PRESS STATEMENT
22 August 2004

Reference: Mr. Aurelio Estrada,
Area Coordinator
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
No. 2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
Contact Nos. (852) 2723-7536; Email: apmm@hknet.com

MECO Officials Gross Negligence Towards its Own Citizen Must be Recalled

We deplore the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) reprehensible and inept handling of the case of Cecilia Benitez, a Filipina factory worker in Taiwan. Instead of assisting her MECO rejected her plea to avail of their shelter and sided with the company contention that she committed a grave criminal offense and that she would be detained if a case was filed against her.

Cecilia illegally terminated and an attempt was made to forcibly repatriate her by her employer Asustek (a big computer company) last August 9 for a “minor offense”. She was accused of stealing a cell phone by the coordinator in her dormitory. What she actually did was use the cell phone of her friend in the charging area of her dormitory to hear the ring tone of her own cell phone. A Filipina co-worker who saw this reported the incident immediately to the coordinator.

Because of this minor incident, Cecilia was given a warning letter by the coordinator. At the same time, the broker wanted to force her to sign a resignation letter from the company which she refused. Cecilia was then taken to the airport but she did not board her plane and complained to the Immigration authorities that she was being forcibly repatriated. She then called MECO to assist her and she was promised that they would take her to the shelter. Later, however, Lydia Espinosa, OWWA welfare officer told her that they could not take her in as she committed a crime.

Cecilia’s friends then sought the assistance of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM). They said that under their company rules there should be three warning letters first before a migrant worker can be fired and sent back home. Cecilia had only one warning letter filed against her.

Cecilia was advised by APMM to seek the assistance of Rerum Novarum on August 19, a Taiwanese Catholic Church NGO. The social worker of Rerum Novarum told her that what she did can not even be considered a crime and that her main case was illegal termination, which is a labor case. She was offered to stay in Rerum Novarum shelter but needed to get the endorsement of the Foreign Workers Counseling Center (FWCC) of the Taipei Labor Bureau which she did. It is appalling that MECO rejected to shelter her own national while a Taiwanese NGO welcomed her with open arms.

Through all these time that Cecilia was fighting for her rights to get better terms from her employer, MECO attitude was reprehensible, inept and indifferent towards her. MECO lawyers in particular, Atty. Edmundo Tanco and Renato Lee consistently told Cecilia that there was a strong criminal case against her and that she would be detained immediately if a case was filed against her. Atty. Tanco even told Cecilia that her present company can get her records from her previous employer and use this against her in court.

The two lawyers, however, and in particular Atty. Lee admitted to the APMM that he never read the company rules as to how many warning letters or what kind of penalty should the migrants get for certain offenses stipulated by the company before they are fired and sent home. When Aurelio Estrada of APMM showed Atty. Lee the provision which Cecilia was accused of and what kind of penalty is stipulated, all that Mr. Lee could say that in his opinion what is written in the provision is vague.

The company rules state the following offense "Stealing, damaging public facilities or other people’s belongings". The punishment for this is "compensate according to the actual price or send the foreign worker back to his/her country if the violation is severe." Either Atty. Lee does not know what the term severe means or he is inept as a lawyer or both.

Mr. Lee even showed his contempt for and indifference to Cecilia. He accused her of complaining too much and that she should find ways to obtain food if her broker did not feed her as she was just staying in another house not her own. He even asked does Cecilia want to live in a hotel. He even lied to Mr. Estrada and Cecilia when he told them in separate occasions that she was not accepted in the shelter because it was already full. He even told Mr. Estrada in a telephone conversation that actually Cecilia should be already in jail for what she did. Such callousness coming from Assistance to Nationals official is condemnable to say the least.

At the same time, the new Philippine Labor representative Mr. Reynaldo Gopez and Lydia Espinosa never once stated that Cecilia was illegally terminated. In fact this is the main issue as the social worker in Rerum Novarum told Cecilia later and the accusation that she stole something was just a pretext to get rid of her. Instead Mr. Gopez said that this is not under their jurisdiction but that of the Assistance to Nationals. He even had the gall to claim that what Cecilia gained during the negotiations with the broker and with APMM assisting her out was through their own efforts.

We condemn all MECO officials concerned for prejudging Cecilia, their inept handling of the case and their indifference and even callous behaviour towards her. We are wondering how they handle similar and even severe cases. We are calling for the recall especially of Atty. Tanco and Atty. Lee from their posts for their ineptness and callous behaviour towards Cecilia. They should never be assigned to the Assistance to Nationals again. Mr. Gopez and Ms. Espinosa should be reprimanded for their behaviour. We want nothing else.