Press Release
28 February 2008

For reference: Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
(852) 97472986

“Our money is not for corruption and plunder”
HK OFW group calls for No Remittance Day to oust GMA

“Our money should not be used to support a most corrupt regime. No Remittance Day is our way of expressing: Enough with corruption. Enough with plundering our money..”

This was announced today by Dolores Balladares, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK), in a protest action to call for the resignation of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in relation to her and her husband’s involvement in the US$329.5 million NBN-ZTE scam.

The said protest, added Balladares,was their contribution to the expected huge Interfaith Prayer Rally organized by major Churches, broad anti-corruption movements and militant groups including BAYAN tomorrow, February 29.

The group said that No Remittance Day is a call they will start to drumbeat in Hong Kong and later on to OFWs in other countries.

“For a day each month starting March 2, we will call for a No Remittance Day to express our condemnation of the blatant corruption in the Philippines led by the First Couple. There is no way that OFWs will just sit down and let plunderers rob people’s money with impunity,” she declared.

Balladares said that the call is an expression of civil disobedience of migrant workers whom she said, are gravely disgusted by the “shamelessness” of GMA and her camp to cover up the NBN-ZTE scandal, downplay the anomaly or “hypocritically discourage” people’s protests.

“Our refusal to remit is our complete withdrawal of trust and confidence to this government. There is no relief for us in a regime that has only brought calamity after calamity to OFWs and our families,” she said.

Balladares relayed that OFWs have had their share of getting “robbed” of their money and rights by the government including the various anomalies that hounded the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and even the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that has issued policies that merely aim to collect more money from overseas Filipinos.

For years, various OFW groups have called for an effective investigation on the OWWA Funds that many believed have been GMA’s “kitty fund” and were not used for concrete improvement of services and assistance to OFWs.

Meanwhile, the recent POEA Memorandum Circular No. 04 that banned direct hiring and was deemed as another way for the government to collect funds, was suspended early his month after OFWs protested in many countries.

“The NBN-ZTE scam is a brazen and grand heist. This we will never let pass especially now that OFWs are experiencing hardships just to make ends meet for the needs of our families,” she remarked.

Balladares lamented the current situation of OFWs whose salary cannot keep up anymore with the dollar slide and high prices of commodities in the Philippines. This situation, she said, is even aggravated by the lack of actions of the GMA government to their issues and to the cases of distressed migrant workers such as the stranded OFWs in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“GMA has no more credibility – moral, political and legal – to govern. There is no other more timely and appropriate demand but for her to resign or be forced to by people’s actions,” she said.

Balladares reported that they will also set into motion a Text Brigade to encourage OFW family members and friends in the Philippines to join the action tomorrow.

“Our money is best spent in what shall give us temporary relief from the grave issues we face. That is for the ouster of GMA,” she concluded.#

(Note: March 2 is the first Sunday of the month. This is the period wherein most OFWs in Hong Kong remit to their families in the Philippines.)