Heroes, martyrs

Once again a Filipina, one working as a domestic helper in Kuwait, has been killed, her body burned and thrown in the desert. Her death is the fatal end to a story that is, sadly, all too common – Filipinas sent to other countries as domestic workers.

They live in their employers’ homes and are in fact at the mercy of these total strangers, whose customs and attitudes are not like ours. Literally, they are gambling their fate – nakipagsapalaran – in the hopes of earning money to help their families back home.

This tragedy has been happening too often; not too long ago a Filipina, also in Kuwait, was murdered by her employers and stuffed in a freezer. That led to a ban on deployment to Kuwait, the ban lifted when an agreement was forged to guarantee better working conditions for these workers.

But judging from the reported large number of Filipina workers who have sought shelter in the consulate having fled abusive employers, that agreement isn’t working. A piece of paper of an agreement isn’t going to stop employers from abusing our workers who they probably view as second-class or worse, as commodities that they do not treat them with dignity and respect as human beings.

There must be work for them here, perhaps the pay isn’t as good but at least they’d be safe, and they can go back home to their families in the province anytime. We cannot keep sending them out as modern-day heroes only for them to become martyrs. – Rosalinda Manuel, Novaliches, Quezon City