Statement on the occasion of the International Migrants Day, 18 December 2014

Resist commodification and slavery of migrants,
Dismantle labour export programs

Work towards a development agenda that is truly just and transformative

Statement on the occasion of the International Migrants Day,
18 December 2014

The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) joins the hundreds of millions of migrants around the world in commemorating the International Migrants Day 2014. As various activities are held to mark this day, it must also be remembered that the declaration of the IMD was brought by the ceaseless struggles of migrants to defend their rights, their wellbeing and their dignity as workers and as human beings.

Over two decades have passed since the United Nations declared the IMD and yet, the condition of migrants remains unchanged. Poverty, unemployment and underemployment, and general displacement still force millions to seek employment and decent living for their families overseas. Meanwhile in receiving countries, migrants remain as marginalized and discriminated, excluded from social protection, and treated as disposable labour and cheap workers.

The economic, social and political offensives of neoliberal globalization has led to more frequent, multiple and serious crisis in the world. Even in the heart if superpower economies like the United States, displacement is rampant and victimizes the working people especially the immigrant communities while trafficking is on the rise as temporary workers programs are institutionalized and expanded.

Notably, international migration increased dramatically in the decades when neoliberal globalization went full-throttle. In 1990, there were 154 million migrants in the world. This increased to 175 million when the neoliberal globalization-driven Millennium Development Goals were formulated and now stands at 232 million after more almost 15 years of the MDGs implementation.

In the midst of the long-running crisis, there is now a move to sugarcoat current labour migration as an engine that can contribute to a country’s development. Through the Global Forum on Migration and Development or the GFMD, the migration for development framework is being advanced by various states – as a way of intensifying labour export for sending countries, and a means to secure the flow of the cheap and flexible labour of migrants.

Such a framework is also now carried in discussions for the world’s post-2015 development agenda. It tries to sanitize the current migration that is forced and commodifies migrants, while also denying the fact that development of a country cannot be achieved through remittances of migrants.

Both in the outcome document of the Open Working Group, tasked to draft the Sustainable Development Goals document for negotiation, and in the synthesized report of the UN Secretary General on the SDGs, migration is packaged as a development strategy with remittance playing a big role in financing development.

This framework, however, aside from not bringing forth genuine development for the people, will only lead to the further commodification of migrants, expansion of the labor export program and intensification of modern-day slavery of foreign workers. This is the framework on migration that neoliberal globalization is advancing together with its other destructive policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization.

The militant movement of grassroots migrant workers has played a significant role in exposing the migration for development agenda of the GFMD. Initiatives, particularly those led by the International Migrants Alliance or IMA, have demystified the migration or development mantra and delegitimized the GFMD as only servicing the interests of the private sector engaged in the migration business, the sending countries and the labour-receiving governments.

This same movement is steadily growing in the international, regional and national levels. This is also the movement that consistently stands for the right of migrants, wins victories for the rights and wellbeing of migrant workers, and makes the commemoration of the IMD 2014 even more significant and inspiring.

As the world gets ready to firm up the post-2015 development agenda, migrants are again challenged to engage, resist neoliberal dictates on migration and development, and advance development justice as the transformative framework for a development that is based in justice, sustainability and human rights.

With the grassroots movement of migrants strengthening its ranks, the APMM is confident that the movement is ready to face such challenge.

Long live the migrant workers!

Advance development justice!

Resist neoliberal globalization dictates on migration!

Long live international solidarity!

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Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Office Address: G/F, No.2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

Tel. no.: (852) 2723-7536
Fax no.: (852) 2735-4559
General E-mail: apmm@hknet.com

Jennifer Laude hate crime: Murder most foul, pathetic mendicancy like no other

Press Statement
15 October 2014



We cannot perhaps add anything more to the universal condemnation and loud calls for justice for the grisly murder of Jennifer Laude. There is no legal nor moral justification for an apparent hate crime.

Yet the BS Aquino government is failing us again. It is not standing up for its own people despite the horrible beastly murder. It is simply pathetic to grovel for custody of a suspect just to routinely bring him to justice.

You bellow grandiosely that you have legal jurisdiction over a suspect yet you peep with a whimper over a simple exercise of custody?

And the US is flouting all laws of decency and humanity for its own military interests. Shielding US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton is unmitigated callousness.

What if it were an American transgender and a Filipino soldier? The latter would be instantly renditioned by the US and thrown overboard from the docks.

The nexus with scandalously one-sided "agreements" that institutionalize and legalize what are essentially master-slave arrangements like the so-called Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) on the one hand, and transgressions against our sovereignty, our laws, our environment, our dignity as a people and as human beings is patent as it is overt, on the other hand.

From Subic to Tubbataha, from Smith to Pemberton: it is one straight path to subservience and docility sanctified by legal gobbledygook and discombobulated by legal hermeneutics.

We told you so. These and other outrageous things are bound to happen. And will happen again.

But we will tell you again and again and again and again. Until lowly life forms camouflaged in elegant uniforms are brought to us for reckoning. Until you respect us as a people. Until you treat us as human beings. #

Reference:

Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

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National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax no.920-6660
Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Follow us on twitter @nuplphilippines and facebook @https://www.facebook.com/nuplphilippines
Visit the NUPL website at http://www.nupl.net/

Unequal US-PH military agreements license to violate people’s rights

Press Statement
October 14, 2014

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580



http://www.karapatan.org/Unequal+US-PH+military+agreements+VFA-EDCA+license+to+violate+people%E2%80%99s+rights+Jennifer+Laude

“The killing of transgender woman Jennifer Laude by a US serviceman is the most recent vivid violation of people’s rights, a consequence of lopsided military agreements between the US and the Philippine governments. The US-RP Military Bases Agreement to the Visiting Forces Agreement and the US-GPH Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement have become licenses for numerous gross transgressions, especially on the rights of Filipino women and children,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.

An online US-based news site, www.marinecorpstimes.com cited an internal US Navy memorandum identified the perpetrator as a US Marine deployed to the Philippines as part of the Balikatan joint military training exercise. The suspect, whose identity is kept from the public, and three other Marines are in the custody of US Navy officials since Sunday.

The Balikatan joint military exercise is a component of the Visiting Forces Agreement which in effect ensures the permanent, albeit rotational, presence of the US troops in the country. “The newly signed EDCA ensures the increased and permanent presence of US military troops, anywhere and everywhere in the Philippines, at the expense of the Filipino people, both monetarily and in relation to our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

Palabay warned that the “issue of jurisdiction and custody over the case may go the way of all previous cases where criminal accountability of US soldiers in Philippine territory were exonerated under the pretext of the MBA and the VFA.”

She stated that in 1987, a US serviceman stationed in the US base on Olongapo and accused in the rape of 12-year old Rosario Baluyot was “whisked out of the country to avoid prosecution.” The child later died from sepsis because parts of a vibrator that was inserted in her vagina remained stuck for seven months.

The rape of “Nicole” by US Marine Daniel Smith in 2005 was the first case where a member of the US military was tried, convicted and sentenced for a crime on Philippine territory. However, the local court ruling on the landmark case was overturned when Smith was secretly transferred from the Makati City Jail to the US Embassy’s custody in 2006.

“In both cases, the issue of US government custody on the perpetrators from the US military was invoked,” Palabay added.

“We call on the Filipino people to assert the country’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the case, including custody and investigation of the perpetrator, and his prosecution. We demand justice and accountability. We call for the immediate junking of the VFA and the EDCA, which are threats to the Filipino people’s liberty and security,” she concluded. ###

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

Show the World that we, as people--whether Christian, Muslim or Lumad, long for Peace

Press Statement

A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”     Jesus (Matt. 5:43-44)

Last Wednesday, during the Midweek Prayer service, an M203 grenade was fired inside the UCCP-Pikit in Pikit, North Cotabato, resulting in the death of two of our worshiping members and caused injuries to several others. Two men riding in tandem aboard a motorcycle were seen speeding away from the church immediately after the bombing.

As this time, there is no evidence as to who were responsible and what their motives were. There are theories and speculations but no concrete proof as of yet.

In times like this, when emotions and passion tend to run high, we call for sobriety. Let us avoid speculations and a rush to judgment that are unwarranted and which may just lead to further escalation of tension and of violence.

In times like this when are are in the dark and do not know for certain who the perpetrators are, our best recourse is prayer. Prayer has always been the best refuge for believers, whether Christians, Muslims or of other faiths. Our God does not slumber or sleep and hears the cries of the oppressed.

One thing that unites us, whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads, is our high respect for houses of worship. Time and again those who work against peace and who would turn the conflict into a religious war have violated holy places by violence. This is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated nor countenanced by any group or religion. As in the past, we have called on our churches as sanctuaries of peace and have protested the putting up of detachments and camps in places of worship.

We are heartened in this hour of our grief, that as we condemn the attack on our church in the strongest term possible, that Muslim leaders in the area have joined us in condemning this despicable act.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters in the area are fully aware of the inter-faith and ecumenical posture of our Church and how our Church people and institutions, like the Southern Christian College, had been in the forefront of promoting peace in Mindanao.

This may be an opportune time to show to the world that we, as a people - whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads - long for peace by calling for an inter-faith, tri-people prayer rally for unity, justice and peace.

I ask our leaders in Mindanao, from Bishops to Conference Ministers and local church leaders to consider doing so. I call on our ecumenical and inter-faith partners to consider doing so.

I urge all our local churches throughout the Philippines to designate a time in their worship services this Sunday to remember those who died and those who are in need of healing and to pray for peace as well as for justice for the victims and comfort for their families.

We continue to implore on the authorities to speed up their investigations and to leave no stones unturned to bring the perpetrators to account for their crime. We call on witnesses to this dastardly act to surface and to cooperate with investigators.

Let us pray for God’s comfort upon those whose loved ones have perished. To the families of Felomena Nacario-Ferolin and Gina Cabiluna, we lift you up in prayer that God’s consoling presence dwell with you in these difficult times. For those who were injured, that God would heal your wounds, both physical and emotional. For those who have done this cowardly act, while you may escape human justice, you can never escape God’s judgment.

Let us pray for our beloved country that peace and justice may soon inhabit the land, where there is an end to senseless violence and injustice, and where instruments of violence may be converted into tools for the well-being of its people.

(Sgd.) Bishop REUEL NORMAN O. MARIGZA

UCCP General Secretary

Interviews may be arranged through Media Liaison Rebecca Lawson, 0919-828-9514

Chuseok holidays 2014 and Seokcho beac

https://plus.google.com/106930013618771461276/stories/851f1110-45c2-381a-91ad-c76c951f327514883119b7b?authkey=CK7IzsOl6KaE3gE

Statement of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)-Korea Chapter 10 August 2014

We urge the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to resume formal peace talks to address the root causes of armed conflict and work towards the reign of justice and peace in the country.


Statement of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines
(ICHRP)-Korea Chapter
10 August 2014

The urgency and immensity of the task of getting into formal peace talks cannot be denied by many people from all walks of life in a war or conflict stricken countries like the Philippines. The resumption of peace talks between the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front (NDFP) is urgent because the armed conflict has been waged by the revolutionary organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) for more than 44 years. The peace talks have been stalled since 2011.

In an interview with Luis G. Jalandoni Chairperson of the NDFP negotiating panel said that the NDFP has reiterated its willingness to hold peace negotiations on the basis of respect for and compliance with past agreements. Such compliance would mean release of NDFP Consultants and political prisoners detained in violation of the CARHRIHL and JASIG. CARHRIHL stipulates that political prisoners charged, detained or convicted for common crimes in violation of the Hernandez political offense doctrine ought to be released. The JASIG guarantees immunity from surveillance, arrest, detention and other punitive activities to all participants of both sides in the peace negotiations.

The B.S. Aquino government since the beginning of his term has been disinterested in engaging in peace talks with the NDFP and his offensive stances against peace talks would lead to the deterioration of the social situation in the country. Furthermore he attacked The Hague Joint Declaration as “a document of perpetual division” in talks held in Oslo in 2011. Subsequently, it declared the JASIG “inoperative” in 2012. In its counterinsurgency plan, OPLAN BAYANIHAN, it aims to render the NPA inconsequential through the triad of psychological war, intelligence and combat operations.

In the unity statement of the newly formed KAPAYAPAAN (peace), an alliance of peace advocates mentioned that the government of the Philippines should respect the agreements signed. It cited Former GRP Chief Negotiator Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, who declared in an interview, “The Aquino government must respect the past peace agreements. Otherwise, who would trust a government that does not respect agreements or contracts it has entered into. It should release NDFP Consultants and political prisoners in accordance with CARHRIHL and the JASIG. It should withdraw its attack against The Hague Joint Declaration as “a document of perpetual division”

When asked about the prospects of resumption of GPH-NDFP peace talks, Luis G. Jalandoni said, “The NDFP must continue upholding, defending and advancing the rights of the peasants, workers, women, youth, indigenous people, and other sectors. It has to develop further its capacity to defend their rights and programs. The overall strength of the people and the revolutionary forces is the firm basis for negotiating fundamental social, economic, and political reforms that are needed to achieve and just and lasting peace. The NDFP continues to cooperate with the Royal Norwegian Government, the official Third Party Facilitator of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations, in conveying its willingness to resume peace talks on the basis of past agreements. It continues to work with peace advocate organizations in the Philippines and abroad. It upholds the validity of the agreements made in the peace negotiations.”

Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum underscored that the peace must have no pre-conditions but both parties must honor previous agreements. He said, “Resume, Honor, Address are our simple calls. If both the GPH and the NDFP heed our calls, we believe that a just and lasting peace could be made a reality.”

The initial list of convenors and signatories to the unity statement of KAPAYAPAAN include, Archbishop Sergio Utleg of Tuguegarao, Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando Pampanga, Bishop Narciso Abellana of Romblon, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon, Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi, Bishop Pedro Arigo of Puerto Princesa, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, Bishop Roberto Mallari of San Jose Nueva Ecija , Bishop Edgardo Juanich of Taytay, Palawan, Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines, Bishop Lito Cruz of the IFI, Rev. Rex Reyes of the National Church of Christ of the Philippines, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the IFI in Mindanao, Bishop Joel Tendero of UCCP-South Luzon Jurisdictional Area, Fr. Ramon Caluza, provincial superior of CICM, Sr,. Maureen Catabian, provincial superior of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, Makabayan president Satur Ocampo, Dr. Carol Pagaduan Araullo of Bayan, Elmer Labog of KMU, former Representatives Mong Palatino and Rafael Mariano, Councilor Leah Librado of Davao City, Atty. Roan Libarios, Joel Lamangan, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, among others.

Together with the convenors and committed persons from the different sectors of society, the International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (Korea Chapter), The Asia Pacific Workers Solidarity Link (APWSL-Korea), The Osan Workers Cultural Center, and The Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea (KASAMMAKO), urge the NDFP and the GPH to resume formal peace talks with earnestness and urgency. The masses of Filipino who have been suffering from poverty situation, landlessness and unemployment have been waiting for the time when justice and peace becomes a reality in their lives, in their communities and the entire nation.

RESUME PEACE TALKS NOW!
LET JUSTICE AND PEACE REIGN IN THE PHILIPPINES!
STOP EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS!

Signed:




REV. JEONG JIN-WOO
ICHRP-Global Council

REV. JANG CHANG-WEON
APWSL-Korea

CARLO OLIVER
KASAMMAKO

JONES GALANG
Osan Workers Cultural Center

The State of Migrant Workers in Korea under President B.S. Aquino

27 July 2014, Seoul, South Korea

1. “Kung uuwi kami ng Pilpinas wala kaming trabaho doon, kaya kahit mahirap ang buhay artista dito sa Korea habang hindi pa nahuhuli dito na muna kami.” This is a familiar word from non-documented Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in South Korea, saying that they have decided to stay on in Korea even though they have overstayed their visas and have become non-documented, because it will be extremely difficult for them to find jobs in the home country. Forced migration through the Labor Export Policy remains one of the major sources of government revenues and in spite of the much hyped high gross domestic product (GDP) of the country reaching to 7.5 in 2013, yet still many Filipinos are compelled to leave their home and community to seek jobs overseas.

2. In South Korea, due to impact of global economic crisis on various industries and on income of families belonging to the low and middle income families, the government’s immigration bureau fiercely conduct crackdown on non-documented migrant workers. South Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS) as labor policy for migrant workers since its inception in 2004 has been proven as form of modern day slavery if not a legalized human trafficking wherein migrant workers have to work from 10-12 hours per day or more and are exposed to the dangerous working conditions and often experience physical and psychological abuse done by their employers. It perpetuates easy supply of cheap labor force from labor sending countries and failed to provide humane and non-discriminatory working environment for migrant workers and instead of reducing the number of migrant workers who become non-documented it has in fact increased due to only three job transfers during their term of employment.

3. The Philippine Embassy here in Seoul, South Korea has failed to negotiate for better working conditions for OFWs. It has found subservient to the host country’s policies and even when rights are migrants and marriage migrants are violated they hesitate to do proper actions such as mediating to stop the bureau of immigration’s crackdown or proposed strategies to legalize non-documented migrant workers. The Embassy in South Korea is not different from other countries that have concentration of OFWs, it bows down to the exploitative schemes of employers and profit-orientation of host countries and lacks genuine interest to give aid and assistance to migrant workers in distress, whose rights and welfare were the reasons for the creation of such government offices.

4. Meanwhile organizations of OFWs in Korea have opposed attempts of both the South Korean and Philippine governments to divest OFWs of the direct benefits of their pension immediately after their term of employment ends through the ‘equalization scheme’ of SSS-NPS agreement. In the same way, migrant workers organizations from various countries have raised their opposition to the revision of the EPS provisions on payment of their severance pay which originally given prior to departure from the country but has been attempted that this will be paid after departure. Protests on this revision has stopped the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) from finally revising the provision for this benefits of migrant workers.

5. There in the home front, President B.S. Aquino has not instituted social justice for the people, but rather preoccupied himself in pleasing his political allies and his own party, a political practice that feeds on graft and corruption. His government has tried so hard to hide the ugliness and rottenness of the political and economic system and that fiscal management of the nation has been abused especially at the high places of the executive and legislative powers, where funds intended for social development of the nation such as the Presidential Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and recently the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) were are all found unconstitutional. There has been a conscious collusion of financial managers and the President B.S. Aquino in the irregular appropriation of such funds.

6. Since B.S. Aquino started his term in 2010 as president of the country, there has been an increaisng number of OFWs deployed that reached to 1.5. million, 3.4.% higher than in 2009. This is an indicator that the government has not created significant amount of decent jobs for millions of Filipinos and it satisfies itself with the regular monthly remittances of OFWs that buttress the national economy and releases government from responsibility of providing quality social services for the people. Migrante International pegs the number of overseas Filipinos between 12 to 15 million, to include non-documented OFWs.

7. This government at home, while emphasizing local job generation as its core program to reduce unemployment, continues to take pride in the “remittance boom” to further promote labor export. To do this, it has become more aggressive in lobbying for job markets abroad in the past four years. Even funds for labor outmigration management through agencies such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) are directly sourced from OFWs or recruitment agencies and employers through various fees. However, the so-called remittance boom does not necessarily translate to economic growth, nor does it automatically translate to higher investments or economic relief for families of OFWs.

8. OFWs have been subjected to state exactions which caused OFWs and their families to become debt-ridden, contributing greatly to the widespread landlessness and poverty of many. It is not unheard of for peasant families to mortgage or sell their small parcels of land or to submit their children to unpaid labor just to be able to pay debtors or produce the sum needed to pay for exorbitant pre-departure and placement fees. The continuous onslaught of state exactions on OFWs, combined with the BS Aquino government’s lack of welfare service and assistance to OFWs in distress and the overall economic conditions of OFWs and their families amid widespread corruption and criminal neglect of the government are enough reasons for Filipino migrants to call for BS Aquino to step down from office.

9. Worse of all the BS Aquino’s remorseless subservience to US-imposed policies and dictates has totally stripped the country of its sovereignty and independence, and has further endangered the lives of millions of OFWs around the world through signing into the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which is paving the way for US re-occupation and re-colonization of the Philippines. Under the EDCA, a much bigger, uninhibited and unlimited number of US troops and their armaments are allowed to be stationed on Philippine soil. US troops can now easily set up base virtually anywhere in the country for an indefinite period of time.

10. KASAMMAKO declares that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III failed to institute social justice for the Filipino people and have not used government’s financial resources to better the lives of millions of people. We make the following calls to President B.S. Aquino and President Park Geun-Hye of the Republic of Korea and these are strategic imperatives to better the lives of the OFWs in South Korea and most importantly, so that justice, peace and sovereignty will reign in the lands:

We call on President B.S. Aquino to step down or get impeached.
Stop the crackdown of non-documented OFWs and all migrant workers in South Korea! Replace the Employment Permit System (EPS) with humane and non-dsicriminatory Work Permit System!

*Repeal the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that undermines Philippine soverieignty.
*Stop forced labor migration, create decent jobs at the home country and institute social justice.
*Stop extra-judicial killings and political repression of social activists including indigenous peoples who defend their lands from transnational and national mining corporations.
*Resume peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP
*Stop post deportation/departure payment of severance pay.


CARLO OLIVER
Chairperson

PHOTO credit: Kilusang Mayong Uno