OFWs in search of absent gov’t

The Migrante Sectoral Party chapter in New Zealand is calling on President Aquino to stop wasting time and start using government funds for the benefit of thousands of stranded Filipinos in Jeddah, who are awaiting immediate repatriation.

P-Noy should speed up government action on the demands of our  kababayan—before more Filipinos are added to the number of “returning” dead overseas Filipino workers. It is for the sake of the thousands of distressed OFWs in the Middle East and around the globe that we demand that the President and all politicians now running for office stop neglecting OFWs in distress.

Just last month, Migrante Aotearoa together with Filipino Artists in New Zealand Inc., Dunedin Philippine Club, Philippine Society of Canterbury, United Filipinos (Unifil) MidCanterbury, and Filipino Dairy Workers NZ collaborated for the showing of a movie on Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East.

The film showed how the group Migrante assisted a runaway OFW in the Middle East after a tragic turn of events with her abusive employer. Filipinos, Kiwis and migrants of other ethnicities gathered at the screenings of the film “Migrante: The Filipino Diaspora” in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, and Ashburton last March.

Not a few shed tears. In Christchurch, a Kiwi remarked, “We should be grateful that this is not happening in New Zealand.”

In real life, we ask President Aquino: Will the stranded OFWs in Jeddah be reunited with their loved ones in the Philippines?

It is for the likes of Frida, the Migrante movie’s main character who was forced to leave her family behind in search of better opportunities abroad, that we seek meaningful socioeconomic reforms in the Philippines. Migrante is advocating for the creation by the government of decent jobs at home in order to keep Filipino families together. As Filipino voters, we also aspire to bring genuine voices of the poor and underprivileged sectors in Philippine society to Congress.

—FRANCISCO MANGULABNAN, coordinator,

Migrante Sectoral Party-New Zealand,

[email protected]