'Over 10,000 Pinoys lost jobs in Taiwan'

MANILA, Philippines - More than 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan have lost their jobs after their contracts were not extended due to the diplomatic row spawned by the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman in disputed waters, a lawmaker said Monday.

OFW Family Club party-list Rep. Roy Señeres said that over 10,000 OFWs are part of the "collateral damage" caused by the diplomatic tensions between the Philippines and Taiwan, where the said OFWs had worked for the past three years.

Taiwan stopped hiring OFWs to express dissatisfaction over Manila’s handling of the Philippine Coast Guard's (PCG) fatal shooting of Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-Cheng in waters off Batanes last May 9.

The employers were prevented from extending their contracts after Taiwan ordered the freeze hiring.

The Philippines will lose at least $2 billion in remittances for the next three years if the contracts of the affected OFWs will not be renewed and all of them are sent back to the country, Señeres said.

Saying that the crisis should not be prolonged any further by both Taiwan and the Philippines, the lawmaker urged the government to release the findings of the investigation on the fatal shooting.

“The DOJ (Department of Justice) findings should now be released to the public and the culprits who started this fiasco should be criminally and administratively charged by the proper court,” he said.

Señeres, a former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, had also urged the government to resume political and economic relations with Taiwan. He earlier said that the country cannot afford to lose the Taiwan market by the dilly-dallying of the resolution of the crisis over the shooting incident.

He added that OFWs bore the brunt of the tension between the two nation, even if they have nothing to do with the dispute.

Last month, DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima said their report on the incident had been submitted to President Benigno Aquino III after the results of the probe of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) were consolidated with the findings of the Taiwanese team's investigation.

De Lima had said that the NBI recommends the filing of criminal charges against the PCG personnel involved in the fatal shooting of the Taiwanese fisherman.