HK OFWs, outraged with ‘forgive-and-forget appeal’

Press Release
28 June 2005

Reference: Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
Tel. No.: (852) 97472986, (852) 28104379


HK OFWs, outraged with ‘forgive-and-forget appeal’
“Oust GMA” campaign abroad pushes through

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has no more moral, legal or political right to stay in office. There’s no way for her to go but out of Malacañang.

This was declared by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) after Mrs. Arroyo finally admitted yesterday in public that she was indeed the woman in the very controversial “Hello, Garci” recorded conversation.

“After a long silence, the people’s pressure and the mounting call to oust her from office has succeeded in putting Mrs. Arroyo to the defense and make her scramble for excuses to extricate herself from the mess she made,” said Dolores Balladares, UNIFIL-HK chairperson.

However, the UNIFIL – the group that led the protest action during Mrs. Arroyo’s recent visit to HK – was far from appeased by Mrs. Arroyo’s admission.

“Up to now, she is trying to hoodwink the Filipino people by not admitting that she cheated though she has already claimed that she was the woman in the tape. We will not be taken in by such an obvious ploy to rally the emotions of the people without questioning what is just and right,” Balladares added.

Additionally, Balladares also scored Mrs. Arroyo’s appeal for unity in the face of what happened.

“It is disgusting and condemnable. If she wants the Filipino people to accept an illegitimate, cheat, and fake president, she’s grossly mistaken. Each day that Mrs. Arroyo stays in Malacañang is an insult to the Filipino people,” Balladres said.

According to Balladares, Mrs. Arroyo is trying to manipulate the Filipino people by apparently taking the moral and political high grounds. She said that Mrs. Arroyo’s “underdog, forgive and forget appeal” is a farce and a sly move to veer away from the issue of her accountability to the crime she committed against the Filipinos.

“Mere apology will not change the fact that we’ve been fooled for more than a year. A million sorry will not change the fact that Mrs. Arroyo’s manipulations have disenfranchised the Filipinos, including OFWs who voted for the first time overseas,” Balladares stressed.

The UNIFIL said that Mrs. Arroyo’s declaration that her call to the COMELEC official, believed to be Commissioner Garcilllano, was merely a “lapse in judgment” is “nonsensical and a mere ‘palusot’ (way out)”.

“Such a lame excuse for a very big crime! If this is how she plans to answer the other anomalies besieging her including the ‘jueteng payola’ scandal, she is blatantly insulting the intelligence of the public,” the group stated.

Balladares affirmed that her group shall continue to drumbeat the campaign to oust Mrs. Arroyo. She pledged to rally thousands of Filipino migrants in the coming weeks, especially for Mrs. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Only Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster shall calm the outcry of the people. The only responsible thing for her to do now is to step down – or be ousted,” Balladares concluded.#

Press Release
20 June 2005

For reference: Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
Tel Nos: 28104379, 97472986


“Arroyo exports her fascism to HK”
OFW groups vow more protest to oust GMA


A dastardly act of cowardice and fascism.

This was how the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) called blocking of their protest action with big police vans just as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was stepping out of the Island Shari-la hotel, the site of her meeting with the business community of Hong Kong.

“For sure, this uncalled for action was ordered by Mrs. Arroyo. It is not beyond her to resort to such repressive actions when faced with protests from the Filipino people,” declared Dolores Balladares, UNIFIL-HK chairperson.

The UNIFIL and about 30 migrant workers conducted the protest action today to call for the ouster of Mrs. Arroyo amidst the controversies surrounding her election, the massive corruption that involved her family, and the escalating violations of human rights in the country.

Balladares reported that UNIFIL-HK and its allied organizations have been conducting the said peaceful protest action across the road facing the hotel when about after an hour, two huge police vans parked in front of them. After a little while, a convoy of vehicles moved out of the hotel premises including the vehicle of Mrs. Arroyo.

“Mrs. Arroyo is much too afraid of the backlash of the numerous anomalies and controversies that she has been involved in. She cannot even face the glaring truth that even Filipinos abroad want her out of office,” Balladares added.

Balladares believed that the move of Mrs. Arroyo was made to “save face”.

“However, she should know that she has no more face to save. She has no more credibility to preserve. She has been exposed for what she really is: an illegitimate president, corrupt and fascist to the core.”

The group also said that the action of Mrs. Arroyo was a reflection of the treatment of the Philippine Consulate General in HK to protest actions.

“Whenever we conduct a peaceful and legitimate picket protest at the PCG lobby, they turn off the lights, lock the glass doors, and block us from the sight of onlookers. Is this how Mrs. Arroyo’s democracy works?” Balladares asked.

UNIFIL-HK said that Mrs. Arroyo is mistaken if she will think that her action today will deter Filipinos abroad from calling for her ouster.

“In fact, this has given us even more reasons to bring the full weight of the OFW’s wrath to kick out Arroyo from office. She doesn’t deserve to be there and there is no more ground for her to stay in Malacañang,” Balladres concluded.

Press Release
20 June 2005

For reference:

Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
Tel Nos: 28104379, 97472986


"GMA should stop dodging and face the music"
HK OFWs challenge GMA to face community on controversy

Instead of running abroad, deflecting the issue, issuing threats, and drumming up the hysteria of destabilization, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must squarely face the allegations of her fraudulent presidency and corruption-ridden rule. She owes it to the Filipino people.

This was declared by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) in a picket protest at the Island Shangri-la Hotel on the occasion of GMA's meeting today with business people of Hong Kong to show them that she's still in control of the country.

"If she really won fairly and squarely in the last elections as what she has been bragging, why doesn't she face the "mother of all tapes" fairly and squarely as well? No amount of dodging from the real issues shall save her now," said Dolores Balladares, UNIFIL-HK chairperson.

Instead of veering away from the real issue of election fraud, Balladares added, Mrs. Arroyo is instead fanning fears of destabilization plots to scare the Filipino people.

"She is the greatest destabilizer in the country. She has destabilized it by her mudded credibility not only in the last elections but in all other anomalies that have beset her administration," she declared.

Balladares also slammed the news that Mrs. Arroyo is planning to declare Martial Law anytime soon.

"Mrs. Arroyo is fast becoming the biggest fascist rivaling even former president Marcos. She has already threatened those that exposed the election scam. She has also clamped down on the media and threatened them with legal actions if they air the contents of the CD. Worse, she kills those that she cannot silence as experienced by activists and progressive groups."

"Martial Law will be the final act of desperation of a president who did not even win her position," she declared.

Balladares added that GMA's visit to HK shows her "desperation to salvage her fast-sliding grip of the country" by putting up a front to the business community overseas and get their confidence and trust.

"However, it is the Filipino people's trust and confidence that she is rapidly losing. How can you trust a cheat? How can you trust a president that rails against illegal gambling at every opportunity but turns a blind eye when it is her husband, brother-in-law and son who collect millions from jueteng?" she stressed.

According to the group, the absence of meeting the Filipino community in Mrs. Arroyo's agenda in Hong Kong reflects her fear of facing the OFWs on the anomalies surrounding her position. This, UNIFIL relayed, was much different from her previous visit that was full of pomp and promises.

"She knows that even abroad, we are watching. And what we are seeing is her illegitimacy, incompetence, fascism and corruption. For Filipinos abroad, she'll go down the same way as her disgraced predecessor," Balladares stated.

Balladares reported that a "broad and massive" campaign, which shall be joined with the call to oust Mrs. Arroyo in the Philippines, is already being planned by OFW groups around the world. She said that groups such as the UNIFIL and other allied organizations of the militant Migrante International that figured prominently abroad during the Oust Estrada campaign are at the front of the brewing oust GMA movement overseas.

"The latest fiasco that Mrs. Arroyo found herself in just capped the restlessness felt by migrant Filipinos over her government. We are all too prepared to join in the chorus for Mrs. Arroyo's ouster," Balladares concluded.

OFWs in HK assail government neglect, call to save life of OFW in death row

Press Release
7 June 2007

On the occasion of Migrant Workers Day
OFWs in HK assail government neglect, call to save life of OFW in death row and for services to all OFWs

While the life of OFW Rey Cortez hangs in the balance, while the government's responsibility for services and protection to Filipino migrants is denied, while dereliction of duty for Filipinos abroad of government officials in the Philippines and abroad persists - the government-declared Migrant Worker's Day shall remain shallow, hypocritical and pointless.

This was declared today by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) and Migrante Sectoral Party - HK Chapter (MSP-HK) in a picket protest commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Migrant Workers Day in the Philippines. The said occasion started in 1995 upon the passing into law of RA 8042 the Migrants Acts of 1995 which followed the death of Flor Contemplacion in Singapore and the massive protests that ensued.

According to Eman Villanueva, UNIFIL-HK secretary general, the action was held as a part of the International Day of Protest to Save the Life of OFW Rey Cortez, scheduled to be executed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), called by Migrante International.

Cortez was given the death sentence by the Riyadh Grand Court for killing a Pakistani taxi cab driver. The said decision came on the heels of two other sentences previously given wherein the initial 15 years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes were reduced to 10 years jail term.

"OFW Cortez, reported MSP-HK chairperson Vicky Cabantac, "was denied assistance by the Philippine Embassy in KSA. On his last hearing, it was reported that the Philippine Embassy did not provide him with a lawyer nor an interpreter for the whole proceeding."

The groups assailed the Philippine government's inaction on the case of Cortez. They said that his case reflects the sorry state of distressed overseas Filipinos in the hands of the government.

"Ten years after, the Philippine government continues to neglect the plight of OFWs and their families. Thousands of OFWs continue to languish in jails all over the world and many are in death row. Meanwhile, those who need immediate medical attention end up waiting until they die," said Cabantac.

Villanueva stated that the lack of services and protection from the Philippine government can be traced to its policies for OFWs such as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Omnibus Policy. This, he said, was even revealed in a leaders' forum organized by the Philippine Consulate General on Sunday, June 5, where OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque was a guest.

"How can the Philippine government claim of services to OFWs when in the OWWA Omnibus Policy they have decided that only those paying the OWWA fees can avail of the OWWA programs? Even this contradicts the Migrants Act of 1995 that explicitly stated the duty of the government to provide services and protection to ALL overseas Filipinos," he furthered.

Additionally, Villanueva said that they were not impressed by Administrator Roque's positive picture of his plans for the OWWA.

"The real benefits to all OFWs of the plans he presented are still in question. Also, these are just coming soon. How about the now? What are they going to do with Cortez and the numerous more who are in need of direct and on-site services? Will they just wait until they die while the government comes up with more hullabaloo schemes, or worse, continue to squander the OFW money in the OWWA on corruption and anomalous investments?," he said.

Villanueva also raised the issue of transparency of the OWWA Fund. He reported that government moves such as the transfer of the OWWA Medicare to PhilHealth or the transfer of the OWWA money to the Landbank even without prior consultation nor information have been criticized by OFWs. Under the OWWA Omnibus Policy, he said that such secret deals are sanctioned.

Cabantac reported that MSP and its allied groups are still actively lobbying to scrap the OWWA Omnibus Policy. She urged OFWs who have been denied assistance to come out in order to make stronger the case against the said policy.

"The OWWA Omnibus Policy is a bane for all migrant workers and our families. What we need is fast and comprehensive services for all. What we demand is total protection of rights and wellbeing. Until then, the Migrant Workers Day shall only be an exercise in futility," Villanueva concluded.#