SIKLAB – Canada
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
Press release

Filipino migrant worker group in Canada denounces plans for OFW bank

For immediate release: April 5, 2006

National organizations of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and Philippine women in Canada denounced the Philippine government’s plans to start an OFW bank.

“The government should stop trying to fool migrant workers that they are genuinely serving the interests of OFWs,” said Roderick Carreon, Chairperson of SIKLAB – Canada (whose name in Tagalog means ‘Flameburst’ and whose acronym stands for Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers). “The government should instead genuinely focus on protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of OFWs,” he added.

Last week, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo passed through her Cabinet the transfer of P1 billion in OFW money from the Overeas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Fund to modernize the government-run Philippine Postal Savings Bank into an OFW bank. All OFWs are required to pay into the OWWA fund before leaving the Philippines, yet according to SIKLAB most do not avail of its services.

OFWs sent a record-high of $11 billion in remittances to the Philippines last year. According to SIKLAB – Canada, OFW remittances are used by the Arroyo government to prop up her ailing economy.

Since the early 1980s, nearly 100,000 Filipinos have come to live and work in Canada as live-in caregivers through Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

SIKLAB – Canada along with the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Caanda (NAPWC) has been critical of the Philippine government’s neglect of Filipino live-in caregivers in Canada.

“Many Filipino migrant workers throughout the world are unjustly jailed, trafficked and scammed by illegal recruiters,” said Cecilia Diocson, Chairperson of NAPWC. “Even in Canada, live-in caregivers who face deportation are not given any protection or assistance,” she said.

She referred to the recent cases of Laila Suan-Elumbra in Montreal and Emelda Emnace in Vancouver, two live-in caregivers who face deportation from Canada.

Elumbra was unable to complete the LCP’s required 24 months of live-in work within three years because she fell ill and was hospitalized in a coma for four months. Emnace was victim to bureaucratic delays in processing her working permit, an although has been in Canada for less than two years and is more than willing to work is being ordered deported for losing her temporary status.

According to the groups, in both cases the Philippine Consulate did little to assist or advocate for the women.

“We will not be fooled by President Arroyo’s masking of the OFW bank as a service to ‘our new heroes and greatest workers in the world’,” said Carreon. He said the government likely wants to compete with private remittance companies in profiting even more from the blood, sweat and tears of Filipino migrant workers.

The group slammed the OFW bank plan and said if Arroyo was truly sincere in looking after the people’s interests, then she would stop her anti-people economic policies which they say force nearly 3000 Filipino workers abroad daily.

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For more information or to arrange an interview, please call:
VANCOUVER: Glecy Duran, SIKLAB Vice-Chairperson (Western Canada) or Cecilia Diocson, NAPWC Chairperson at: 604-215-1103 or e-mail: siklab@kalayaancentre.net  or pwc@kalayaancentre.net
TORONTO: Yolyn Valenzuela, SIKLAB Vice-Chairperson (Eastern Canada) or: Joy Sioson of Philippine Women Centre of Ontario at: 416-878-8772 or e-mail: siklab_ontario@yahoo.ca

MONTREAL: Roderick Carreon, SIKLAB Chairperson at: 514-344-2709 or Joanne Vasquez of Philippine Women Centre of Quebec at: 514-659-4300