to its people and to the world? The DFA, DOLE, POEA and the Vice President have to get their acts together. They are totally confusing the people and creating havoc to an already flustered group. Susmariosep!

By the way, we keep on sending our people out of the country – approving their work in far away places. If the government does not protect the people, it can be clearly accused of consenting to human trafficking. This is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world after drug trafficking and illegal arms trade.

United Nations defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

The UN recommends that national legislation must adopt the broad definition of trafficking prescribed in the Protocol. The legislative definition should be dynamic and flexible so as to empower the legislative framework to respond effectively to trafficking.

Sending our people to work abroad is a “soft” form of human trafficking, especially if they are sent to receiving countries with minimal labor and social laws protecting their rights as human beings. But then again no matter how strong the labor and social laws that protect the rights of our OFWs in receiving/destination countries, they are still open to exploitation and abuse.

Those who work as domestic helpers abroad are actually modern slaves who are “disposable people.” Like used batteries or clothing, once their usefulness ends, a replacement can be procured at no great expense to their employers.

We have around 11 million OFWs around the world. Majority of them are women working as domestic helpers and personal service workers. In 2009, more than US$17.348 billion in remittances was sent to the Philippines by the OFWs. While it is true that the remittances sent by OFWs contribute to the country’s economy, we must not also forget what caused this exodus of Filipino workers – poverty and social inequality.

The government (past and present) has exploited this trade just too much. It’s about time we review our plan for the plight of the OFWs. This is clearly a form of human trade.