Tuesday, February 13, 2007 Speak out: Government's negligence By Cristina Palabay Gabriela Women's Party-list
NEGLIGENCE and lack of consideration for its own people has allowed the Philippine administration to disregard the lessons of the past. And Josiebeth Foroozan’s kidnapping in Nigeria is a result of such negligence.
Until now, after so many migrant workers have met traumatic incidents while abroad, the administration still does not have a protective mechanism to ensure their safety.
Gabriela Women’s Party-list is calling for the immediate release of Josiebeth Foroozan and other Filipino workers who were captured by Nigerian rebels.
More than a decade ago, the Philippine administration failed to save Flor Contemplacion from execution. Then last year, the Arroyo administration failed to save hundreds of women domestic helpers stranded in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
And now, it is yet to deliver concrete results to ensure Foroozan’s release from her captors.
Arroyo and her inutile lackeys in the Department of Foreign Affairs have yet to prove to the Filipino people that they can be safe even while working abroad.
Shame on this administration for exploiting Filipino migrant workers — two-thirds of them women — while failing to ensure their welfare.
This regime has gone into the trouble of putting up paid television advertisements to deceive Filipinos into working abroad yet it cannot be bothered to ensure the safety of migrant workers. It cannot even deliver confirmed reports about Foroozan’s situation.
We demand concrete results now. The administration is doomed if Foroozan becomes another Flor Contemplacion who died from the government’s neglect. Migrant workers and their families would surely rise against such exploitative administration that could come up with deceiving ways to entice them to work abroad yet could neither protect them from harm nor save them.
