Migrante Europe

Category: Features

  • It rained lies inside congress during BBM’s SONA

    It rained lies inside congress during BBM’s SONA

    BAYAN reaction to Sona 2024

    It may be raining hard in the streets but it was raining lies inside the Batasang Pambansa during the State of the Nation Address of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

    After two years in power, he keeps on saying the lives of ordinary Filipinos have improved. He failed to mention his epic failure to bring down the prices of basic goods, particularly rice; and the refusal of his government to support a substantial wage hike for workers.

    He mentions extending support to our people through crop insurance, medical assistance, and technology-driven education reforms which are at best palliative compared to what we have been demanding: genuine land reform and production subsidy for farmers, bona fide universal health care, and higher state subsidy for the education sector. He also would take away Philhealth funds for his administration’s pork barrel expenditures.

    He claimed to be a “proactive advocate for heightened climate responsibility and justice” but contradicted himself by mentioning the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project, a large-scale construction that threatens to destroy the environment and displace Tumandok Indigenous Peoples.

    He cited the “KALINISAN sa Bagong Pilipinas” and the “Bigyang Buhay Muli ang Ilog Pasig” yet his government has approved destructive projects like PAREX, reclamation, and mining. He also didn’t speak about the dirty impact of foreign military basing and frequent military exercises on our shores and inside our territories.

    He was silent about several controversial initiatives like the Maharlika Investment Fund, expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States, intensified military exercises with foreign troops, the signing of the Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan – all of which are costly programs that allow foreigners to undermine our sovereignty and exploit our resources.

    He has the temerity to brag about the “bloodless war on dangerous drugs” even if a considerable number of drug-related killings have been documented over the past two years. He said that the 8 E’s of his government’s anti-drug campaign does not include “Extermination”. On the contrary, cases of Extrajudicial killings and Enforced Disappearances have continued to persist under his presidency.

    His “peace program” has resulted in numerous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Red-tagging remains the de facto response of state forces to dissent and activism; trumped-up cases are filed against critics and human rights defenders; and militarization in rural communities involve the use of aerial bombs.

    Marcos Jr. once again was ominously silent about peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. He is clearly one with the militarist mindset that denies legitimate and deeply rooted reasons for armed conflict; considers the violations of human rights and IHL as acceptable “collateral damage” in its counterinsurgency program; and the bloated and graft-ridden NTF-ELCAC “baranggay development funds” as the answer to socioeconomic injustice. History has proven such all-out war policy is doomed to fail.

    He bragged about new jobs created under his watch, but have hardly made a dent on chronic unemployment and underemployment. Not to mention are these decent, stable, and high quality jobs? He enumerated several infrastructure projects but are they accessible to the poor and the PWD? Have they made a difference to the harried commuter making do with a broken transportation system? Or are they similar to the PWD footbridge ramp of the MMDA that looks more like a slide in an amusement park? He talked about “railway renaissance” even if most of the projects are focused in Metro Manila and what’s more the prospect that these are tainted with corruption with only favored cronies benefitting from these investments.

    He identified smugglers, hoarders, companies who overcharged consumers, and POGO operators yet he didn’t mention the actions taken by the government against these unscrupulous groups and their powerful benefactors in government. Despite the applause of his select audience at the Batasan, there is the question whether only certain POGOs will be shut down while those given a new name — internet gaming licensees — will continue.

    Lastly, the hardline stance of the Marcos Jr government and its intolerance to dissent is proven once more in the announcement of the police to file charges against SONA protesters. We condemn the continued use of Martial Law tactics and ML laws like BP 880 in undermining the people’s freedom of expression and assembly. We will continue to defy unjust restrictions as we call on authorities to stop weaponizing the laws and judicial process to stifle legitimate criticism and dissent.

    Marcos Jr’s SONA once again confirms our assertion that his regime is insincere and resorting to lies about bringing real change in Philippine society. He is obsessed with rebranding, self-assured in his empty rhetoric and treasonously embracing the agenda of foreign powers like the US. It is up to our people to continue the struggle for real freedom, justice, and democracy in our country.

    #SONA2024 #PEOPLESSONA2024 #PEOPLESSONA See less

  • Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Stood Up to a Dictator—and Her Insights Can Help All of Us Take a Stand for What Matters

    In 2021, I was one of two journalists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The last time a journalist received this award was in 1935. The winner, a German reporter named Carl von Ossietzky, couldn’t accept because he was languishing in a Nazi concentration camp. By giving the honor to me and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, the Norwegian Nobel Committee signaled that the world was at a similar historical moment, another existential point for democracy. In my Nobel lecture, I said that an invisible atom bomb exploded in our information ecosystem, that technology platforms have given geopolitical powers a way to manipulate each of us individually.

    Just four months after the Nobel ceremony, Russia invaded Ukraine, using metanarratives it had seeded online since 2014, when it invaded Crimea, annexed it from Ukraine, and installed a puppet state. The tactic? Suppress information, then replace it with lies. By viciously attacking facts with its cheap digital army, the Russians obliterated the truth and replaced the silenced narrative with its own—in effect, that Crimea had willfully acceded to Russian control. The Russians created fake online accounts, deployed bot armies, and exploited the vulnerabilities of the social media platforms to deceive real people. For the American-owned platforms, the world’s new information gatekeepers, those activities created more engagement and brought in more money. The goals of the gatekeepers and the disinformation operatives aligned.

    That was the first time we became aware of information warfare tactics that would soon be deployed around the world, from Duterte to Brexit to Catalonia to Stop the Steal. Eight years later, on February 24, 2022, using the same techniques and the same metanarratives he had seeded to annex Crimea, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine itself. This is how disinformation, bottom up and top down, can manufacture a whole new reality.

    Less than three months later, the Philippines fell into the abyss. May 9, 2022, was election day, when my country voted for a successor to Duterte. Although there were ten candidates for president, it came down to two: opposition leader and vice president Leni Robredo and Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the only son and namesake of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who declared martial law in 1972 and stayed in power for nearly twenty-one years. The first of the kleptocrats, Marcos was accused of stealing $10 billion from his people before finally being ousted in a People Power revolt in 1986.

    The evening of the election, Marcos Jr. took an early, commanding lead and never dropped it. At 8:37 p.m., with 46.93 percent of precincts transmitting, Marcos had 15.3 million votes compared to Robredo’s 7.3 million. At 8:53 p.m., with 53.5 percent transmission, Marcos was at 17.5 million, Robredo at 8.3 million; by 9:00 p.m., with 57.76 percent, Marcos was at 18.98 million, Robredo at 8.98 million.

    This is how it ends, I said to myself that evening. The election was proving a showcase for the impact of disinformation and relentless information operations on social media that from 2014 to 2022 transformed Marcos from a pariah into a hero. The disinformation networks didn’t just come from the Philippines but included global networks, like one from China taken down by Facebook in 2020. They helped change history in front of our eyes.

    Starting with my Nobel Peace Prize lecture at the end of 2021, I had repeatedly stated that whoever won the election would determine not just our future but also our past. You can’t have integrity of elections if you don’t have integrity of facts.

    Facts lost. History lost. Marcos won.

    ***

    Compared to others in hiding, in exile, or in jail, I am lucky. The only defense a journalist has is to shine the light on the truth, to expose the lie—and I can still do that. There are so many others persecuted in the shadows who have neither exposure nor support, under governments that are doubling down with impunity. Their accomplice is technology, the silent nuclear holocaust in our information ecosystem. We must treat its aftermath the way the world did after the devastation of World War II: creating institutions and agreements like NATO, United Nations, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, we need new global institutions and a reiteration of the values we hold dear.

    We are standing on the rubble of the world that was, and we must have the foresight and courage to imagine, and create, the world as it should be: more compassionate, more equal, more sustainable. A world that is safe from fascists and tyrants.

    This is my journey to doing that, but it is also about you, dear reader.

    Democracy is fragile. You have to fight for every bit, every law, every safeguard, every institution, every story. You must know how dangerous it is to suffer even the tiniest cut. This is why I say to us all: we must hold the line.

    This is what many Westerners, for whom democracy seems a given, need to learn from us. This book is for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would.

    What you do matters in this present moment of the past, when memory can be so easily altered. Please ask yourself the same question my team and I ask every day:

    What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?

  • An anti-imperialist feminist appeal for Climate Justice from a Filipina-German activist

    An anti-imperialist feminist appeal for Climate Justice from a Filipina-German activist

    Karin Louise
    Filipino-German academic activist | Indigenous Rights, Climate Justice & Aloha ‘Āina | M.A. in Pacific Islands Studies | PhD Candidate in American Studies | International Relations Officer of Gabriela Germany.

    With every passing year that countries and transnational corporations put economic profits over people, we move one step closer to our worst-case climate catastrophes of 4 to 8 degrees of global warming with fast melting ice-caps and rising sea-levels. Here in Germany where I’m currently based, we already tangibly experienced extended heatwaves causing drought and forest fires last summer. Elsewhere there are stronger natural disasters like supertyphoons, and snow storms from polar vortexes become common occurrences as well.

    Climate change impacts women and members of other vulnerable and structurally-disadvantaged communities like Indigenous Peoples more severely as they may have less access to resources. Oftentimes women are the ones in charge of the household, child-rearing, and care-giving of elders. And in the Philippines they are also sometimes the main breadwinners in a family, because this female care labour force is outsourced as domestic work elsewhere.

    Poverty and corruption in the Philippines from centuries of Spanish and American colonialism burden the livelihood of much of the population enough. Now climate change with its strengthening natural disasters mean that in the case of devastation, women find themselves in scenarios of not only struggling to find shelter, food, and clean drinking-water, but also desperate to evade the higher risk of sexual violence during a state of emergency.

    Indigenous Peoples in particular are at the frontlines of climate action in the Global South, yet also in the Global North, where this January Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau was violently evicting activists/protectors from the Wet’suwet’en Nation from their land in the way of the TransMountain oil pipeline. And I have spoken here in Berlin against the North Dakota Access Pipeline at rallies before, too. In many of these movements, it’s the women who are leading the resistance to protect Mother Earth.

    While Brazil and the Philippines are under strongman leadership by macho-fascists, they are also the countries with the highest and second-highest rate of murders to environmental defenders in the last years. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Kankana-ey-Igorot), and several other Indigenous Filipinas are women who have found themselves placed on national terrorist lists: as enemies of the state for protecting their land from environmental destruction.

    When agribusinesses enforce land-grabbing, environmental defenders in their way literally risk their lives. After a deadly landslide in the Philippines causing over 60 deaths, a local woman asked the President about shutting down the quarry that was likely to have caused it. She then went into hiding for having openly criticized him and called attention to herself. Mining corporations bring a lot of male aggression into regions were women and children become the targets of violence, trafficking, and prostitution. If not outright murder, as is the case in North America’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW).

    In November of 2013, Supertyphoon Haiyan ravaged the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines, to date with more than 6000 human fatalities and 1000 still missing. Warming oceans caused a stronger typhoon than the typical ones that hit the region during typhoon season. The seawater rose in the low-pressure system of the eye of the typhoon and caused a storm surge that the population hadn’t been warned about or prepared for.

    This storm surge was well over 2 storeys high rolling across infrastructure, including the city of Tacloban where my uncle, aunt, and cousin live. They were presumed to be among the dead in the hardest-hit area, the peninsula the city’s airport was on, cut off from any communication. But they were found after 3 days, when another relative connected to the military had made his way there from a neighbouring province. The reason I mention the storm surge is also because women in the Philippines are discouraged from learning how to swim. They don’t even stand a chance to survive sudden-onset flooding in an archipelago of over 7100 islands.

    The same racist forces of American colonialism and neocolonialism the Philippines has been under since 1898, are why Flint still doesn’t have clean drinking-water, why Puerto Rico is still rebuilding after Hurricane Maria while many residents have migrated to the U.S. continent. Colonialism is why the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, within the path of the same typhoons that regularly hit the Philippines, still has residents living in shelters and tents after Typhoon Mangkhut and Supertyphoon Yutu destroyed their homes in September and October.

    While some governments and their politicians are still denying climate change as man-made, a handful of global corporations are responsible for causing the major part of carbon emissions that led to this climate catastrophe and the masses of plastic pollution that cannot simply be shipped out of sight (and out of mind) any longer.

    Climate justice calls for not only funding poorer nations and communities already impacted by climate change towards adaptation, but also for an implementation of just transition and compensations for loss and damage. This means that moving away from fossil fuels cannot come with unjust consequences for a labour force impacted by this energy transition, or with false solutions that don’t consider the consequences in the long-run. False imperialist solutions can take away more Indigenous lands for palm oil plantations or even promote nuclear energy as a safe alternative to fossil fuels, when colonization is the only reason that the storage of nuclear waste is not considered in these plans, as it’s merely disposed of near marginalized communities.

    It’s affecting us all globally, but at a different speed and intensity. Postponing a collective system change of the capitalist system of profit and growth over human dignity is still seen as a worthwhile gamble in the global North, when others are already losing their homes, livelihoods, and lives in the global South and on Indigenous territory to an insatiable imperialist greed.

  • Filipino Migration into Italy

    Filipino Migration into Italy

    (Orignally posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing in Center for Migrant Studies and Researches, Rome, Italy 03 Dece4mber 2014)

    Italy is host to more than 4 million migrants of diverse nationalities. They comprise about 5 percent of the country’s total population.. Fifty percent of the migrants are Europeans, 20 percent are Africans, twenty percent are from Asiatic Countries, and ten percent from the Americas, predominantly South and Central American.

    About sixty percent of the immigrant community are living in Northern Italy, twenty seven percent are in Central Regions, and about thirteen percent in Southern Italy.

    The main worry among the immigrants is the problem of housing, employment and their integration to the Italian society. Many migrants has to struggle to pay rents, and for the majority, buying a house is just out of reach. On the average, the income of migrant workers in Italy is half of the income of the average Italian worker. There is no job security for the immigrant population, and many of them do not have regular work. ( Data from CARITAS Report of 2010)

    Italy has been one of the countries in Europe that experienced a sustained growth in Filipino labor migration. The works at home previously carried out by Italians, men and women alike, are not compensated by the public service.

    It should be well noted that the political conditions and rising economic growth in Italy, the labor segmentation, the demographic collapse, among other factors, has necessitated the services of migrant workers including domestic services has increased the demands for Filipinas.

    However, Italy is distinguished from the others since it was more through the personal initiatives of the migrants themselves rather than the planning of the Philippine government that brought most of them to this country, to flee from poverty and lack of employment that would support decent life for workers in the Philippines.

    Philippine-Italy studies indicate that most Filipinos travel with tourist visas and found works here afterwards. The advent of stricter immigration policies in 1986 made this mode of entry more difficult, forcing the migrants, Filipinos included, to find other means to enter the country, legally or otherwise, despite the insertion of more formal migration channels.

    The Number of Filipinos in Italy
    In 2006, the Philippine Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) estimated that there are 128,080 Filipinos residing in Italy: of which 23,108 are permanent residents, 84,972 are OFWs (temporary workers whose stay in foreign countries are limited by the duration of their contracts), and the remaining 20,000 are illegally working and living in Italy

    The CFO estimates maybe a bit conservative since they are basing their count from the annual departures from Manila airport. Since the Philippine government normally has no direct control on the contracts signed by the workers in Italy, and their estimate on undocumented migrants is based mainly on the estimates of the Philippine Embassy in Rome. It should of course be noted that other estimates indicate higher numbers of Filipinos residing in Italy with some guess indicating that there are more than 200,000 Filipinos residing in Italy.

    The CARITAS di Roma 2013 reported that there are 165, 763 Filipinospresent in Italy of which 46, 773are in surrounding Lazio province in Rome of which majority are concentrated in the city of Rome and it indicated indicated that about sixty-one percent of them are women.

    Incongruent may be these figures, these studies and estimates confirm the fact that within Europe, Italy is host of the largest Filipino migrants community in Europe preceded only by Spain, Greece and Austria. Italy is among the top ten destinations of Filipino migrants preceded only by Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates. The largest concentration of the Filipino migrants in Italy could be found in Rome and Milan and its surroundings.

    The Feminized Migration Flow to Italy
    The researches of the Italian Institute for Statistics (ISTATS) concerning the regular temporary workers in Italy points out that women comprise about sixty-three percent of the migrants present in Italy. Sixty to seventy percent of the Filipinos are employed in the service sector, with Filipino women in large majority. In cities like Rome and Milan female Filipinos account up to seventy percent of all Filipinos in these cities. It cannot be considered an exaggeration to say that Filipino outward migration to Italy and elsewhere has always been dominated by women.

    The great majority of Filipino female migrants work in the domestic service according to some specific studies, points out that ninety-five percent are employed in domestic field. Nursing and employment in the entertainment sector and employment in hotels are the other fields where Filipinas are represented in minor numbers. It is noteworthy that the economic recession in the Philippines in the mid-90’s led to the presence of male migrant labor in Italy, although women are still in great majority. It is also the Filipinas who made great efforts to reunite their families in Italy more than the other nationalities when the Italian migration policies made it easier for the migrants to petition the entrance of the members of their family into Italy in the mid-90’s. Also, three profiles of the Filipinas are distinguished: married women with children, single mothers and singles women.

    Education and Income Levels
    Although it is somewhat difficult to assess the exact figures regarding the different levels of education characterizing the Filipinos in Italy, anecdotal evidence indicates that the Filipino migrants are more than fairly educated compared to other migrants present in Italy, The majority of Filipino migrants are high school graduates, and most having at least some university education. Philippine sources have the same conclusion. Many of them are even university graduates and most are experienced skilled workers before leaving for overseas. It could, therefore, be concluded that it was the salary, living conditions or job opportunity factor that drove most of them to migrate.

    The Filipino migrants in Italy could now be classified as being part of the middle-class in the Philippines, despite their relatively low income in Italy. It should be important to note that the middle class in the Philippines has diminished drastically in the years of the Marcos regime. Vast numbers of the Filipino middle class has fled the country for political or economic reasons due to severe repressions during that period, and the majority of those who remained were either absorbed by the lower classes, and few, indeed very few, were graduated to the upper class.

    Remittances
    In 2004, the total remittance of Filipino migrants was 8.5 billion US Dollars. These figures does not even include remittances sent through informal channels which, should it be included, the total could reach a very much higher figure.

    Of the total USD 20.5 B sent by the OFWs scattered in the whole world in 2013, more than USD 46 M was from the OFWs in Italy, making them the fourth in the rank of remittance sender to the Philippines.

    The actual bulk of remittance sent by the OFWs into the country for that year was estimated between US$14 billion to US$21 billion (1/3 from USA, 1/3 from Middle East and 1/3 from other countries) based on the studies for the Asian Development Bank (Kevin Melynn, ADB Consultant, Worker Remittances as a Development Tool: Opportunity for the Philippines, ADB, 2003)

    The present restrictions on money transfers that is being enforced by the Italian authorities, may make it harder to estimate how much really are being sent from this country. Most of the undocumented Filipino migrants can not avail of the services of banks and money transfer firms and are forced to use informal venues to send their money to their families, and this, of course can not be included in the estimates on the total remittances.

    François Bourguignon, World Bank Chief Economist, wrote: “We have now a research program on migration issues surrounding remittances, high-skilled migration, temporary movement of persons, social protection and governance of migration, and the link between trade, foreign direct investment, and migration.” – Global Development Finance 2003 Annual Report. (Global Economic Prospects 2006: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration.)

    In the midst of a crisis, they use this tool as a crushing vise in exploiting the country. The Philippines, like all the labor exporting countries, are dependent on the remittances being sent home by the migrants. In fact, about 10% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product income are the remittances of the OFWs.

    The impact of the Global Financial Crisis

    “THE PRESENT SITUATION IS THE CULMINATION OF DECADES OF NEOLIBERALISM, CORPORATE GLO-BALIZATION AND FINANCIALIZATION BETWEEN 1995 AND 2007 THAT REDUCED THE SHARE OF INCOME GOING TO WORKERS’ WAGES BUT INCREASED THE SHARE GOING TO THE FEW RICH CAPITALISTS AND CORPORATES IN THREE QUARTERS OF THE WORLD’S NATIONS.”

    – Prof William K. Tabb

    The words of this American Economist echoes the sentiments of world’s workers including the migrant workers who are shouldering the heavy burden of sufferings caused by globalization, and now, the same workers again has to be sacrificed by the people who created the sufferings by saving themselves and leaving them in a mire of hardships they have to endure.

    The problem has hit most the lower income bracket workers which includes the migrants. Thousands has been the victims of retrenchments or cutting shorts of working time and lowering of salaries. The migrants most affected in Italy are those working in factories, constructions, and hotel/restaurant and supermarket services, where hundreds were laid off or whose working times are abbreviated. But worst is the flight of those who do not have regular contracts since they cannot avail on unemployment compensations and has to tighten their belts. There are still no official record of Filipino migrants in Italy directly affected by the global crisis, but sixty to seventy percent of Filipino migrants in Italy are in the service sector most domestic workers.

    This phenomenon is universal. Like this crisis, it is global. It affects both rich and poor country, although the third world countries are hit harder because they are dependents of the neocolonist countries, they do not have the means to remedy the situation.

    Like the others, Filipino migrants has suffered the same fate. I do have the data on migrants of other nationalities, but the table shows how the loss of jobs, and also the stoppage of jobs long awaited by other workers that is by now held in abeyance by the employers in the countries of destination caused by the global crisis, is real and steps has to be done specially by the countries that are dependent on the remittances being sent home by us migrants. The Philippines is the world’s third largest recipient of remittances after India and Mexico, The remittances of Filipino migrants represent 10.5 percent of the country’s GDP, and about 20 percent of the country’s total earnings. The diminished numbers of remittance senders could also affect the national economy.

    In terms of human sufferings, almost all of the migrants, with a few exceptions are from the poorest sectors of the society of the country where they are from. The loss of jobs would mean hunger for many families. And since the majority are not covered by unemployment insurance, it would mean more than just being hungry. It would mean the education, housing and many others.

    Italy: the frontline of Fortress Europe
    Italy has seen a sustained inward migration in the past 20 years, given its geographical position in the center of the Mediterranean, with more 8,000 km. of coastline, the country is considered as the most accessable to Europe by the migrants of many countries of origin.

    The economic gaps between various regions of Italy also governs the way in which migrants has entered the labor market. In the north, more markedly in the industrialized northeastern regions with a low unemployment rates, immigrants are mainly employed in industrial activities and are occupied in more or less regular positions. In the central regions, notably in the city of Rome and its surrounding provincial regions populated by well to dos, the migrants are employed in the service sectors, mostly as domestic helpers, nannies and caregivers especially the female migrants, In the South, the majority of migrant workers are employed in seasonal jobs and in the clandestine underground economy particularly in agriculture and construction sectors.

    Aside from legal immigrants with regular documents and resident permits, there is a great number of illegal migrants present in Italy. There are no precise count available for the clandestines. The only estimate availble is from the Caritas, a Catholic Church agency which gives assistance to the poor including the clandestine migrants.

    Because of negative propagandas by some political parties particularly the extrem right Lega Nord and Forza Italia, criminality was tied with clandestine migrants, breeding hatred and distrust among the people. As a result, incidents of migrants being mauled by some extremist gangs, leading in some cases, to death of the victims has occurred. Due to discriminations, migrants find it very hard to find work and accomodations. They are also deprived of social rughts and services.

    Immigration Laws
    The earliest attempt at regularizing and integration of migrants was conceived in latter parts of 1988 and finally was approved by the Italian Parliament in the beginning of 1990 as Law 39/90 otherwise known as the Martelli Law. This law aims to make plans on migratory inflow to the country with the collaboration of the immigrant’s country of origin. This law was later further amended by the Amato-Ferrero Law.

    In 1998, the center-left coalition government passed the Law 40/98 also called the Turco-Napolitano Law which was an attempt to regularize the position of non EU immigrants and improve their integration into Italian society. This law imposed an intricate procedures for the deportation of illegal immigrants, who, once accosted by the authority and tried by a magistrate and could be deported in the event that he is judged by the court as illegal immigrant. The immigrant is given 2 weeks to appeal his case. In most cases, this period is utilized by the migrants to go underground.

    The Bossi-Fini Law
    The xenophobic leader of Lega Nord Umberto, Bossi and the extreme right Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi criticized the Law 40/98 as too soft. The Center-Left coalition used, what in their opinion, the shortcomings of the law, and the black propaganda against illegal immigration, as campaign issue and won the May 2001 general election. From the onset of their coming to power, the Center-Right government has made the immigration issue a priority and after a bitter debate in the Parliament, passed the Law 189/2002 that regulates immigration in a more strict term and issued a decree to regularize immigrants already present in the country.

    This law 189/02 also known as Bossi-Fini Law named after the politicians who proposed it, took effect on July, 2002, amended the 1998 Imigration Law and introduced new stringent clauses. The most significant aspects of the law are the following:

    • Before November 30 of each year, the Prime Minister will lay down the number of non-EU workers to be admitted into Italy for the following year (the so called Flussi Decree).
    • There shall be no limitations for the entry in Italy for highly skilled workers (university lecturers and professors, professional nurses, etc.).
    • Other workers of non-EU origin will be allowed to enter Italy only after obtaining a “residence contratct”, signed both by the employer and the worker (contratto di soggiorno).1
    • An immigration office will be set up in every province of Italy to oversee the rectruitment all migrant workers.2
    • Residence permits for reason of employment with a maximum validity period of 2 years shall be issued to migrant workers.
    • Clandestines and irregular workers shall be accompanied by the authorities to the border and deported. Deportations are immediate and cannot be suspended even through an appeal through the courts.
    • After 6 years of regular residence in Italy, non-EU citizens with stable jobs and the necessaty economic requisites to support themselve and their family may apply for a permanent residence permit.
    • Minors of non-EU origin in Italy shall be issued a residence permit when they reach adult age (18 years), provided that they have already lived in Italy for at least 3 years, and have attended a social and civil integration programme provided by a public or a private organization. This organization must guarantee that they have adequate accommodations, study school or go to work. The number of resident permits issued on this condition shall be deducted from the pre-defined number of total annual permits.

    Regularization
    A decree on regularization was issued on 6 September, 2002 provides the regularization of of two types of irregular immigrant worker: The undocumented or clandestine migrants who had not been regularized since ttheir entry into the trretory and the irregular immigrants with expired residence permits. The categories include Domestic workers and home helpers, ie:caregivers and nannies; and other dependent workers engaged in other suburdinate employment.

    The requirements fot the regularizations are as follows:

    • The worker must have been employed by a company or individual employer for at least 3 months.
    • The employer must agree to engage the worker on an open-ended or on a fixed term contract the worker must receive a minimum monthly salary of € 700
    • within 10 days from the submission of the application for the regularization, both the worker and employer shall be convoked by the prefecture or the police to formalize the working contract.

    And to other EU Member States for instance, there is anecdotal evidence indicating that a number of Filipino domestic helpers brought along by their Arab employers for a vacation in Europe succumb to the temptation of abandoning their employment in favour of irregular stay in Italy or Europe with the help of other Filipinos.

    The CFO does not have any available information on human trafficking or smuggling activity involving Italy. Meanwhile, there are some reported cases of Filipinos being recruited for fictitious work in EU countries including Italy, with the aid of illegal recruiters – Filipino and Chinese – using fake passports and visas.

    A 2006 advisory from the POEA reported that some Filipinos in Hong Kong were lured into paying HKD 25,000 to HKD 40,000 (or USD 3,214.83 to USD 5,143.73) for their plane tickets and for processing tourist visas for Italy (POEA, 2006a).

    Migrant workers who are in Italy without the proper work documentation are ineligible for basic social services and often find themselves in vulnerable and exploitative work conditions. They cannot access formal financial, banking or remittance services because of the inability to present formal work documents, or for fear of disclosing their undocumented status. This sector has no choice but to send money home through informal channels and, as the survey showed, keep their earnings at their residences or carry money personally wherever they go. It is expected that these irregular workers will persevere in such status in the hope of obtaining amnesty in the future.

    A significant number of undocumented Filipinos in Italy have availed of the amnesty and regularization program offered by the Italian Government. The last amnesty was in 2002,when 646,829 foreigners were granted permits – including 9,820 Filipinos. Among regularized migrants who are in domestic work, Filipinos (89% of regularized undocumented domestic workers) are the biggest ethnic group (Carfagna et al., 2008). From June to September 2009, the Italian government accepted amnesty applications from irregular foreign workers (Buenafe, 2009).

    Integration and occupational mobility of Filipinos. There are programs and procedures available to foreigners who wish to upgrade their credentials to qualify themselves for higher occupations. Among these are advanced professional training programs administered by the regions.7 Legal recognition of academic qualifications through an application with the appropriate university or educational institutions, which must issue decisions within prescribed periods, or recognition of professional titles such as nurses, doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, biologists, consultants, and various other expertise may be obtained through applications filed with the different ministries. The basic requirements are a high level of knowledge of the Italian language, and a valid permit to stay, aside from educational credentials and other requirements. Scholarships and grants are also available to those wishing to pursue higher studies.8 Some of the key informants suggested that Filipinos are not benefiting from such programmes, as a good number of Filipinos are juggling multiple jobs to augment their incomes to support the family’s immediate needs or pay for various financial obligations, leaving no time for upgrading their skills.

    Filipino migrants often do not have time for self-improvement because of their multiple work engagements. In the words of Cristina Liamzon, a Filipino advocate for socio-economic empowerment, Filipino migrant workers “lack the confidence or mindset for self-improvement, in availing of language and training programmes, or even educational grants, particularly those offered by city or provincial authorities.” 9 This stresses the need for more initiatives in capability building and raising awareness of opportunities for the Filipino community. As many of these workers are focused on increasing their incomes through hired work, and few are self-employed, the Filipinos as a group miss out on the numerous entrepreneurship programmes promoted by the Italian government.

    Whether due to the pressure to provide for the family’s needs or to cultural inhibition, a good number of Filipino workers prefer earning a stable income by taking more than one domestic or caregiving job. Doing so enables them to send more remittances and/or increase their savings. This is preferable to upgrading their skills or handling a business that does not offer prospects of financial gains in the short term. As the survey for this research reveals, many depend on a stable high income to pay for investments, house amortizations, insurance premiums and loans in the Philippines.

    Those who advocate that in the long term, it would be beneficial for migrant workers to take advantage of such training courses (which reportedly are in abundance) may perhaps highlight stories of migrants who successfully made the leap from domestic to professional or self-employed status.It is also possible that there could be cultural barriers involved, since such training courses are reportedly provided by Italian agencies in Italian language. It may therefore be worth studying by the Philippine NGOs in Italy that they initiate the conduct of such training courses in the embassy or Filipino church grounds. A vehicle to do this might be the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC), whose successful FWRC skills training in Kuala Lumpur can be replicated in Rome and/or Milan, where there are none at present.

    Filipino youths in Italy. The family reunification policies of Italy have provided for Italy-based Filipinos a remedial solution of sorts to address issues relating to the prolonged absence of their loved ones, as well as expanding their household’s income base. The outcome of the family reunification, however, appeared to be a little rather more complex. For one, there are concerns that Filipino youths in Italy face immense challenges, including cultural adjustment and acculturation. Some are seen engaged in socially destructive behaviour such as juvenile delinquency and drug abuse, particularly among Filipino youths whose move to Italy was decided by their parents. Given this opportunity to join their parents, there are also documented cases of children not finishing their schooling in the Philippines to join their parents in Italy and become domestic workers (Añonuevo & and Añonuevo, 2002). The Italy–Philippines Migration and Remittance Corridor
    The Italy–Philippines Migration and Remittance Corridor
    In another survey of 99 Filipino youths and 101 parents and NGO workers in Rome (Liamzon, 2007), it was found that:

    • Filipino youths in school face serious social and academic problems, given their lack of Italian language skills that hinders them from making friends; and
    • Filipino parents admit to difficulty in dealing with the struggles their children face in integrating into Italian society, especially in circumstances where many parents have the desire to work extra hours to augment the family income. Children (especially those aged below 18 years old) complain of lack of family time, and of the decision of their parents to have them come to Italy.

    While documentation on the Filipino minor population is not available, the issues that face the youth are worthy of consideration, as many of them appear to have been forced to move to Italy in order to contribute to the family income. Their inclusion in programs on the productive use of remittances might be considered as early as possible, although psychosocial counselling appears also to be a paramount need. In the long term, the real cause for concern regarding migrant Filipino minors is the emergence of a generation of OFs in Italy that pose new challenges to:

    • both the sending and receiving governments in terms of the demand for the smooth integration of the young migrants transplanted in a new country;
    • OFs who have to cope with their socially and culturally challenged youth; • the Philippine government that must prepare for the future reintegration of Italy-based
    • Filipinos that may want to return to the Philippines upon retirement or old age.

    The global economic crisis and Filipinos in Italy. Many expected the global economic crisis that began in 2008 to affect migrants in various ways. The impacts, as mentioned by IOM (2009), include:

    • restrictions on new admissions of migrant workers and non-renewal of work permits;
    • job losses, wage reductions, ineligibility of newly arrived migrants for social benefits;
    • racism and xenophobia;
    • return migration of displaced migrant workers;
    • diminished remittance volumes for countries;
    • Increased irregular migration; and
    • specific gender issues, e.g. which gender was more affected by job attrition.

    The admission of new migrant workers was heavily restricted in Italy. For the first time, in 2009, no quotas were provided for new workers except for 80,000 slots for non-EU seasonal workers. A report by the OECD (2009) states that Italy may see its employers abandoning applications for immigrant workers. Last year, about 10,000 employers withdrew requests for immigrant workers. However, it seems that demand for domestic workers remains significant in Italy and elsewhere despite the downturn. Most (at least two thirds) of the 2008 quota for foreign workers – and the entire quota for entries in 2009 – are reserved for domestic and personal care workers (OECD, 2009). Although the trends do not portend a doom scenario for Filipino workers in Italy (including domestic workers), the Filipinos’ economic survival and better management of resources remain urgent needs.

  • Open letter of MIGRANTE to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte: The change OFWs want to see

    Open letter of MIGRANTE to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte: The change OFWs want to see

    May 13, 2016

    Dear President Duterte,

    We congratulate you on your overwhelming victory in the May 2016 polls. The Filipino people have spoken, and they chose change.

    You sweeping victory is testament to how Filipinos, wherever we are in the world, thirst for a new leadership that is not corrupt and cacique. We want a new government that will depart from all the failures and empty promises of the so-called ‘tuwid na daan’. We want accountability for all the crimes committed by the Aquino government against the Filipino people.

    For these elections, despite and against all odds, a record-breaking 407,000 overseas Filipino voters exercised their right to vote and fulfilled their duty to the nation. This big increase is proof of overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs’) stake in the outcome of the May 2016 elections. It disproved all claims that there had been a growing apathy among our OFWs. We have once again proven how significant the OFW vote is.

    We are one with the Filipino nation in hoping that your presidency will immediately address fundamental problems that beset the country – widespread unemployment, lowest wages, contractualization, landlessness, lack of basic social services, corruption, violations of human rights and national sovereignty – the root causes of forced migration.

    We are one with all OFWs in hoping that your presidency will scrap the labor export policy that exploits our cheap labor and remittances but offers us nothing in return, especially in times of need. We will hold you to your promise to make OFWs your top-most priority in your labor agenda. We want new leaders who will be nurturing to OFWs and their families.  We want a new government that will uphold and protect our rights and welfare.

    We specifically call to your urgent attention the case of Mary Jane Veloso who remains on death row in Indonesia and others like her who have received no legal assistance from the previous administration; the immediate recall of notorious abusive and erring embassy officials, as well as accountability of high-level government officials responsible for the tanim-bala extortion scheme and other unresolved anomalies in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA); the urgent and full audit of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds and its immediate release to rightful OFW beneficiaries; the quick resolution of illegal recruitment and trafficking cases filed by countless OFW victims at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC); and, the scrapping of unnecessary fees that are viewed by our kababayans as nothing but ‘legalized kotong’, such as the abolition of the rubbish Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC), among others.

    We are very much open to hold a dialogue with you to further discuss urgent and fundamental OFW concerns, especially as the nation is set to commemorate Filipino Migrants’ Day on June 7.

    We dream of a society where families will need not be broken by the need to survive. We wish to come home to a country where there are opportunities for everyone to live decent and humane lives.

    Mr. President, these are the changes we want to see in your administration. ###

    For reference:
    Garry Martinez
    Chairperson, Migrante International
    0939-3914418

    —
    Website: http://migranteinternational.org
    Office Address: #45 Cambridge St, Cubao, Quezon City
    Telefax: 911491

  • TRIBUTE | Diplomat and public servant exemplar: Ambassador Doy Lucenario

    TRIBUTE | Diplomat and public servant exemplar: Ambassador Doy Lucenario

    By: Veronica Uy, InterAksyon.com, May 13, 2015

    Often between media and source is conflict. And conflict was what brought me to meet Filipino diplomat and public servant exemplar Domingo “Doy” Lucenario.

    Before 2007, the Philippine passport was largely disrespected for its easy “fake-ability” (remember being called for a longer immigration interview at your destination?) because the Philippine passport system was in shambles (remember how the lines were long and disorderly, with fixers everywhere misguiding the already exhausted and confused applicant?) and a contract to upgrade the Philippine passport to world-class level is in the legal dustbin.

    But then Asec Doy did not wait for those bureaucratic and legal obstacles to correct themselves before he fixed what he could. He patiently, deftly, and systematically put things in order.

    Anyone who’s worked in or with government and is familiar with its turtle pace (especially if additional budget is needed) has called his accomplishments at the passport division nothing short of a miracle. Migrant workers’ rights advocate Ellene Sana recalls how Doy turned the once much-cursed passport division into an “efficient, person-friendly” office that “delivers in its services.”

    His solutions were simple but effective, products of a frank observation of the system: “big visible signages with the name of the DFA passport office and arrows pointing to the passport office; continuous play on the loudspeaker/public address system of announcement to inform the applicants of what to do/requirements to apply/renew the passport and also to warn against fixers; and courteous guards and personnel attending to and guiding the applicants, providing accurate information and advice.”

    He was at the frontline DFA service that other diplomats were reluctant or unwilling to manage as it was not about the more glamorous “foreign policy.” He recognized the importance of this service to ordinary folk. At that time, at least 6,000 passports were processed every day!

    He used time-and-motion studies to determine how many staff were needed for each step of the passport process. He hired and trained young, eager-to-help people to face this tired, impatient, and perhaps hungry crowd. He also found a place for the not so easily employable and hired the hearing-impaired for data encoding.

    On top of these efforts at the DFA main office and the regional passport offices, he introduced the mobile outreach passport program to remote municipalities where applications are processed within the day.

    He was a systems man. He viewed the problematic situation as a system and fixed it as a system — no piecemeal tweaking for him.

    While he was doing all these, he was also working with other agencies: a one-stop passport processing station at the POEA for OFWs; removing the Malacanang verification for authentication of documents; and an on-line database of the National Statistics Office to facilitate verification of birth certificates (I know he helped work it out so the NSO would have an office near the DFA for faster service).

    A key goal was to work on getting a machine-readable passport for all Filipino travelers. He successfully got the bosses to sign up on the plan — I’m sure not without much jumping through all kinds of legal hoops. Now we have more than that — an electronic passport (e-passport) that gets us through most foreign destinations with no more shameful invites for side interviews by immigration officers.

    At the core, he was a pro-people public servant. While many in government service would refuse to work with sometimes irascible leftist groups like Migrante, he did. In fact, Migrante’s Eman Villanueva got him as ninong at his wedding.

    Lingkod-bayan

    Like Villanueva, I have asked for his help with passport applications and releases (many for bosses, officemates, and colleagues, and several for relatives). With his good nature (ang gaang gaang dalhin, so easygoing), you know he’s not going to take it against you or count it as a favor he would call back on.

    “Pana-panahon, nakakatagpo tayo ng mga tao sa gobyerno na tunay at sinserong naglilingkod sa ating mga kababayan. Walang inaasahang kapalit, parangal, o pagkilala. Bukas ang isip at handang makinig sa ating mga karaingan kahit magkaminsan ay hindi kapareho ng palagay at pananaw sa ibang mga bagay,” says Villanueva.

    “Gumagawa siya ng paraan para matugunan ang ilang kagyat na pangangailangan ng ating mga kababayan sa kabila ng mga kakapusan at limitasyong kakabit ng kanyang katungkulan o ng burukratikong sistema ng pamahalaan. Mabilis na tumutugon kapag nilalapitan. Ilang beses din na kami sa Migrante ay may inilapit at kagyat niyang tinulungan.”
    (“Sometimes, we encounter people in government who are true and sincere in serving our people. No expectation of recognition or honor in return. Open-minded, ready to listen to the people’s complaints, even if sometimes his views and yours are not the same.”)

    (“He found ways to respond to the urgent needs of the people despite the lack and limitations attached to his position or the bureaucracy. He quickly responded when approached. Many times, we in Migrante approached him, and he immediately responded.”)

    He was toward the end of his tour in dangerous Pakistan when he died, looking after the welfare of thousands of OFWs still in US and NATO military bases in Afghanistan, including the Samahang ng Filipinos (SAF) and the Pinoy Bunker/Filipinos in Afghanistan who called him their “link to the Department of Foreign Affairs.” As there is no DFA presence in Afghanistan, he was “the eyes and ears of the Philippine government” there, able to guide the Philippine government in the raising or lowering of alert levels in that country.

    According to Roberto Tabloc, who has his own construction company in Afghanistan, Amba Doy was able to persuade the powers-that-be to expand the exemptions for OFWS in Afghanistan. He hopes that this will be announced this month to enable more Filipinos working in that country to come home for vacations and be documented by the POEA.
    What was the source of this passion and leadership to serve? According to my boss Chuchay Fernandez, Doy was one of the original recruits of the late World Press Freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr. Doy was among the student leaders he mentored in the mid-1970s, way back when Doy was just a UE high school student.

    To fellow workers in government, he was not boss (even after he became ambassador), he was colleague. Faith Bautista recalls their days in Iran for a NAM meeting. “I was the only female in the delegation and I am the non-officer. I have to do staff work. But you were always there. Be it at 12 midnight to get the badges or to take notes for the big boss while I arrange his next meetings. You need not be there. But you were there! You were also there at 4 in the morning to see if we were alright while preparing for the next day of the Coordination Workshop for SNAMMM heads.”

    And which reporter does not appreciate a great news source? Amba Doy was. To this reporter he always had stories. If he could not go on record, he would point to another source (inside or outside the DFA, a person or a document) that could confirm his stories.

    After the shock of the news of his death, my Facebook newsfeed had a lot of posts thanking him for his service. Indeed, he had been an exemplary diplomat, bridging people and ideas, and a true public servant, going beyond the call of duty. A happy worker. Salamat, Amba Doy. Salamat sa lahat.

  • Nang magising si Juan OFW matapos ang mahabang-mahabang paglalakbay…..

    Ako si Juan OFW, dating badante. Kabilang na ngayon sa tinatawag na “stranded” o walang  regular na trabaho. Iyan ang hirap kapag caregiver ka kapag natigok si Italyano kasamang  natitigok ang bulsa. Magaang trabaho, maraming oras mag-Facebook, pati selfie dinadamay ang amo. Kalaban mo lang ang inip at dapat matibay ang sikmura kapag pumulandit ang ihi at tae ni Italyano sa kanyang karsunsilyo.

    Isang umaga, tutal rin lamang at walang trabaho, nagpasya akong magsadya  sa tanggapan ng POLO-OWWA sa Roma para i-renew ang aking membership.  Sinuot ko pa nga ang bagong damit na binili ko sa Mercato. Sabay wisik ng bagong biling pabango, suklay ng buhok at bago tuluyang lumabas ng aking kwarto di mapigilang sumulyap muli sa kwadradong salamin sa lumang tukador na minana ko pa sa aking unang amo. Di ko na nga binigyang-pansin ang mga dokumento na dadalhin. Sabi ko “ tiyak namang mayroon akong lahat ng kailangan nila.”

    Hindi kasi ako nakasama sa palistahan nang magkaroon ng service mission sa Firenze. Di ko kasi kilala ng personal si  Mr. Fernandez , isang Pilipinong boluntaryong nagtatrabaho sa Konsulado. Di ko alam pero wala na raw pwesto para sa akin. Ayaw ko na lang isipin na nakarating pa dito sa Italya ang palakasan. Sa kabilang banda masaya ako dahil first time akong makakarating sa Roma kaya dapat GWAPO! Marahil dadaan na rin ako sa Vaticano at tatagpuin ko ang aking ex doon.

    Bago pa ako matuntong sa tarangkahan ng Embahada, sinipat ko pa ngang muli kung may watawat ng Pilipinas. Dahil sa harapan nito, may isang makisig na lalaki, Bill daw ang pangalan na tinatalakay ang PORK BARREL . Sa isip ko litsong baboy na niluto sa bariles. Aniya, “Pork Barrel King” si Presidente Aquino dahil ang gabinete partikular ang Department of  Budget at ang pinuno nitong si Abad ay kasabwat ni Napoles. Dawit din sa kwento niya si dating Senate President Drilon. Sa kwento nga , kalahati ng senador, daang kongresman at mga kalihim ng Departamento ang sangkot. Dahil dito,bahagyang naantala ang aking pangunahing pakay, i-renew ang pagsapi sa OWWA.

    Nagulantang ako sa haba ng pila, Huwebes pala ngayon, day-off ng maraming tulad ko. Sa wakas at nakakuha ako ng numero. Hinihintay kong tumayo ang isang dalaga na mukhang tinatawagan ng amo at pinababalik sa trabaho.
    ”KAINIS”, aking naulinigan. Nurse daw yun, walang makitang trabaho sa Pinas kaya andito. “Flussi” ang nagiging paraan niya ng pagdating . “ Ako pala si Weng” pakilala ng aking nakatabi sa upuan, “ako naman si Juan OFW”, sagot ko. Katabi niya ang isang kwarenta anyos na babaeng may pasa, parang sinaktan o nagulpi. “Napano siya , tanong ko?”  “Ginulpi ng amo,“sabi ni Weng.  Nangyayari din pala yan sa Europa, alam ko lang ay talamak yan sa Middle East (rape pa nga ang madalas), Hong Kong at kung saan sangkaterba ang mga OFW na nagtatrabaho bilang kasambahay. Paalis na rin sila dahil sa halip na asistihan sila ng POLO, isang labor attache officer at ng OWWA tinuro sila sa Sindacato.

    “Numero 69”, anunsyo ng babae sa maliit na salamin.  “Numero ko yun , kagyat akong tumayo at tumapat sa bintana. ”Magandang umaga ma’am,” bati ko. “DOKUMENTO, ani ng babae. Aking iniabot ang aking pasaporte at permesso di soggiorno, apat na buwan na at paso na rin ito. Laking gulat ko nang di tanggapin ng ahensya ang aking inihahaing passport at permesso di soggiorno.

    Hinahanapan  ako ng konrtibusyon sa INPS o sulat ng aking employer bilang  katibayang ako ay may trabaho. Kung wala ang mga iyon malabong maging kasaping muli ng OWWA.

    Kagyat kong naisip na, paano kung may mangyari sa akin (wag naman sana)! Tulad ng nangyari kay  Aling  Saling na taga Tacloban. Dumating siyang (clandestino) dito sa Italya. Minsang naglilinis ng bintana, akalain mo ba namang nakabitaw sa hinahawakang seratura. Hayon, pinoproblema ng mga kasamahan  niya sa inuupahang  silid ang pagpapadala ng kanyang bangkay sa Pilipinas.

    Tulad ko kulang daw sa bagong rekisitos sa pagsapi. Nawasak pa naman ang kanyang ipinapatayong  bahay bunga ng bagyong Yolanda. At hanggang ngayon  sa mga tent pa rin  sila nakatira. Marami ngang kwento na kahit sa parte ng Samar at Leyte hindi lang sa Tacloban ganito ang tanawin. Walang tirahan, trabaho, tigil na ang rasyon, nagtitiis sa maiinit na tent (kubol) at yung malapit sa baybaying dagat ay di na muling pinayagan magtayo ng kahit barong-barong. Gagawin daw eco-tourism ang lugar.

    Tumambling akong palabas ng Embahada. Bigo, pagod, nasayang na oras at panahon, higit sa lahat tumataginting na 50 euro (solo andata) na ipinambayad ko sa tiket, mahal kasi ang Freccia Rosa pero masisiyahan ka sa bilis, linis at komportableng biyahe.

    Tinuloy ko ang plano na tumungo  sa Vaticano. Tinawagan ko si Sisa, ex ko sa Pinas noong kami’y nasa parehong iskwelahan sa probinsya. Krrringgggggg…..”ayoko sana na ikaw ay mawawala”(Aegis yata ang ring tone ng telepono niya), paborito niyang grupo ng mang-aawit dahil hanep kung bumirit. “Il numero che ha chiamato e non disponibile”, naisip ko mauunsiyami pa yata ang aking matagal nang hangad na makita siyang muli. Purnada! Dami ko pa namang plano, kakain kami sa Mc Donald o Burger king (siyempre sagot ko), mamamasyal at kung posible, katulad ng dati gawin ang ginagawa ng mag-asawa, ito e kung posible pa.

    Sa di kalayuan nakakita ako ng grupo ng mga Pilipino na may dalang mga plakards. “LAHAT NG SANGKOT MANAGOT!” “Bro intsik ka ba?”, tanong ng isang nagpapaliwanag.  Sa loob-loob ko, pinagdudahan pa ang aking nasyonalidad e pango naman ang aking ilong! Paliwanag niya na umabot na hanggang Malakanyang ang alingasaw ng korapsyon at pilit ikinukubli ang partisipasyon ng mga susing opisyales ng Gabinete.  Sekretaryo Butch Abad at lima pa sa kanyang pamilya na sangkot sa PDAF, Sekretaryo Alacala sa Kagawaran sa Agrikultura dagdag pa ang bigong pangongotong ng kapatid ni P-Noy sa gobyerno ng Czech para sa pagbili ng bagon ng MRT at LRT. Tumataginting na $30M ang hinihingi kapalit ng pagkopo sa kontrata. Naisip ko tuloy, mabuti na lamang at may mga taong handang magsiwalat ng lahat at malalakas ang loob para labanan ang katiwalian at mapawi ang pagsasamantala. Nilingon ko ang isang placards, nakasulat “ LP – Lapian ng pangulo, Lapian ng Plunderers”.

    Nakasabayan ko si Pedro, taga Mindanao. Pareho Regionale ang sinakyan naming treno  pauwi. Tumaas na naman kasi ang presyo ng biglieto. Ipinaliwanag niya sa akin na ayon sa OWWA Omnibus Law ( art.IV, sect.1.B.) ang usapin sa boluntaryong pagsapi ng lahat ng OFW. Karapatan ko pala ito! Sinasaad pa sa Republic Act 8042 na nararapat pangalagaan ang lahat ng OFW o mga “bagong bayani” dapat pangalagaan, asistihan at bigyang proteksyon. Maling i-abandona ng POLO-OWWA ang dikretong ito, diin pa niya. Umabot pa ang aming kwentuhan na sa Mindanao ay laganap ang malawakang pagmimina. Kabilang nga ang kanyang pamilya sa naitaboy dahil ang kanilang niyugan ginawang taniman ng DOLE at Del Monte.

    Naunang bumaba ng tren si Pedro.  Binasa ko ang polyetong iniwan niya sa akin. Nananawagan pala ang mga Migrante dito sa Italya sa Board of Trustees sa pamamagitan ng kanyang Administrador na –
    1. Ibalik at ipatupad ang dating alituntunin na passport at kontrata lamang ang kailangang dokumento sa panahong ipinoproseso ang kanyang pag-aaplay sa trabaho at passport lamang ang kailangan kung siya ay boluntaryong nag-aaplay na maging kasapi sa panahon siya ay nasa labas ng ating bansa.
    2.   Ibalik ang dating “lifetime membership”.
    3.   Pag-uulat sa kaganapan sa ahensya laluna sa kanyang pananalapi.
    4.   Pagtiyak sa mabilis at epektibong pagbibigay ng serbisyo at pagtugon sa problemang kinakaharap ng mga OFW.
    5.  Pagpaparami ng representasyon ng OFW sa Board of Trustees at pagbibigay sa kanila ang pangangasiwa ng nasabing ahensya.

    Pagdating ko ng bahay, tumambad sa akin ang lumang dyaryo ng Ako ay Pilipino. Sa frontpage “ P450 milyong pondo ng OWWA pinakialaman ni GMA”. Sa inis ko, nanuod na lang ako ng Pinoy channel sa TFC. Ang pangunahing balita – Pangulong Noynoy Aquino  nagpamigay ng milyon-milyong bonus sa mga pinuno ng OWWA.  Pondo ng Philhealth nawawala, baon sa utang at namemeligrong di mapakinabangan ng mga kasapi ang kanilang kontribusyon.

    Nagdesisyon na lang akong mahiga at magpahinga sa aking inuupahang “repostilyo”, ginawang kwarto, mas mura kasi ang bayad. Umuukilkil sa aking gunita ang anak ko na  humihingi ng pang-matrikula. Taon-taon na lang tumataas, renta sa boarding house, pamasahe, uniporme at pagkain. Kahapon lang tumawag ang kapatid kong bunso, kasamang natangal sa NXP semi-conductor sa Cabuyao. Ang kompanyang gumagawa ng  micro-chips ng sikat na I-Phone at I-Pod. Naalala ko ng mag-strike din ang mga manggagawa ng Coca-cola.

    Mahigit limang taon na silang manggagawa bilang driver pero nanatili silang kontraktwal.  Herrera Law, isa sa batas na pinirmahan ni Cory Aquino, ina ni Pres. P-noy. Sa ilalim ng batas na ito, lumaganap ang kontraktwalisayon, nameligro ang seguridad ng mga manggagawa sa trabaho, napako sa napakababang minimum wage ang mga obrero.

    Bumalik sa aking isipan ang ilang kwento sa Mindanao. Mula ng maaprubahan ang Mining Act of 1995 sa panahon ni Presidente Ramos, naglitawang parang mga kabute ang mga mining company. Nito lamang taong ito, sa rehiyon ng Davao sangkatutak ang pinayagang magmina. Open pit mining ang modernong paraan. Pinapatag ang kabundukan. Kabilang sa mga kompanya ang IndiPhils, Kinimi Copper  Exploration and Mining Corp, Pacific Heights Resources Inc, Mcwealth Mining Corp, Geoffrey T. Yengko at Compostela Valley.  Macliing Dulag ang pangalan na natatandaan kong lumalaban sa Philex at Cellophil Mining Co. na pinaslang sa Cordillera  sa dahilang nilalabanan nila ang pagmimina na nagdudulot ng pagkawasak ng kalikasan at pagtataboy sa kanilang lupang ninuno.

    “Che giornata!…” Andirito na ako sa Italy ayaw pa akong lubayan ng mga problemang panlipunan.  Dito naman, patuloy din ang pagtaas ng lahat bilihin, mula sa pagkain at damit, upa sa bahay, tubig-kuryente-gas, gasolina. Patong-patong din naman ang bayaring buwis…hay naku!

    “Juan, Juan, Juan gising na, anong oras ba ang sasakyan mong treno papuntang Roma? Sayang ang tiket mo “pag nagkataon”. (sinulat ni RO, isang migrante sa Firenze, 2014)

  • Seeking decent shelter a year after Yolanda

    IBON Features | 8 January 2015 | Survivors still face the difficulties of prolonged uncertainty of temporary shelters and lack of livelihood, amid government measures that aggravate their plight

    By Xandra Bisenio
    Haiyan-Donations
    IBON Features– Decent shelter is a fundamental social right which super-typhoon Yolanda survivors have not fully realized even a year after the calamity hit the country. Government’s establishment of a one-stop-shop for the clearance and processing of permanent housing projects just days before the first year anniversary of Yolanda is more likely a publicity measure amid growing criticism of its slow-paced rehabilitation program.

    Notwithstanding government efforts to create a semblance of improvement in areas in Leyte where Pope Francis will be setting foot this January, Yolanda survivors continue to face the difficulties of residing in temporary shelters as well as the prolonged uncertainty of livelihood amid goverment measures that aggravate their plight.

    In focus: Eastern Visayas. Tatay Benigno, 62, lost his livelihood of fishing and fish vending to the sea. His house, along with about 500 households in Barangay San Roque, one of the most populated coastal barangays of Tanauan, Leyte, was totally destroyed and washed out by Yolanda. Despite his old age and with only one hand to work on, he continues to assist fishermen in pulling their boats ashore in exchange for fish and crabs, which he sells to his neighbors at the relocation at Bgy. Pago so he could buy rice. He worked every day without pay to complete the 1,800 hours “sweat for asset” mechanic just to get this housing unit. But his unit, the roofing of which is faulty and leaks into a small pool of water whenever it rains, remains incomplete because the 70% funding counterpart from the National Housing Authority has not arrived as of September 2014. Two other relocation areas are set to be put up in Barangay Sacme and Barangay Maribi of the same town even if these barangays have been mapped as among those prone to severe flooding in Tanauan.

    Meanwhile, many of the region’s residents living in tent cities have to suffer extreme heat and cold in Tacloban City tent cities located near coastal areas: an eight-month-old baby died at the San Jose tent city last May because of this. Also, to replace other tents that have become dilapidated after almost a year, residents of Barangays 87, 88 and 89 have requested for temporary shelter kits from the local government but in vain.

    “Mainit dito,” says twelve-year-old Charlene Gonzales who stays in a tent house in San Jose of the same town with her mother and siblings. “Walang kuryente, at sa gabi minsan hindi kami makatulog sa init kahit nagpapaypay si Nanay (At daytime we go out because the house is like an oven. There is no electricity, and in the evening sometimes we couldn’t sleep even if Mother uses a fan).” Because it had become difficult to fish since government imposed the no-dwelling zone near the shores, Charlene’s father, who was formerly a fisherman, was forced to find work in Manila as a construction worker.

    Thirty-seven-year-old Rodrigo used to earn Php160 everyday as a construction worker before Yolanda struck. Last July, a month after government declared that the relief period was over and stopped delivering relief to Yolanda-stricken areas, Rodrigo’s wife Andrea left for Manila to work as a housemaid for P3,000 a month. There are hardly any jobs available to earn income and support families after Yolanda. Rodrigo is left at the bunkhouse to care after their 15-month-old daughter Rodalyn. They eat twice a day on budgeted rice and noodles and could no longer afford fruits.

    Rosenda, 32, is worried that the planned relocation site for them by the LGU in Barangay Tacuranga, Palo, is several kilometers away from the town center of Palo and that their four children’s daily transportation to school would triple from Php30 to Php90 a day. She works as a part time pedicurist and manicurist at Php80 and also sells food. Her husband earns Php260 daily as a hotel janitor.

    Rosenda is among the survivors whom the Mayor of Palo informed will be relocated to another temporary shelter in preparation for the visit of Pope Francis in January 2015. The International Organization for Migration, which works with government under the shelter cluster program, checked the relocation site and found that the bunkhouses there did not have toilets yet. Instead of transferring to the relocation site, many of the survivors chose to go back to the original location of their pre-Yolanda homes and livelihood along the government-decared “No-Dwelling-Zones”.

    Government itself has countered its own “No-Dwelling-Zone” policy supposedly meant to keep residents from danger zones. For instance, it set-up tent cities in the forbidden areas in various Tanauan barangays and relocated some 764 households from their former temporary shelter, while permanent housing is not yet available.

    Aggregates. According to the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), shelter is the second most wanting among the unmet needs of super-typhoon Yolanda/ Haiyan victims at 58%. Shelter follows early recovery and livelihood (73%) as the most unmet need and is succeeded by child and family protection (55%), education (40%), health (38%), food (35%), water, sanitation and hygiene (24%) and nutrition (11%).

    Relatedly, the number of displacement sites in Yolanda-affected areas decreased from 109 to 66, but the number of displaced families grew from 5,523 to 5,830 from December 2013-April 2014. Displacement sites include evacuation centers, tent cities, transitional bunkhouses and spontaneous settlements. As of April 2014, the most number of displaced families (3,928) were in bunkhouses. The next most number of displaced families were in 14 tent cities (1,422). Yet, in other typhoon-stricken areas, as in Cebu, bunkhouses have been phased out.

    These figures show the lack of more permanent settlement that would more aptly serve as the survivors’ space for long-term recovery. The unconditional provision of decent housing for the typhoon victims appears to be excluded from government’s priorities in the immediate aftermath of the typhoon. The lack of jobs available for the super-typhoon survivors also does not indicate the presence of a strategic economic rehabilitation plan.

    The decrease in the 2015 national budget’s overall allocation for socialized and low-cost housing from Php16.4 billion in 2014 to Php9l7 billion proposed for this year, partially explains the sorry state of settlement in Yolanda-affected areas. Social housing has become less of a priority for the national government, especially after giving more room for the private to construct low-cost housing. The fact that majority of Filipinos are poor and cannot afford to avail of these housing projects will be underscored after the one-stop-shop for permanent housing in Yolanda-stricken areas has been declared open for business.

    Such state neglect for people’s general welfare and national development is the socio-economic disaster that continues to afflict Yolanda-affected areas – and the entire nation, for that matter – even before the onslaught of what has come to be known as one of the world’s strongest typhoons ever. IBON Features

  • Mapping the European Union’s Massive Crackdown on Immigrants

    This month saw the largest single-operation crackdown on undocumented immigrants in European Union history. Dubbed “Mos Maiorum” (a Latin phrase referring to the “ancestral custom” of the Roman Empire), the initiative, which ran from October 13 to October 26, saw EU member states join forces to clamp down on illegal immigration and the organized criminal syndicates that facilitate it.

    Operations of this kind happen twice a year and are growing in size as the number of migrants in Europe increases. But this was the first time people knew it was going to happen in advance, thanks to some documents from the European Council published by the Statewatch website in July. The documents stated that border guards were to reprimand immigrants and record information relating to ethnicity in a bid to better understand the flow of immigrants into and across Europe—and in order to eventually plug up that flow.

    Migrants in the MediterraneanThe publication of the documents gave migrant solidarity activists time to develop a tool that enabled people to track the goings-on of law enforcement as they happened. Called Map Mos Maiorum!, the live map, which was created by a group associated with the Berlin-based anti-racism collective Nadir, let people see pictures, read testimonies, and receive updates when Mos Maiorum activity was reported. If the reports are anything to go by, this activity mostly involved cops hassling people getting on public transport to produce their IDs and arresting them if they failed to come up with the goods. As you can imagine, in many cases the police were accused of using racial profiling in the process.

    “We wanted to make this visible to people,” explained Alex, a representative from Nadir. “It would be great if we could reach the immigrants themselves with this information, as a kind of warning, but for many reasons this is not possible at the moment. Instead, we wanted those people whose countries were investing in this initiative to know what was going on.”

    The operation was started by the Italian Presidency of the EU Council and the Italian Ministry of the Interior, in association with Frontex, the EU agency for border security. Frontex has stressed that it merely served an advisory role in the operation. Nevertheless, its involvement has raised eyebrows; the agency has faced criticism because there’s a perception that it cares more about border enforcement than tackling human trafficking and upholding human rights. Its rescue work is often regarded as being incidental to giving vulnerable migrants a hard time.

    Take Frontex’s Operation Archimedes, for example. Carried out in September by Europol with the cooperation of 34 EU member states, its aim as outlined by the authorities was to infiltrate and eradicate organized crime. Yet of the 1,150 arrests made, only 90 were related tohuman trafficking, with the vast majority being dealt to those guilty of and facilitating illegal immigration. This has given rise to the belief that the initiative was in fact an excuse to increase border security, and gather information relating to immigration routes, under the guise of a pan-European anti-trafficking and crime initiative. It is predicted that the number of migrants affected by Mos Maiorum will be at least double that of Archimedes, which only lasted one week.

    Alex admitted that the Mos Maiorum map wasn’t complete. “What is shown on the map is still only a small part of the whole picture, because we do not receive reports of all of the controls,” he said. “We don’t have good connections in Eastern Europe, for instance. Language barriers are a problem, and we do not have connections to activist movements in every country.”

    Nevertheless, there has been quite a lot of international cooperation, leading to the operation being healthily documented. “People and organizations from all over Europe are helping us,” he said. “There is a very active group in Sweden and many in Italy and also France. These groups documented these controls and regularly contributed to the map. But by far the most common report has been from anonymous individuals. It’s a crowdfunded project, and we receive donations from all over Europe.” In addition, protests against Mos Maiorum were coordinated in Germany, Sweden, and Brussels.

    Italy, which kicked off the initiative, bears the brunt of immigration from Tunisia and Libya, with migrants crossing the Mediterranean, where they are commonly held on the island of Lampedusa, whose coasts have witnessed a series of tragedies, most infamously the drowning of 300 Eritrean immigrants in October last year. Frontex has largely failed to curtail this. Fortress Europe is reinforcing its balustrades to an ever-growing number of displaced people in a seemingly unwinnable struggle.

    As the number of migrants grows, it seems that the EU is toughening its stance on immigration. The European Commission is already developing an electronic entry/exit system to prevent immigrants from overstaying their visas. Several member states are pushing for this to include the gathering of fingerprints and medical details from non-European passport holders. These details could then be shared with law enforcement agencies. The mass retention of personal data has been criticized by the European Court of Justice, but the Italian government thinks it has already found a way around their legal objections. Mos Maiorum might be the biggest initiative in the EU’s ongoing pushback against undocumented immigrants, but it seems that it could be only a taste of what’s to come.# (photo from website)

     

    http://www.vice.com/read/the-eu-held-its-biggest-ever-anti-immigrant-crackdown-933
    By Nathalie Olah
    Oct 28 2014

  • EU-wide crackdown on irregular immigration on the way

    EU-wide crackdown on irregular immigration on the way

    Africa-news.eu

    Human rights organisations have strongly condemned the EU’s plan to launch a massive EU-wide police operation called “MOS MAIORUM” to hunt irregular immigrants from 13th to 26th October 2014.

    The operation, which was approved by the Council of the European Union on 10th July 2014, will be implemented in the framework of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

    According to the Council of the European Union, the “MOS MAIORUM” operation will be “aiming at weakening the capacity of organized crime groups to facilitate illegal immigration to the EU and will be focusing on illegal border crossing.”

    It will also be used “to collect information for intelligence and investigation purposes, regarding the main routes followed by migrants to enter in the common area and the modus operandi used by crime networks to smuggle people towards the EU territory, focusing also on the secondary movements.”

    COSPE (Co-operation for the Development of Emerging Countries), an Italian non-profit association condemned the operation “MOS MAIORUM” and asked the Italian government not to prosecute the people rescued from drowning by the Mare-Nostrum operation.

    It further urged the Italian government to avoid participating in this “inhumane and unnecessary” operation.

    In a joint statement, organizations of Filipino migrants and advocates for migrants rights across Europe said they were concerned that “MOS MAIORUM” operation would be “used to indiscriminately round up irregular migrants who are merely doing socially necessary work that benefits the countries in Europe. “

    They accused the “erroneous policies stemming from xenophobia and narrow nationalism instigated by extreme right-wing and neo-fascist political parties,” of forcing many to become irregular immigrants.

    “Instead of deporting them and treating them as criminals, their irregular status should in fact be immediately rectified because it makes them vulnerable to abuse,” the organisations said.

    In order to avoid arrest and deportation, human rights organisations are advising irregular immigrants to keep a low profile from 13th to 26th October 2014. They are advised to avoid places mainly frequented by immigrants. They are also advised to avoid places such as airports, highways, railway stations, subway stations, etc.

    By Stephen Ogongo Ongong’a

    http://www.africa-news.eu/immigration-news/italy/6267-eu-wide-crackdown-on-irregular-immigration-on-the-way-advice-for-irregular-immigrants.html