Pamalakaya's Anti-GFMD Palutang sa Pasig River

 

Makati CityI

 

October 26, 2008

 

 

   
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Photos courtesy of Pamalakaya

(NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SMALL FISHERFOLK
ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES)
           

 

October 26, 2008
Press Release
For Reference: Gerry Albert Corpuz
Pamalakaya information officer
Contact No: 09286581787

Activists sent off “ floating placards” to Malacañang

against GFMD

Manila- Some 15 activists on Sunday staged a “flotilla protest” along Pasig River in Guadalupe, Makati City to denounce the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which they called an agenda to institutionalize modern-day slavery among migrant workers by exploiting states and governments.

The protesters led by the International Migrants Alliance (IMA), Migrante International, the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) and the fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) sailed off seven placards made of Styrofoam and carton materials bearing slogans “ GFMD, Bogus!” , “No to Forced Migration”, “Resist Imperialist Agenda, Reject GFMD” and “No To Export Labor Policy”.

“The messages in the placards are meant to be read by the Filipino people, and since these “diplomatic protest notes are expected to pass Malacañang and later reach the foreshore area near the Philippine International Convention Center where the GFMD masquerade will be held, we hope President Arroyo and other enemies of migrant workers could see and read what is in the hearts and minds of these modern-day heroes,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap said the flotilla protest staged by Pamalakaya is part of the 10-day protest countdown that would lead to the staging of the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR), jointly sponsored by IMA and Migrante International from Oct.28-30, as an alternative conference or parallel forum ranged against GFMD.

The Pamalakaya leader said his group will participate in the alternative conference, as will mobilize fisherfolk activists for the big mobilization of migrants, refugees and their supporters to be staged by IMA and Migrante International that will take place on Oct. 29 at PICC.

“The migrant workers have scores to settle against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the mother of all pimps in Southeast Asia who champions the export of cheap labor in exchange for American and Euro dollar remittances from our hardworking overseas workers,” Hicap said.


He added: “The migrants all over the world have scores to settle against their puppet governments and their imperialists clients. And the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees is an opportunity for migrants and refugees to further expose and oppose their exploiters and tormentors in the world stage and in the court of world opinion.”

Drop labor export policy

For her part, Eileen Young, secretary of Center for Philippine Concerns based in Montreal, Canada appealed to President Arroyo to drop her labor export policy and instead focus on the creation of decent and good paying jobs for Filipino migrants.

“It is really hard for every Filipino migrant worker to be away thousand miles from his or her family. There is injustice there, because one member of the family has to work in foreign land for day-to-day survival. I am not in favor of this kind of system,” she said.

Young, a Canadian working as sales representative of a book company in Montreal said she would attend the IAMR conducted by IMA and Migrante International to fully understand the plight and daily struggle of Filipino migrants.

Boycott GFMD

Pamalakaya also urged United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kim Ban-moon to boycott the Arroyo government hosted GFMD further asserting that the conference would only be a venue to get after the remittances of migrants and not after their rights and welfare.

The group stressed that the UN chief would only waste his time in attending the GFMD, stressing that the second staging of the global meeting on migration and development would only justify forced migration and exploitation of workers across the globe.

“The mere fact that the corrupt, brutal and criminal government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the main host of the GMFD is an indication that the second global forum on migration and development is nothing but a waste of time for the UN secretary general,” Pamalakaya added.

The group said it is impossible for the UN secretary general to get at the bottom of the truth since the GFMD is dominated by uncaring and exploitative states and are only after the dollar remittances of hard working people away from their homelands, unless Ban-moon wants to talk to this own shadow.

Pamalakaya said the Arroyo presidency known for selling the country reserve army of labor force like cheap cakes in the international labor market for huge benefits and dollar remittances, and therefore the Philippine government is expected to present fake reports aimed at image building.

The group said the third compelling reason why the UN secretary general should not put premium to the international assembly on migration and development is because, the GFMD predictably will turn out into a simple job fair where the lowest seller of his or her labor would land a job abroad.

“And last but not the least, the GFMD will continue to lure people to accept forced migration as a way of life and means of survival so that they would stop blaming national governments and the foreign employers collaborating to keep them this complicated maze of extreme labor exploitation, forced migration and perennial maldevelopment,” Pamalakaya added.

Pamalakaya said instead of attending the GFMD, the UN secretary general should attend the IAMR where the truth will always prevail and he would be informed about the real situation of migrants, refugees and even immigrants working all-over the world. #

 

Pamalakaya (NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SMALL FISHERFOLK
ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES)
National Secretariat Office: 18- A MABUHAY STREET,
CENTRAL DISTRCIT, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
Telefax: 0632-434-38-36 Email addresses:
pampil@skyinet.net, themanager98@yahoo.com

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
           

 

 

PRESS STATEMENT

October 19, 2008

Declaration of October 29 Zero Remittance Day of Migrants Worldwide

The International Migrants Alliance (IMA), an alliance composed of 112 grassroots migrants' organizations worldwide, declares October 29 as Zero Remittance Day.

The Zero Remittance Day is a symbolic protest action of migrants against forced migration and systematic exploitation of cheap labor. It coincides with the opening of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) on October 29, whilst migrant organizations worldwide shall also hold the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) to directly oppose the GFMD.

The Zero Remittance Day principally takes the GFMD to task for being an elitist, anti-migrant forum aimed to perpetuate the greater commodification of migrants worldwide. All over the globe, the growing migrants' movement views the GFMD as a sham assembly with the sole objective to consolidate and legitimize attacks on migrants' rights and welfare.

The GFMD cannot be expected to become a significant tool to its supposed stakeholders, migrant workers themselves, when it fails to tackle the fundamental problems and issues concerning the unprecedented growing number of migrants. The very fact that the GFMD fails to even accommodate genuine migrant representation in its roster is glaring proof of the forum's defectiveness.

 

 

The Zero Remittance Day also aims to condemn the convention of the GFMD amid the global financial crisis. It seeks to send out the united message of protest from millions of migrants worldwide who are forced to leave their homelands and subject themselves to cheap labor and exploitation out of desperation. It discredits migration as a tool for development but the result of continuous unemployment, landlessness and lack of basic services in sending countries.
 

Migration as a tool for development is a fallacy. Migration, at the expense of migrants worldwide, would only serve to benefit developed First World nations. It would not end poverty and joblessness resulting in the forced migration of peoples of poor countries.

In the midst of a global financial crisis, the U.S. and its client states will use the GFMD to increase remittances and the profits they extract from it. The WB has said that the $377-Billion worth of global remittances are greater than the combined amount of official development assistance and foreign direct investments. But these mainly benefit developed countries such as the U.S. and receiving countries while migrant-sending states like the Philippines would only use remittances to pay off foreign debts, keep afloat bankrupt economies, and as a source of corruption.

On October 29, thousands of migrants of different nationalities from different countries will not send home remittances to shout their clarion call – NO to GFMD! End labor export! Create jobs at home! Advance and defend migrants' rights!

Migrants from sending and destination countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, and Australia under the IMA call on fellow migrants and their families to participate in and support the Zero Remittance Day. ###
 

Reference: Connie Bragas-Regalado (09272157392)
Eni Lestari (09082964020)
 

 
           
           

 

MEDIA STATEMENT
27 October 2008

Reference: Joms Salvador, Spokesperson, 371-2302 / 0918-9182180

ON THE SALE OF FILIPINAS VIA GFMD

On the eve of the 25th commemoration of the National Women's Day of
Protest, GABRIELA National Alliance of Women will march to Mendiola to register its strong condemnation of the continued sale of Filipinas by
the Arroyo government via the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

That migration leads to development is an outright lie. That migration
of Filipinas can lead to women's empowerment is a ludicrous notion.
The truth is more and more women are being sold as domestic helpers,
as entertainers, as caregivers and as mail-order brides in exchange
for their dollar remittances. The truth is 22-year old Hazel was raped
by a US soldier two days after arriving in Japan as a migrant worker.
The truth is Cecilia Alcaraz, who worked in Taiwan to solely support
her four children, was sentenced to die for an alleged murder of a
Taiwanese. The truth is more than a thousand OFWs from the Middle
East, mostly women who worked as domestic helpers, came home after
being maltreated by their employers.

The stark truth, as shown by the Philippine experience, is that women
migrant workers find themselves in situations that are very
disempowering. The percentage of women migrant workers rise (women now comprise 60% of the total new-hires in 2006) but jobs available to
majority of them migrant workers are discriminatory. In fact, these
are mere extension of stereotype women roles as homemakers and as sex objects. Most of these jobs render women isolated from any social
contact. Thus, they find themselves without any source of help or
badly needed support in case of abuse. In 2007, the biggest land-based
OFW new-hires are domestic helpers - 47,878 (or 15.6% of the total
land-based new-hires); 93% of this number is women. Almost all worked
within private households, socially isolated and at the mercy of their
employers.
 

 

 

 

Worse, some migrant women workers find themselves engaged in
activities deemed criminal or against public order, e.g.,
prostitution, in their country of destination. Either way this means
that many women migrants become statistically invisible and are, or
become, undocumented. Sex trafficking, is in fact, a natural
by-product of labor-export policy.
 

Neither is it true that families of women migrants are better off nor
do these women are accorded more respect by their families with the
supposed economic power. In many cases, the reason for the mother's
migration which is to send enough money to meet her family's need is
defeated due to the excessively high debts accrued in the process of
migration. The first one to three years of the migrants' wages are
spent just paying off their debts with almost nothing left for the
upkeep of the families left behind.

As of August this year, OFWs have remitted US$10.94 billion. The
growth of dollar remittances, however, has not led to genuine national
development that will benefit the Filipino people and women in
particular. The Philippine economy continues to be crippled by
neo-liberal policies that worsen joblessness and landlessness, which
force Filipinas to leave behind their families and face the
uncertainties and hazards of a life abroad.

The GFMD is expected to intensify labor export and thus increase the
exploitation, commodification, abuse, and denigration of Filipino
women and the breakdown of Filipino families. GABRIELA is united with
participating migrants' organizations of the International Assembly of
Migrants and Refugees on October 28- 30 in denouncing the GFMD and
pushing for governments to end forced migration and instead focus on
ending poverty and creating jobs at home. ###
 
           
           

 

Statement on the Manila Global Forum on Migration and Development
October 28, 2008

References:
Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan (0920-9213221)
Rep. Liza Maza (0920-9134540)
Cristina Palabay, Secretary General (0917-5003879)

Manila GFMD: A Global Forum on Modern Day Slavery
and Dehumanization of Migrants

Hosting this year's 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development
(GFMD) is no less than a major exporter of human labor---the
government of the Philippines. Ranking second to Mexico, the Arroyo
administration boasts of more than 10 million migrant Filipino
workers, most of whom are women who were forced to leave their
families behind to seek better opportunities abroad and provide for
their needs. More than ever, this current administration eyes this
event as an opportunity to unrelentingly push the rummage sale of
Filipino overseas workers especially women.

Being the mouthpiece of the first world countries and foreign
monopolies, GFMD plunges Third World countries to prop up
globalization policies and institutionalize profitable money-making
migration measures in the face of rapid global financial meltdown.
Under this self-serving agenda, they would ensure a plethora of cheap
labor from poor countries and rake in super profits from remittances
of migrant workers. Consequently, migrant workers will be treated no
differently from any other goods for trade making them subject to
exploitation and abuse indistinguishable to "modern-day slavery".

 

 

Indeed, the plight of migrant workers has no room under the GFMD. In
the first place, it was never designed to address the pressing
concerns and cases of violence against women, trafficking, rape, abuse
and even death. It was never meant to ease their burdens and resolve
poor working conditions nor to hear out legitimate concerns. The
protection and empowerment that it speaks of in its central theme is
exclusive only to its own "huge worldwide business" even at the
expense of migrant workers' rights. As long as its mantra is labor
export, it will only spawn the increased vulnerabilities of women to
abuse, violence, rights violations and exploitation.

 

Similarly, the Arroyo administration has no genuine concern to
champion the interests of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) since
it values the latter as mere dollar remittances that would save her
bankrupt economic policies. It seeks more to intensify its labor
export policy to cover up for the neo -liberal bankrupt economic
policies, for the massive displacements of communities because of its
militarist anti-terror policies. Arroyo's twisted framework of
development further intensifies the displacement, commodification of
migrant labor, dehumanization, and enslavement of migrant workers.
Clearly, this policy will only aggravate the plight of migrant
Filipino workers.

Gabriela Women's Party (GWP) joins the call of the International
Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) in rejecting the GFMD. The
IAMR manifests the real score of our migrant workers and depicts the
reality that the Arroyo administration continues to quell. Together
with the grassroots migrants, GWP will continue to uphold and defend
the democratic rights of our OFWs and our women workers and their
families. ###

 
           

 

 
 

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