Notes on a ‘Paskong Pinoy’

TAIWAN—IT was cold and windy, but the Filipino workers gathered at the parking lot of the Taoyuan County Government Center wandered through the various booths or stood restlessly in front of the stage.

The occasion was billed as “Paskong Pinoy,” a Christmas presentation of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco), the Philippine representative office here, often described as the “de facto embassy.” Commercial sponsors were headed by PLDT-Smart, which brought over performers Jericho Rosales and Giselle Sanchez, as well as LBC, which had stacks of its iconic white balikbayan boxes flanking the stage.

Taoyuan, about an hour’s drive from Taipei and near the international airport, is an industrial hub, filled with factories which employ Filipino workers. The majority of OFWs here are women, preferred for their manual dexterity and sharp eyesight, necessary for micro-electronics and related industries.

“We are very happy with your workers,” said Taoyuan County’s vice governor, a special guest at the “Paskong Pinoy.” There are about 90,000 OFWs in all of Taiwan, and, says Meco resident representative Antonio Basilio, most of them are employed in factories while only about 25 percent work as domestics. To better meet the needs of these workers, Meco has put up centers in Taichung and Kaohsiung aside from its main office in Taipei.

Indeed, the bulk of the work for the Meco officers and staff is looking after the OFWs. “You won’t find a harder-working staff than that of Meco,” declares Rosemarie “Baby” Arenas, a member of the Meco board of directors. “The offices are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with staff ready to serve OFWs in trouble.”

Arenas herself has assumed the task of looking after women OFWs who have gotten into trouble with Taiwanese authorities. She has  visited the detention center so often that she has become a familiar figure there. “All they want is a listening ear and some comfort,” says Arenas. One of her proudest moments in fact is successfully lobbying for the commutation of sentence of a domestic, convicted for the killing of her employer from death penalty to life imprisonment.

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On the “Paskong Pinoy” stage, the local officials and the officers of Meco delivered brief messages to the waiting audience. Among those onstage were the directors of the Meco board: Arenas, Bernardo Mitra, former Sen. Leticia Ramos Shahani, Fr. Joy Lito Tajonera who works among OFWs here, and Manuel Dimaculangan who also serves as the chief financial officer.

Meco Chair Amadeo Perez, a long-time mayor of Urdaneta City in Pangasinan and three-termer congressman, went to Taoyuan directly from the airport. He got an appreciative applause when he addressed the issue of the high processing fees charged by Taiwanese labor brokers and which the workers pay by installment, deducted from their salaries. In an effort to reduce if not do away entirely with these fees, Perez said they were working with the Taiwanese government and Teco, Meco’s counterpart, on a “special hiring program” where jobs could be secured directly for Filipinos with Taiwanese firms without going through brokers or middlemen.

In the meantime, to foster camaraderie and a feeling of home among the workers, “Paskong Pinoy” offered games, a raffle and a dance contest, while the audience, especially the young women, waited feverishly for “Echo’s” appearance.

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Currently, MECO is facing a challenge before the Supreme Court seeking to put it under the scrutiny of the Commission on Audit.

“We want to be transparent and to account fully for our income and expenses,” says Perez. But there is a ticklish diplomatic and political problem to overcome. Given the country’s “one China policy,” the Philippines cannot have formal and official diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s government, and so Meco is in effect a private operation. To put its operations under COA oversight, then, would be a tacit admission of official involvement, which could draw protests from the People’s Republic of China.

“No matter how the Supreme Court decides,” said Perez, “the members of the board of directors are volunteering to put ourselves under an external auditor. And in fairness to our predecessors, we did not find any anomalies during their stint either.”

The Meco board meets once a month in Manila and holds quarterly meetings in Taipei.

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Shahani, whose father Narciso Ramos played a key role in “normalizing” relations with Taiwan being the first Philippine ambassador there, says there are other concerns aside from direct hiring and OFW welfare that Meco should address.

Visiting Taipei’s public library, she said she found a corner devoted to foreign workers, including Filipinos. There is such a corner in every public library on the island, premised on the need to acquaint the children of foreigners with their native heritage and culture.

“But the trouble is that the OFW mothers of these children only have Sunday as their free time and they are too busy to visit the library and read children’s books in Filipino to their children,” observed Shahani. There is also a shortage of books on the Philippines, she added, calling on publishers and businesses to donate books to public libraries in Taiwan to keep Fil-Taiwanese children in touch with their Filipino roots.

Among the audience at “Paskong Pinoy” was a boy of about eight with his Filipino mother. He perched on a cement post, intent on a game in his cell phone. Even as everyone around him shrieked in the presence of celebrities and rushed to have snapshots taken, he was  an island of calm concentration, fingers working his game. What did he know about his mother’s culture? What did he feel about it?