Press Release
04 March 2008

For reference: Dolores Balladares
                           Co-convenor
                           Tel. No.: 97472968

Wage hike and GMA's ouster top "migrant's wish list"
HK OFWs uphold "No Remittance Day" campaign

"We call on the Hong Kong government for a significant wage increase. We call on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign and give us relief."

This was declared by Dolores Balladares, co-convenor of the Samahan Laban sa Katiwalian ng Recruitment Agencies at Patakarang MC-04 (SKRAP MC-04, Alliance against Illegal Recruitment and MC-04 Policy) as about 400 OFWs filled up the prayer hall of the Jesus is Lord - Hong Kong in a Filipino migrants' forum last Sunday, March 2, to tackle major OFW concerns in Hong Kong.

SKRAP MC-04 was the coalition that led the opposition of Filipino migrants in HK against the POEA MC-04 that banned direct hiring until it was suspended last month.

According to Balladares, groups within SKRAP MC-04 decided to continue their coordinated actions as they arrived at unities even beyond the said memorandum.

"Our fight against MC-04 has highlighted to us that all our other concerns are interconnected. More importantly, all of these hardships that we experience we are laying down on the feet of the GMA government," she added.

Balladares reported that those who attended the forum that included organizations, church groups and fellowships, and alliances, agreed to pursue the "No Remittance Day" campaign to exert more pressure to what they deem as a "corruption-ridden" Arroyo administration.

"As we refused to be milking cows again in our campaign against MC-04, we also refuse to sustain this administration that has brought us nothing but a strong peso that impoverishes our families, high cost of commodities, more state exaction, and inutile services," she remarked.

In reaction to the government's response that refusal to remit is an act of economic sabotage, Balladares scored the "hypocrisy of the biggest saboteur of Philippine economy."

"GMA plunders the country, her government steals public money left and right and OFWs have been bled dry of our hard-earned income that have never been used for our wellbeing. We've given much to our country while GMA and her camp greedily took everything for their personal gains," she asserted.

Balladares declared that they will continue with the campaign and encourage more OFW groups to participate. As well, she said that they will assert the demands that the forum have come up with even after GMA.\

Among the issues that were discussed in the forum were on overcharging and the inability of the government to curb illegal recruitment practices, the US dollar slide and its impacts to OFWs, the anomalies in the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Fund and its negligible services to OFWs, and campaign for a wage increase.

The forum came out with 13 demands that OFWs believe shall give them relief to economic hardships. Directed to the Hong Kong government were the following: 1. Wage increase for all Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs);  2. Abolish the Two-Week Rule; 3. Shorten FDW working hours, and; 3. Long service payment to all eligible FDWs regardless of contract termination.

For the Philippine government meanwhile were: 1. Ouster or resignation of GMA; 2. Stop corruption and reveal the truth in the NBN-ZTE scandal; 3. Lower prices of commodities in the Philippines; 4. Scrap the expanded value-added tax; 5. Stop overcharging of recruitment agencies; 6. Scrap OWWA Omnibus Policies; 7. Scrap the useless Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC); 8. Lower the price of passport abroad, and; 9. Resume the Migrant's Forum at the Philippine Consulate General.

On March 9, OFWs will march with Asian domestic workers to press for a wage hike from the HK government. Balladares reported that OFW groups shall also conduct an action on the day to highlight their call for GMA to step down and as their response for coordinated actions of Filipino women on the occasion of the International Women's Day on March 8.

"OFWs need relief from our grave situation. Our wish list is our response to our condition that we are determined to put pressure to get addressed," she concluded.