Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Sona and the Modern Day Heroes

When GMA proudly announced during her State of the Nation Address the arrival of 200 Filipino overseas workers from war torn Lebanon, she was given a warm applause by her eager supporters. What GMA did not tell those present at the Batasan, and the millions of Filipinos watching her on TV, is that out of those 200 ‘modern day heroes’, 78 were victims of rape and maltreatment, while 36 others faced various immigration problems.

‘Modern day heroes’, is indeed a fitting tribute to those 78 Filipinas who left their homes, and face the uncertainties of life in a foreign land, in search of a better source of income which their government cannot provide. Their adventures are indeed heroic, and one can not imagine the trauma which one of those ‘heroes’ had experienced when she was raped by her employer’s son on the first night of her arrival in Lebanon, followed by more rapes by both father and son. While GMA delivers her SONA to the untiring applauses of her supporters, this modern day heroine, who is five months pregnant, arrives at Villamor airbase.

Back at Batasan, GMA said to his detractors, ‘… what a waste of time’. And her audience gave her another round of applause. What a waste of time, indeed. But what could she have said to those 78 ‘modern day heroines’ if she had learned before hand that they were victims of rape and maltreatment; that they could not have freed themselves from their abductors had it not been for the war? What a waste of life? Yes, what a waste of life, indeed!

To contain the negative impact of the snail-paced evacuation of overseas Filipinos in Lebanon on the colorful picture painted by her future of the nation’s address, GMA and her handlers promised that her administration will do everything to keep all Filipinos in the area from harms way. But that, to say the least, was reactive - for harm was already done on at least 40% of the first 200 evacuees.

In the first place, is it not one of the mandates of government to ensure that its nationals are kept from harms way where ever they may be? Is that not one of the responsibilities of our heads of missions, our labor attaches, our welfare officers, and other embassy officials? How did it happen then that nothing was heard of about the sufferings of those 78 Filipinas (and many more of them, perhaps) before the evacuation begun? Were all those embassy officials sleeping on their posts? If the GMA administration is sincere in its promise to keep the overseas Filipinos from harms way, it should immediately recall all those embassy officials in Lebanon. The recall should be followed by an investigation to determine why the mission was not able to do its job.

To quote one of the victims, ‘thanks to the war’. For if not for the ongoing crisis, we would not have known the kind of sacrifices our mothers, sisters, and daughters were giving away in exchange for the extra comfort that they are able to provide to their families.

Again this put in the lime light the long questioned wisdom of the government’s policy on the deployment of overseas Filipinas as domestic helpers, especially in countries where this type of employment is not protected by labor or other laws.

How many more Filipinas should be raped and maltreated in a foreign land, before GMA finally decides to put a stop in the deployment of domestic helpers? There will perhaps be a hundred or thousands more – because if you are an overseas Filipino, being raped and maltreated by your employer is an act of heroism.

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