the Philippines

by judy a. pasimio

“Pasalubong ha?” said Alvin John, 4 years old, to his mother, Marylou. Pasalubong is a gift one usually brings home from a trip.

This was Marylou’s latest conversation with her only son, when she called home, with the help of Saligan, the law group assisting her. “Namingaw na mi.” I miss home. “I want to go home now,” said teary-eyed Marylou.

By Judy a. Pasimio

In an act of solidarity with the thousand protesting monks, and ordinary women and men in Burma, Filipino workers shaved their heads in front of the Burmese Embassy in Makati City, Philippines.

"The Filipino working class joins the peoples around the world in condemning the brutal suppression by the military junta of the protest movement in Burma. We add the voice of the workers in the call for democratization in Burma, freedom for political prisoners and an end to the military rule," says Ms. Yuen Abana, member of the Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers' Party).

5,000 Filipino migrants workers marched through Central in Hong Kong on Sunday (Jan 28) to protest the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration's (POEA) new guidelines on the deployment of domestic helpers.

Under the new guideline, applying domestic helpers must pass through several weeks of training to obtain the National Certificate for Household Service Workers, as the country-specific Language and Culture Certificate.

Human rights and peace activitists from the HK Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) held a picket protest against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her murder crimes at Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong today (Nov 2, 2006).

"Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can never hide from the ghosts of the murders and injustices committed to victims of human rights violations. The Filipino people and human rights advocates the world over shall make sure of this." Eman Villanueva, the convenor of HKCAHRPP said.

In 1995, during the 4th World Conference of Women in Beijing, the World Rural Women's Day was launched. Since then, October 15 is celebrated as World Rural Women's Day.

A decade after, who is celebrating?

Not the wives, mothers and daughters of those activists and community organizers who have been victims of political killings under the Arroyo government in the Philippines. Nor those women human rights defenders working in the communities who are living a life of uncertainty of when and where their own death would come.

(Notes: I got the press release from UNIFIL. Sometimes I feel sorry that with so many Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong, we know so little about their lives...)

Filipino domestic helpers today warned the Philippine government that it will face “massive resistance” if the recent proposal of the Social Security System (SSS) to make Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) contribution to the said agency mandatory is implemented.