Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc. urges the Philippine government to act decisively and immediately evacuate all overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Lebanon and Israel!   

We condemn the lack of pro-active response of the Arroyo government in securing our OFWs in Lebanon and Israel. Its instruction for the OFWs to stay with their employers and in the event that the employers abandon them to seek refuge in churches reflects its lack of responsibility and accountability to its migrant workers. Other countries have already started evacuating their nationals by boat, planes and buses but our “modern-day heroes” would just have to pray and dock under tables and beds.

There are 34,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, 25,000 of whom are domestic workers who receive a meager salary of P7,500 (US$150 ). In Israel, the 30,000 Filipinos are mostly caregivers and domestic workers. They lack resources to protect themselves and are dependent on our government’s assistance and initiative to evacuate them to safer areas. 

We denounce war as a means to achieve an end because it endangers the lives of our migrant workers and because it sacrifices the lives of innocent people to serve the interests of the few and powerful. Likewise, Israel’s decision to escalate its anti-terror actions into a war of aggression against Lebanon is unjustified and deplorable.  

It is lamentable that our migrant workers are always caught is these life-threatening situations due to the inability of the Arroyo government to provide gainful and decent jobs to its workers and instead rely on labor export as a means to prop up our flagging economy. The Arroyo government continuously systematizes labor export and encourages overseas work even in war-torn and conflict-ridden countries like Israel and in countries with proven record of abuses, maltreatment and sexual violations against migrant workers especially women like Lebanon. In utter disregard of the alarming situation, the POEA is still processing employment papers for Lebanon.   

We therefore reiterate our call for the immediate evacuation and repatriation of our workers in Lebanon and Israel. We also demand that the Arroyo government come up with concrete programs to generate decent local jobs for Filipino workers.

*** 000 ***