Phillipina activist: Government just exploiting migrant labor

Written by Recto Mercene / Reporter    
Friday, 17 October 2008 03:32

A DELEGATE and keynote speaker to the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) to be held in Manila from October 28 to 30 panned President Arroyo for promoting the export of Filipino laborers at the expense of their families and sometimes of their lives. “It seems [President] Arroyo is taking this as a pride instead of a criticism, [when] more Filipinos are leaving the country while the country is rich in resources.”

Eni Lestari, the delegate, added, “[President] Arroyo should be ashamed of hosting this [2nd] Global Forum on Migration and Development meeting.” The forum the President is hosting this month will reportedly tackle immigration issues between the Philippines and Australia and other developed countries.

She harshly pilloried the labor-export policy of the government, saying the President has a government that “is antipeople. She should be ashamed of herself and her own government....They [receiving countries] just want cheap labor from these poor countries.”

She added the Arroyo administration gives a bad example to many people, “that’s why she should not consider herself as the leader of the people. She just wants to use the migrant people for her own sake to make the country alive, otherwise there will be no Filipino government.”

Last year Filipinos working abroad sent back to the Philippines some $14 billion, that was a vital factor in shoring up the economy as such remittances have done for the past several years. This year, government looks at these remittances as simply critical amid the global financial meltdown.

Source: Business Mirror

The article was about the Phillipines DT.

Yes. That's how I know what country it was about. It's even in the article title.

Yet, it mentions Australia three times in the article.

Because the person who it is about is hosting a forum between Australia and the country it is about. They are hardly going to say 'between The Philipines and some other country we've never heard of'.

And solely mentions Kevin Rudd in the article.

What does that mean? Are you saying he is the only person mentioned?

It also backs up my claims that migrants are almost exclusively used by big businesses as cheap labour

No it doesn't. It claims that this happens in the Phillipines. Or rather, it reports that someone else is making the claims. That is a pretty low standard for evidence.

Sorry, I didn't mean to rain on your parade.