Cecilia Armia-Alcaraz’s homecoming could be the best Christmas gift for her children.

With God’s mercy, I will be home soon, I will just work for a little savings. — This is what Alvarez told her sister Rosalinda Armia Pisueña in Filipino during their last phone conversation, in August 2007. Alvarez, 47, from Liliw Laguna, a single parent with four children, left for Taiwan to work as an English tutor in 2005.

I will be home soon, we will be together again, Alvarez promised Shalom, her eldest son. But for more than a year, there was no word from her. When her sons learned last September that their mother had been sentenced to die by firing squad, they were shocked.

Alvarez and a certain David Fillion were arrested in connection with the killing in September 2007 of a Taiwanese who helped foreigners find work as language teachers in Taiwan’s private schools. Three days after their arrest, Fillion was released. On Nov. 19, 2007, Alcaraz was sentenced to die by firing squad.

Pisueña appealed for government intervention. She said Alcaraz was framed up for the murder, and expressed her wish that the government do something to save Alcaraz because of her four children.

According to Migrante International, aside from Alvarez, there are more than 30 other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on death row. Their experience exemplifies the worst tragedy and injustice that can befall an OFW. The Philippine government’s failure to provide jobs and to ensure fair wages and job security at home has driven millions of Cecilias to work abroad, at the cost of having to leave their children behind.

What will it take to save Alcaraz’s and the other OFWs’ lives? In the past, broad support for Migrante’s campaign helped to pressure government authorities into doing their job in protecting OFWs. This happened in the case of Marilou Ranario who was sentenced to death by hanging for killing her Kuwaiti employer. Migrante accompanied Ranario’s relatives to the Department of Foreign Affairs to call attention to her appeal. A sustained campaign compelled Vice President Noli De Castro and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to seek clemency for Ranario. On Dec. 9, 2007, the Kuwaiti emir commuted Ranario’s death sentence to life imprisonment.

This time, migrants’ advocates are demanding urgent government action to save Alvarez and other OFWs on death row. Can Ms Arroyo help fulfill Alvarez’s promise to come home soon to be with her children? This is one of the many questions that Ms Arroyo and DFA officials should answer as hosts of the Global Forum on Migration and Development. Migrants from all over the world will gather at the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) to demand that governments end poverty, ensure jobs at home, and stop forced migration. For as long as these demands are ignored by the government, the future of Filipino families will remain bleak.

AMIE DURAL, secretary general, Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), 879 EDSA, Quezon City 1101