S. KOREA LIBERALIZES LAW ON REHIRING OF FOREIGN WORKERS

Philippine Ambassador to Seoul Luis T. Cruz reported to the Department that the Korean Parliament recently adopted measures to ease the rehiring of foreign workers who are about to finish their contracts with Korean SMEs under the Employment Permit System (EPS).



Representative Kang Sung-chun of the ruling Grand National Party, together with nine other parliamentarians, introduced amendments that created Act. No. 11276 (Revision on the Act on Employment of Foreign Workers). It was promulgated on 01 February 2012 and will take effect on 02 July 2012.

The new amendments will reduce the waiting period of foreign workers who wish to return to South Korea after completing their contracts from six months to three months. It will also exempt them from taking the Korean language test and employment training. They should meet however, certain criteria such as no record of transfer during the employment period except for justifiable cause; the sector they were engaged in is still experiencing labor shortage; and a new work contract prior to reentry to South Korea.

On 8 February, Ambassador Cruz, together with diplomats from six other embassies, met Representative Kang to thank him personally for the passage of Act. No. 11276. He recalled that the amendments were two of the four petitions signed by 2,355 OFWs and their 633 Korean employers, requesting changes in the EPS law. He added that the Philippine Embassy positively endorsed their petitions to the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) in March 2011.

However, Ambassador Cruz remarked that the EPS law could stand further improvements in order to address the disruption of the operation of Korean SMEs at the end of the employment contract of their foreign workers, and the need to retrain their replacements. He suggested that the contract period of four years and ten months be reviewed and that measures be introduced in the process that will not violate the law on permanent residency and naturalization. He also suggested that the age limit of 38 years should be raised accordingly. He argued that beyond that age, the foreign worker would still be physically capable to contribute his services to the company, and would have gained invaluable experience at the jobsite by then.

Deputy Director Jang Jeong Seo of MOEL clarified that the current age limit requirement was arrived at after considering the provisional demands of domestic companies for temporary workers and the global trend of filling in the shortage of local labor in certain sectors with foreign workers who are hired on a short-term basis. He added that this matter has to be consulted with the Ministry of Justice. Representative Kang said that he would consider the age issue in future discussions at the National Assembly. He added that he would also consider related issues raised by other diplomats, particularly labor conditions in the agricultural sector, and the possibility allowing foreign workers in this sector to transfer to the manufacturing sector.

Representative Kang requested the diplomats of labor-sending countries to remind their foreign workers to abide by the laws and regulations of the host country. He also requested them to assure their workers that wages, labor standards and working conditions in Korea are at par with other advanced countries like the US. He promised to continue advocating improvements to the working conditions of foreign workers, as he believes that they should have fond memories of Korea upon the completion of their contracts.

As of last year, Korea has employed more than 278,000 foreign workers from 15 countries including 24,000 from the Philippines under the seven-year old Employment Permit System. They were employed in the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fisheries sector.

Pursue Peace Process in the Philippines

“Stand Firm! Persevere! Proclaim the Gospel of Peace!”

Statement of the 2nd Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on the GPH-NDFP Peace Negotiations
Betania Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City
February 6-8, 2012

“This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: that you act justly, that you love tenderly, that you walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

We are Church leaders from five major religious federations*. We came together to reflect and discuss the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). We listened to updates from both sides regarding the current status of the negotiations. There are positive prospects that bolster our hopes for the talks to continue but there are certain issues brought out that may hinder the process of the said talks.

One such issue, which is at the crux of the recent impasse, concerns the detained consultants of the NDFP that they claim are covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). The NDFP called for a postponement of the talks last June 2011 to give time for the GPH to release the consultants. While the GPH already released some consultants, the NDFP is demanding that the GPH honor the February 21, 2011 Joint Statement by releasing most if not all consultants covered by the JASIG. The GPH recently stated that until the reciprocal working committees on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) shall have completed the common tentative agreement on social and economic reforms, the talks may not resume. They also stated that there will be no formal talks on issues concerning the JASIG. This in turn was seen by the NDFP as a move to scuttle the negotiations. We deeply understand the concerns of both parties.

To affirm our commitment in support of the formal peace talks and to break the current impasse, we call on the government to release in recognizance under the collective custodial guarantee of the member churches of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, the NDFP consultants who are willing to be under the sanctuary of churches. This is our way of proclaiming the gospel of peace. We call on the GPH and the NDFP to consider this offer. As Church people, we recognize that the road to a just and lasting peace is complex. But we persevere because we are certain that nothing is impossible with God and especially if we take the interests of the people at heart. We believe that there are times when we need to dare and innovate, seize the Kairos moment, so that the formal talks may continue.

We pray that this offer from us will pave the way for both parties to continue to work on the mutually agreed principles or framework upon which the peace negotiations are built. We are earnestly looking forward to the next substantive agenda, the CASER, so that the fundamental issues that bring about unpeace will be addressed.

We affirm our prophetic voices for peace and take to heart our people’s longing for the elusive peace that will create the conditions for an equitable and sustainable development of our country and people.

We fervently ask you all to join us in prayers and solidarity in this quest for a future worthy of our children.

February 8, 2012

For the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform:

ARCHBISHOP Antonio J. Ledesam, S.J., DD
Co-chairperson


Ms. Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes
Co-chairperson


MOST REV. Deogracias S. Iñiguez, Jr., DD
Head of Secretariat

---------------------------------
*Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the Ecumenical Bishops' Forum (EBF).

U.S. Out of the Philippines! U.S. Out of Asia-Pacific!

Aquino Aligns with U.S. Military Build-Up in Asia-Pacific, a Threat to Peace in the Region

BAYAN USA
February 1, 2012

Filipino-Americans across the U.S., under the banner of BAYAN USA, express condemnation and disgust over the efforts of Philippine President Benigno Simeon "Noy-Noy" Aquino III to accommodate the "new" U.S. defense strategy that entails a so-called "rebalance to Asia", including an increase in U.S. military presence in the Philippines. BAYAN USA also denounces the U.S. government's Cold War-style media offensive against economic rival China as a pretext to justify its gross expansion of U.S. military powers in the Asia-Pacific in order to increase U.S. economic, political, and military investments in the region.

Economically-Motivated
Under neoliberalism, the U.S. economy is largely dependent on the Pacific Rim, particularly because of its export position. In 2010, the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum accounted for 61% of U.S. exports ($775 billion) and 37% of private services exports ($205 billion). The U.S. economy's export position in the region accounts for nearly 5 million U.S. jobs. But for countries such as the Philippines, the U.S. investment and export position is at the heart of deepening crisis and poverty due to lack of sovereign claim to natural resources and territory. In line with their national interests, countries like the Philippines must wage fierce struggles against U.S. interventionism in order to assert their right to chart their own economic and political paths.

With China's economic growth threatening U.S. dominion over the region, and with Obama's push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that would outline a US-dominated free trade zone in the region, the U.S. government has announced it will shift its military focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan and renew its commitment to assert its position in Asia-Pacific. It has found a reliable stooge in the Aquino government. Recent negotiations framed as a Strategic Dialogue between top Washington security and defense officials and the Aquino administration have laid the ground work for the consolidation of the Philippines as a key U.S. military base location, serving as a permanent staging ground for U.S. military offensives, storage space for surveillance drones, resupply and refueling station for U.S. warships and aircrafts, as well as rest and recreational facility for U.S. servicemen.

In addition to violating Philippine national sovereignty, Aquino's compliance in accommodating U.S. saber-rattling seeks to undo the 1991 landmark decision of the Philippine Senate to reject the U.S. bases treaty that essentially shut down permanent U.S. military bases in Subic Bay and Clark Air Field by once again opening these ports for indefinite and "rotational" basing of U.S. troops and throughout the archipelago.

Aquino Positions the Philippines in the Crossfire
Not only does the Aquino government reach an all-time high in the barometer of U.S. puppetry with these negotiations, it is aligning the Philippines with a military scheme that will threaten peace in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. government, driven by its war-dependent economy, is expanding its military presence in Asia-Pacific region under the rhetoric of security in the South China Sea and in particular the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands, when in fact it seeks an excuse to provoke military aggression and create a war-like situation against China that will boost its military-industrial complex at the expense of surrounding countries. Such compliance on the Aquino government's part will surely position the Filipino people in the middle of the crossfire.

Starting with the Philippine-American War of 1899, which marked the advent of U.S. imperialism onto the global stage at the turn of the 20th century, 113 years of U.S. geopolitical strategy in the region has left the Philippines with a tragic history and ongoing reality of U.S. military infestation whose social costs have burdened its people with untold pain and misery. From hosting the largest U.S. permanent foreign military bases to succumbing to the onerous US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)—the mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements—to the virtually permanent Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), over one century of U.S. military presence in the country has been directly linked to the indiscriminate killings, rape and other sexual offenses, massive displacement of rural communities, waste, disease, and other forms of human rights abuses.

Call for Resistance & Solidarity
As Filipinos in the U.S., BAYAN USA sees concretely how both the Aquino and Obama governments—guardians of financial oligarchy—are acting in betrayal of the broad interest of the Filipino and American peoples. Just as the poor grow poorer in the Philippines under Aquino's failed economic policies, so are the working people in the U.S. forced to carry the heavy burden of paying for a debt crisis they did not create. As people's resistance to the intolerable 1% escalates amidst the crisis, BAYAN USA joins the call for greater solidarity between people in the U.S. struggling against the U.S. military-industrial complex and for economic equality and the Filipino people's ongoing struggle for genuine national independence and democracy. This must translate to greater efforts to expose and oppose the U.S. geopolitical strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as a scheme of the purveyors of crisis and war to maintain tight control over the region's wealth. People's resistance and firm solidarity are key in our efforts to frustrate U.S. interventionism in the region!

U.S. OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!
U.S. OUT OF ASIA!
JUNK THE US-RP MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY!
JUNK THE US-RP VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!
UPHOLD PHILIPPINE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

Reference:
Bernadette Ellorin
Chairperson, BAYAN USA
chair@bayanusa.org

AMENDMENT TO EMPLOYMENT PERMIT SYSTEM (EPS) in South Korea

Term extension and initial information on implementing guidelines

02 February 2012

Dear FILCOM,

With reference to the employment policy update uploaded by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in its website, ( please refer to this link ), please be advised that the amendment ( special case on the limitation of re- entry employment) to the Act on Foreign Workers Employment,etc will take effect on July 2, 2012.

According to the MOEL , the amendment will apply to foreign workers whose employment period ( 4 years and 10 months ) will expire after its enforcement date ( July 2, 2012). The application procedure and other details will be prescribed in subsequent amendments to the relevant Enforcement Decree and Enforcement requlations.

For your information.

Thank you.

Atty. Felicitas Q. Bay
Labor Attache
Philippine Overseas Labor Office
Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines
5-1, Itaewon 2-dong, Yongsan-Ku, Seoul, 140-857 Korea
Tel: 82 2 3785 3634/5; Fax: 82 2 3785 3624
labor@philembassy-seoul.com
www.philembassy-seoul.com
---------------- ---------------------------- -----------------
Reference: http://www.moel.go.kr/english/topic/employment_policy_view.jsp?&idx=896

Hard-working foreign workers can be reemployed in Korea after 3-month stay in their home countries


Foreign workers who have worked with integrity in Korea for 4 years and 10 months and then return to their home countries will be allowed to re-enter and find work again in Korea after a lapse of three months since their return. They will also be able to work in the same workplace where they used to work just before departure without having to undergo a Korean language proficiency test or employment training.


- Currently, if a foreign worker goes back to his/her home country after the end of his/her employment period, he/she can be re-employed in Korea under the Employment Permit System after six months. In such cases, the foreign worker is not guaranteed a job in his/her previous workplace, let alone re-employment, and is required to go through a Korean language test, employment training and other procedures again.

The new amendment requires departing foreign workers to stay in their home countries for at least three months. This requirement is imposed in order to avoid inadvertently meeting the general naturalization requirements (staying in Korea for five consecutive years or more) under Article 5 of the Nationality Act.

To re-enter and find employment again in Korea, a foreign worker will have to have worked in a workplace of the type and size determined by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee in accordance with the amendment for 4 years and 10 months without a change of workplace.

(The size and type of business will be determined in a way that will cover workplaces having difficulties in employing native Korean workers, such as those in agricultural, livestock and fishing industries and small manufacturers. A separate public notice will be given of such size and type.)


The government promulgated the amendment to the Act on Foreign Workers Employment, etc., containing these features, on February 1. The amendment will come into effect on July 2, 2012.

The amendment will apply to foreign workers whose employment period (4 years and 10 months) will expire after its enforcement date (i.e. Jul. 2, 2012). Any employer who wants his/her foreign worker to re-enter Korea and continue to work in his/her workplace should make an application to the competent job center before the foreign worker leaves Korea.

* The application procedure and other details will be prescribed in the subsequent amendments to the relevant Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Regulations.
The number of foreign workers who have to return to their home countries as their employment period expires is expected to reach 67,000 this year.

Businesses are complaining of losing skilled workers, and some foreign workers are overstaying in Korea illegally. Against this background, the amendment was pursued as a practical alternative.

So far, once the quota for foreign workers to be allowed into Korea is set at an adequate level each year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has brought in new workers to fill the entire quota. However, from now on, it will fill some of the quota with foreign workers whose integrity has been verified under the new system.

The new system is intended to bring in quality foreign workers and encourage those workers to work hard during their employment period without increasing the total number of foreign workers to be introduced.

It also aims to help companies keep skilled foreign workers and to reduce the number of illegal foreigners.

Meanwhile, the amendment contains changes regarding foreign workers' change of workplace.

Up until now, even in case a foreign worker moves to another workplace due to the revocation of an employment permit issued to the employer or any violation of the required working conditions, it has been counted towards the total number of workplace transfers. However, from now on, such a transfer will not be added to the total.

* A foreign worker cannot move to another workplace more than three times during his/her three-year initial employment and more than twice during his/her two-year re-employment.

The specific criteria a foreign worker should meet if his/her transfer to another workplace is not to be included in the total number of workplace transfers will be announced by the Minister of Employment and Labor.

Lee Tae-hee, the Director General of the Manpower Policy Bureau, predicted, "This revision will contribute in part to the availability of skilled workers among firms and a fall in the number of illegal foreigners." He also said, "To ensure the smooth application of the amendment in the workplace, the government will take stronger measures to counter illegal stay and employment of foreigners, and actively provide job placement services so as for native Korean workers to be employed in companies with relatively better working conditions."

Hideous schemes in migrant labor

The Hideous Schemes that Enslave Migrant Workers A Presentation to the Asia Wide Campaign against US-Japanese Aggression and Domination in Asia (AWC), Campaign Coordinating Body (CCB) Meeting January 28-29, 2012, Seoul, Korea

By Frank Hernando
Training officer
KASAMMAKO-Migrante Korea

Warmest fraternal greetings to all of you who have come to this important program of the Asia Wide Campaign against US-Japanese Aggression and Domination in Asia (AWC), Campaign Coordinating Body (CCB) Meeting. I thank the organizers of this program for giving us, KASAMMAKO the time to share perspectives on how global empires impact the life of migrant workers in South Korea.

Whenever we discuss about issues related to migration and development, which are economic and social in nature, we connect these to the geo-political and military strategies of the empire or what we characteristically describe as countries that have prolonged and predominating control over smaller and weaker nations in every aspect of life. I would not dwell on the geo-political and military influence of the empires, specifically the United States and Japan in the Asia-Pacific, but rather briefly interrelate the phenomenon of migration with the social costs of US interventionist policies in the Philippines and South Korea. 

Bobby Tuazon, in his paper Current U.S. Intervention in the Philippines outlined the economic, social and political costs of current U.S. interventionism in the Philippines, which are the following:

a) Economic costs:  
--heightening of the exploitation and plunder of the country's natural resources including labor; -

- the subservience of the whole Philippine economy to the U.S. economy and that of other capitalist countries like Japan and EU countries;

-- the deterioration, underdevelopment and destruction of the country's economy thus causing the greater impoverishment and oppression of the Filipino people particularly the poor; -

-through their neo-colonial ties with and puppetry to the U.S., the continued domination of the country's landholdings, trade and other wealth by the elite (the landlords, comprador-bourgeoisie and big bureaucrats in government)

b) Social costs: -- the exploitation of the people particularly women due to the proliferation of prostitution, entertainment and other forms of enslavement in the service of U.S. forces; -

-due to increasing defense budgets in line with the U.S.-RP military alliance, the deterioration of public services including food, education, health, housing, social welfare and basic programs; -

- increase in the number of internal refugees displaced by government's total war policy and armed intervention by the U.S. in the guise of training exercises, humanitarian missions and others;

c) Political costs
: -- a government and military establishment that is elitist, anti-people and blindly obedient to U.S. dictation

; -- infringement of the country's sovereign, independent and territorial rights; -

- State Terrorism as manifested in the push for a “Strong Republic,” in anti-terrorism bills that threaten the people's civil and political rights and in the increase in the number and scale of human rights violations;

-- lack of an independent foreign policy that serves to reinforce the image of the Philippine government in the world community as a puppet of the U.S.

The phenomenon of migration is not a recent development in world history, but this has become well debated around the world because of the stringent labor and immigration policies imposed by many labor receiving or labor destination countries because of the increasing number of migrant workers seeking employment outside of their home countries.

 The Philippine government has introduced into its economy the labor export policy as early as the mid-1970s when the economy was plunging into the abyss primarily due to backward agriculture, which even up to the present farmers could not own the land they till the best example is the case of Hacienda Luisita, one of the bastions of semi-feudal land ownership and the owner is the family of President Benigno Aquino III. 

As mentioned above, the economic, social and political costs foreign interventionist policies primarily of the US, Japan and other imperialist countries in the Philippines have driven many Filipinos to seek jobs overseas and at present it is estimated that there are over 11 million Filipino migrant workers in many countries around the world, with concentration in the US, the Middle East and North Africa and Northeast Asia. 

In South Korea there are more than 50 thousand Filipino migrant workers of the more than 700 thousand foreign migrant workers. Migrant workers come mostly from China, South and Southeast Asia and others from Central and West Asia. The Employment Permit System was introduced in 2004 as the labor arrangement for migrant workers which replaced the Industrial Trainee System. Migrant workers living in South Korea work in a number of industries, in particular, manufacturing, construction, and in services such as restaurants and entertainment.

From our point of view, the Employment Permit System (EPS) as a labor arrangement is an instrument of enslavement of the neo-liberal capitalist globalization.   The Philippine government in 2010 reaped 18.8 billion dollars from remittances of over nine million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) worldwide. The amount is 8.2 percent higher than the previous year. It is however an irony that even with the wealth the government has amassed from the hard labor of migrant workers, social services to migrant workers still found wanting.  

 As an instrument of neo-liberal capitalist globalization the EPS has been the source of cheap labor as there has been a lack of local human resource for small and medium scale industries, thus the recourse to recruitment of migrant workers from overseas. The large scale production in the South Korean economy has undeniably benefitted from the supply of cheap labor from source countries. 

Access to cheap labor has been legalized through bilateral labor agreements such as the MOU on deployment of migrant workers.   Local capitalists and conglomerates are highly motivated to gain super profits and that requires subcontracted production from SMEs to realize their target profits, but would not give a dent on the suffering and inhumane working conditions of migrant workers. As in the case of many Filipino migrant workers in South Korea under the EPS they are classified as unskilled workers despite their educational and skills qualification.  Educational attainment in this sense is no longer significant in the profit making schemes of capitalists and factory owners.

After seven years of implementation, labor organizations and migrant workers themselves assessed that the EPS is full of flaws especially in the employment term. The 3 years original employment term plus another 2 years extension has been legally prescribed and migrant workers are forced to leave the country without the possibility of further term extension nor changing visa status for long term employment or for acquiring residency status. 

Last month, the South Korean parliament has approved the extension of the term of employment for migrant workers under EPS twice the maximum term of 5 years and 10 months. This however, does not change the existing labor practices and laws that directly affect the quality of life and human rights situation of migrant workers. 

Migrant workers have to work on extended hours up to 12 hours beyond the eight-hour labor law, without getting overtime pay. This is no different from what the undocumented workers are experiencing. Although there is a clear provision in the EPS law that that the Korean Labor Standards Act applies to all migrant workers, but the Korean government is just making a lip service to the plight of migrant workers.  

Compensation for industrial accidents experienced by migrant workers is difficult to process and access and more so with their pension and separation pays. Employers practice deceit by not contributing to the social benefits of migrant workers and they are not prosecuted and penalized for such violations.

Furthermore, the Korean government failed miserably to address the situation of undocumented migrant workers aside from offering them voluntary departure or forced deportation. There is no doubt that EPS workers whose term of employment will soon expire but wanted to continue working in the country will become undocumented too. For those whose term of employment ends after May of this year and pass the prescribed qualifications such as the Korean language test, age limit, and assured contract from employer, may have the chance to continue working in the country. 

KASAMMAKO untiringly urges both the Philippine and South Korean governments to exhaustively evaluate and assess the EPS law to improve the working conditions of migrant workers and for them to be free from the enslavement of profiteering employers, companies and capitalists that live luxuriously while their workers are suffering and could hardly survive with their low incomes.   We have been urging the South Korean government to synchronize labor and immigration laws that will better the working conditions of migrant workers, giving them more democratic rights and allowing them to exercise their rights to unionize and pursue their employment goals.   

KASAMMAKO together with other Filipino migrant workers organizations urges the Benigno Aquino III administration to take action in helping the overseas Filipino workers including those deployed in South Korea. Since the 1970s up to this time, the succeeding Philippine governments including the present Aquino government have not done anything to improve employment opportunities in the Philippines but instead continued the labor-exporting policy.

The Aquino government cut the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs from P12.69 billion ($295 million) this year to P10.98 billion ($255 million) in 2012 and this means less social services for migrant workers and their families. The Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo admitted that the reduction of budget for OFWs  would paralyze the operations of Philippine embassies and consulates around the world. It would also mean reduced assistance to Filipinos in distress overseas. There have been too many OFWs who have died, disabled, ill, abused, jailed, stranded or in distressed situations who need the assistance of the Philippine Embassies or Consular offices, and this means adequate budget to aid and support OFWs.

In both contexts where migrant workers live and work there are hideous schemes that enslave migrant workers. The strength and blood of migrant workers are the fuel for the insatiable greed for profits and for concentration of wealth on the hands of the few. The solidarity of all workers in Asia and around the world is the bulwark of emancipation and hope for justice and peace of migrant workers and all struggling peoples.+++
END
-------------------
Footnote:
 Paper read at the conference of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines – National Capital Region on Oct. 21, 2003 at San Beda College auditorium, Manila. Author Tuazon is also a member of the Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies (CAIS), http://bulatlat.com/news/3-41/3-41-primer.html.

Migrant Workers' Resolve and Commitment

Our Resolve and Commitment
Text: Joshua 24: 14-15
Kasammako Assbly
24 January 2012
By Frank Hermando

Joshua 24:14-15 (RSV)

14 "Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

15 And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

MEDITATION
1. Occasions like this reminds me of the many general assemblies and conferences I've attended throughout my adult life. 

2. What makes a conference or a general assembly stands out among others is the culmination through renewal of commitment to the vision, mission and goals of the church denomination or an organization or a political party. 

3. The text I have chosen for this meditation is the narration of the biblical writer about the general assembly that Joshua and the elders of the Israelite tribal confederacy held for covenant renewal in Shechem. Biblical historians locate this event at around 1100 BCE, the time when the Israelite tribal confederacy was consolidated and the predominantly peasant nation had established its basic social support systems such as the land tenure system, where each family was assigned an agricultural land to till, justice system carried out by both the elders and the judges, polItical and ethical leadership by the elders and prophets and the people's army, which was more of guerilla force than a standby army. Social stability depended on the quality of life ensured by the tribal confederacy.

4.  The most compelling statement Joshua said to the Israelites was "choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

5. Choosing the god that people will serve was very important because who and what people had been serving determines the kind and quality of life they will have. When people serve the gods of the Canaanites they will have economic prosperity, but not social justice, they may have social security but only for the landlords. Israel's tribal confederacy has Yahweh, the God who freed them from slavery in Egypt and guided them to forge unity through a covenant. A covenant is similar to a constitution of a nation and of an orgnization. 

6. A covenant embodies the highest aspirations of the people who went through difficultsituations. It is a resolve to live in community of equals rather than of master-slave relationships.

7. Choosing the biblical God Yahweh as the center of our life as a nation as Filipinos and as  global citizens means that we have to choose the direction of establishing a reign of justice as opposed to the reign of greed and oppression brought about by the imperialist annexation and aggression. 

8. When we choose to live in covenant relationship, means we have to make our total resolve and commitment to evolve a society where justice, peace and love are lived. This also means do our share of responsibilities entailed to both individuals and to communities or organizations.

9. The situation of migrant workers in South Korea can be characterized as modern day slavery in the context of insatiable greed for super profits of companies especially by transnational corporations. 

10. By forging greater unity and alliance amongst organizations migrant workers can strengthen their resolve and commitment to free themselves from modern slavery in various forms.

Prayer for the New Year

PROK Morning Office
09 January 2012

SCRIPTURE READING
     Psalm 136

PRAYER

Most loving God,
God of every beginning,
We praise and adore you.
A new year has dawned upon us.
We thank you for another brand new year, a 365 days of life and service.

We are filled with hopes and expectations of how your grace and love will bring goodness, health and opportunities.  

By faith and prayers we trust that you will nourish and sustain us especially in times of difficulties and confusion.

Firm-up our wavering empathy for persons in work and community. May we unfalteringly express your practical compassion in our relationships.

Let not prejudice and selfishness be the basis of our self-esteem and human dignity, but your love that encompasses even our muted anxiety and insecurity.

We are confident in faith that nothing will separate us from your abounding and steadfast love.

Bless and empower us to do our share in the building of peace in our society and the world. 

We pray these in the name of Jesus Christ, our source of New Life. Amen.