United Nations hails Philippines’ protection of migrant workers

Philippines—While the sob stories usually make the headlines, the country's efforts to help thousands of overseas Filipinos, especially those caught in wars and calamities, have not gone unnoticed in the United Nations.

A UN executive speaking at a recent conference in Geneva has commended the Philippines for its exemplary efforts to protect its nationals caught in international crisis situations, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Peter Sutherland, the special representative of the UN secretary general for international migration and development, "specifically mentioned the Philippines as rising to the challenge by setting up a system to protect and engage its migrants," the DFA said.

Sutherland made the remarks at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) held in the Swiss city earlier this month, where he said the forum participants "could learn from the Philippines' initiatives and good practices," the foreign office added.

The Philippines drew praise for its repatriation efforts in troubled countries like Libya, Yemen and Syria, among others, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez told the Inquirer on Saturday.

"He (Sutherland) probably saw that we're proactive in protecting our people by taking them out of harm's way," Hernandez said.

In the forum, the UN official also drew attention to the plight of domestic workers, particularly the so-called "kafala" or sponsorship system which he said "constituted a modern form of slavery," the DFA said.

More fleeing Syria

Hernandez said another batch of at least 51 Filipinos from Syria will be repatriated in the next few days. The last group that arrived in Manila over a week ago totaled 55, bringing the current number of Filipino repatriates to 240 since political violence escalated in the Arab state earlier this year.

"Our embassy in Damascus continues to negotiate for the release of the workers from their employers or agencies," Hernandez said, adding that securing airline seats for the next batch had been difficult of late because of the peak Christmas season.

The year 2011 has been one of the busiest for the DFA in terms of evacuating Filipinos from strife-torn regions, starting with those fleeing Egypt in February, at the height of street protests against the regime of then President Hosni Mubarak.

From that same month to March, the repatriation efforts shifted to Libya, with no less than Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario personally leading one of the missions across the Sahara desert to fetch compatriots fleeing the fighting between rebels and government forces under dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The turmoil in Yemen also prompted Del Rosario to go there in March to assess the situation and offer voluntary repatriation to the less than 1,500 registered migrant Filipinos working in that country.

Review of 'unsafe' countries

Apart from the repatriation efforts, the DFA is currently conducting a review of the 41 countries earlier considered unsafe for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and could be covered by a labor deployment ban.

"At present, we have asked a review of the present status of each of the 41 countries to determine if they have already acceded or enacted laws that would protect our migrant workers," Hernandez said in an earlier interview.

The DFA proceeded with the review after asking the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to defer the ban for three months.

"We will use the deferment period to revisit the 41 countries with the view of moving forward toward compliance with the amended Migrant Workers Act (Republic Act No. 10022)," which forbids the deployment of OFWs to countries certified as not protective of migrant workers, Hernandez said.

"We will submit new certifications after 90 days, taking into account results of DFA's dialogue with countries concerned and new developments in those countries with respect to the protection of migrant workers," Hernandez said.

9M in 200 countries

More than 1.4 million Filipino workers were deployed overseas last year, according to the POEA. Of this number, 1.1 million were land-based, while around 350,000 were sea-based workers.

For land-based OFWs, the top destinations were Saudi Arabia (293,049), United Arab Emirates (201,214), Hong Kong (101,340), Qatar (87,813) and Singapore (70,251).

Among the newly hired overseas Filipino workers deployed last year, the top occupational categories included household service workers (96,583), cleaners and related workers (12,133), nurses (12,082), caregivers and caretakers (9,293), and waiters, bartenders and related workers (8,789).

According to the latest estimates by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, some 9 million Filipinos are in more than 200 countries around the world as of December 2009. With a report from Inquirer Research

Sources: Commission on Filipinos Overseas, POEA

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Unemployment rate of the Philippines Dropped down to 6.4% in October from 7.1%

2 Million Jobs Created in the Philippines in 1 year period

The country's unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in October—the lowest in four years—from 7.1 percent in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported on Thursday (December 15, 2011).

But despite the employment opportunities created this year, some economists believe these were mostly either temporary work or worse, unpaid family work.

Economists like former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the numbers themselves were too optimistic, considering that the Philippine economy grew only 3.2 percent in the third quarter.

"How can a decelerating economy create some 2 million jobs? But that's exactly what the Philippine economy did, which grew at 3.2 percent in the third quarter, as unemployment fell from 7.1 percent in October 2010 to 6.4 percent in October 2011," Diokno said.

While it was true that more than a million jobs were created, he said around half a million of these were unpaid family work, which is common in the agriculture sector. Around 956,000 new jobs were in labor and unskilled work.

He also said the average hours worked also declined, while the number of part-time workers significantly increased. Diokno said Filipinos who worked for less than 20 hours a week increased by 1.5 million, while those who worked more than 40 hours increased by 500,000.

"The labor-participation rate rose from 64.2 percent to 66.3 percent, year-on-year. More are looking for a job now than ever before. With hard times, there may be a need for a second or third worker in the family," Diokno said.

But National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Cayetano Paderanga Jr. said that even if economic growth was slow this year, it should be taken into consideration that the government has been spending funds on areas that needed them. And this is why it was able to generate more jobs.

Paderanga noted that even if Metro Manila had the highest unemployment rate at 10.4 percent, this was one of the effects of a larger labor force. As the labor force in an area increases, the number of those who do not have jobs also increases.

He also said this is an indication of the amount of economic activity in a given location. This means that many Filipinos from other places continue to migrate to the National Capital Region (NCR) because of the belief that they can participate in more economic activities in the city.

"When an area is growing, it's actually possible that there is bigger unemployment in that area as new migrants collect there. So we also need to consider that as a concern and, at the same time, an indicator that something good is happening in that place. Many of our investments, and this we're trying to correct, have still been concentrated in Metro Manila and Central Luzon," Paderanga said.

The NSO data showed that 38.5 million Filipinos were employed as of October 2011. Those in the services sector comprised 52.1 percent of the total employed population, with those engaged in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, and personal and household goods comprising the largest work force in the services sector.

The second-largest group was in the agriculture sector, which accounted for 33.4 percent of the total employed. The remainder of the total employed was in the industry sector at 14.5 percent.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) said laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest proportion at 33.2 percent of the total employed population, followed by farmers, forestry workers and fishermen with a 15-percent share.

Meanwhile, the number of underemployed—defined as those who want to work more hours in their present job, to have another job or move to new job with longer working hours—was estimated at 7.4 million in October or an underemployment rate of 19.1 percent. Most of the underemployed were working in the agriculture sector at 41.9 percent and services sector at 41.7 percent.

Among the unemployed, there were more males accounting for 62.6 percent of the total. Almost 50 percent of the unemployed were in age group 15-24 years.

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Filipinos: Salute to our South Korean Brother Died to defend their territory

Chinese fishing boat crew resisted being boarded in the latest clash over diminishing fishing stocks in the Yellow Sea stabbed to death a Korean Coastguard

A tribute to the South Korean coastguard officer Lee Cheong-ho, who was stabbed to death while trying to board a Chinese fishing boat. Photograph: Yonhap/EPA

The bloody dispute over diminishing fish stocks in the Yellow Sea has claimed another victim when the South Korean coastguard said one of its officers was fatally stabbed while trying to seize a Chinese fishing boat.

The killing, which prompted a diplomatic protest by Seoul, is the latest in a series of deadly clashes involving Chinese fishermen who are driven increasingly far from their own shores by the lack of stocks.

The officer was stabbed in the stomach and another injured when the Chinese crew resisted being boarded as they were fishing illegally about 55 miles (90km) from Socheong Island, the South Korean coastguard said in a statement.

A helicopter took the casualties to a hospital in Incheon, along with the Chinese boat captain, who was allegedly responsible for the stabbing and then injured in the fight, it said. The remaining eight crew members and their boat have been seized and are being taken to Incheon port, west of Seoul.

South Korea's foreign ministry summoned China's ambassador later on Monday and lodged a strong protest over the latest skirmish in an area of the Yellow Sea that Seoul claims as its exclusive economic zone.

As competition for mackerel, jellyfish, blue crab, croaker and anchovy has intensified, South Korea has seized about 470 Chinese ships for illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea so far this year, up from 370 in 2010.

The skirmishes are often violent. Last December, Beijing demanded compensation after a Chinese fisherman was killed and another went missing during a confrontation between South Korean coastguards and 50 vessels that were suspected of fishing illegally. In March, a coastguard official shot a Chinese fisherman in the leg during a fight with axes and shovels. Two months ago, South Korean coastguard officials used teargas to arrest 31 fisherman who resisted with shovels and staves.

The disputes are not so much about protecting fish stocks as competing for the economic exploitation of what is left. The market for anchovy, jellyfish, mackerel and croaker is increasingly lucrative as demand grows in China.

South Korea has ramped up its exports of marine products by more than 30% in the first nine months of this year, largely thanks to shipments to China more than doubling.

Last week, Seoul raised fines on illegal fishing by foreign boats and moves are afoot to change the law so catches can be confiscated.

"Eradicating Chinese boats' illegal fishing in our waters is a most urgent task to safeguard our fishermen and fisheries resources," South Korea's Yonhap news agency said in a recent editorial. "The government should mobilize every possible means and continue the crackdown on illegal fishing."

The East Asian neighbors have tried to ease tensions. In October, they agreed to reduce catches in each other's exclusive economic zones. Authorities in China's Liaoning province – the origin of many of the fishing boats – say they have tried to curb illegal fishing. But the domestic media say fishermen are driven further from the Chinese coast by pollution and overfishing.

Lu Chao of the Liaoning Academy of Social Science said the long-term problem was an excess of Chinese fishing boats, declining fish stocks and changing views about which waters belonged to which country.

"Traditionally, the older generation believed the fishing area belongs to China. Their grandchildren know they should get permission from the South Korean government to fish there, but the license is expensive so only 10% of them get it," he said in calling for calm. "If South Korea continues to enforce the law violently, it will increase conflict. The use of teargas and similar measures is excessive. Chinese fishermen will not stand for this treatment.

He said the Chinese government was trying to ease bilateral tension by encouraging fishermen to sail even further offshore, into international waters. But with demand for marine products rising, this looks likely to shift the pressure from East Asia on to global fish stocks.

Fishing has heightened diplomatic tensions with other nations in the region. In September 2010, Japan detained a Chinese trawler and its crew after a collision with a coastguard vessel.

The issue has also become the focus of long-standing territorial disputes, particularly in the South China Sea, where Beijing's efforts to assert sovereignty has led to unease – and occasional clashes – with the fishing boats and naval vessels of Vietnam and the Philippines.

Tribute to the Korean Victim: We encouraged all the readers to offer a short prayer for peace in all the country surrounding china and hope that there is a divine intervention for any conflict in the sea and we pray that china must learn how to be contented of what they had and they must stop invading neighbors.

To our Filipino Brothers: You must not forget that the Philippines lead for the victory of the South Korea over the communist North Korea during the Korean war; Filipinos' love to South Korea is already a culture. After the Korean War, the Philippines government helps the South Korea to stand up by funding and building infrastructure for their country, now even South Korea is already rich and more richer than the Philippines in terms of economy, still the Philippines is always be at the back of South Korea. Filipinos let hand in hand with South Korea as we are facing the same conflict with China.

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