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“More Zero Remittance Days coming in the next weeks”
Filipino migrant workers around the world and in Canada participated in the Zero Remittance Day last week, in a symbolic gesture to fight corruption in their homeland.
Migrante International said at least 300 Filipino migrants’ organizations from 23 countries, including Hongkong, Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Canada, United States, among others, participated in the Zero Remittance Day against the so-called pork barrel system and the widespread corruption in the country.
“This is just the beginning, and families of overseas Filipinos are with us until the pork barrel system is abolished, those involved in the pork barrel scam are prosecuted, and systemic changes in government are implemented to eradicate the rotten culture of patronage politics and corruption. More global protests are coming and Overseas Foreign Workers are geared for more Zero Remittance Days in the next weeks,” said Migrante International.
Protests against corruption in the Philippines erupted last month over a pork-barrel scandal, in which a wealthy businesswoman allegedly colluded with high-ranking government officials to siphon off P10 billion ($233 million) from public coffers.
The corruption, which spanned a decade and involved more than 28 legislators, came to light in July.
Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, is at the centre of political developments taking place in the country over the past three weeks. She had been accused of serving as the “bag lady” of corrupt senators and congressmen who had regarded the Filipino taxpayers as their own milking cow, drawing funding for questionable projects for funding by the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) by using bogus non-government organisations.
The Philippines relies heavily on remittances, which contribute the equivalent of 10 per cent of the nation’s GDP to its economy.
Remittances in the first half of this year rose 6.2 per cent to US$11.8 billion compared with the previous year, the Philippines central bank said last month.
Most of the remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the UAE, Singapore, Canada and Japan.
The Philippines ranked third in 2012 among countries with the highest officially recorded remittances, next to India and China, according to a World Bank report. Around 11 million Filipinos worldwide sent home some $24 billion for that year.
Francis Calpotura founder and executive director of the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA), which advocates for the rights and welfare of overseas workers said the Zero Remittance Day protest is part of the continuing exploration of how to match the economic power of the Filipino diaspora with political influence.
“There’s no question that people want to act on this anger, and one of the ways that they can do so is around their economic power, or the leverage that their economic power brings. If there’s one thing we are sure about, it is that the economic impact of migrants is a fundamental and profound influence in the Philippine economy,” he said in a published interview in Manila.
Sept. 19, the date set for the first Zero Remittance Day, is also the anniversary of the implementation of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Omnibus Policy, which mandates each Filipino leaving to work abroad to pay the government the amount of $25 per contract. The said mandatory contribution has long been deemed by migrants group as anti-migrant because it is a form of taxation imposed on Overseas Foreign Workers.
“Today, we raise our call to the government that its earnings from our taxes and remittances should be allocated to social services and greater state subsidy for OFWs in distress,” Connie Bragas-Regalado, convenor of DEPORK, a broad alliance of OFW groups and migrant rights advocates against the pork barrel system.
Migrante International said Filipino migrant workers who practiced their economic power to make a stand against corruption prove that they are no longer “the sleeping elephant in the room.”
“Some have tried but failed to belittle overseas Filipinos’ participation in the Zero Remittance Day by saying that it will not have an effect on the economy, or that families are not supportive of today’s global protest. The mere fact that they have taken so much trouble to undermine the outrage and unity of overseas Filipinos around the world is a clear testament that our message has been sent across,” Edwin dela Cruz, one of the convenors of Depork, said.
Meanwhile, as Filipinos rail in anger against controversial businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the country’s religious leaders called on the faithful not to lose sight of what the struggle was all about — dismantling corruption and indifference.
“Her (Napoles) being taken under government custody is now a step closer in the direction of justice. The direction is R-I-P. Reject corruption. Investigate fully. Prosecute immediately,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan diocese said.
Villegas, incoming president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that if there is something to be learned from the experience, it is that corruption has been deeply engrained in society.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said he is hoping that the investigation should spare no one, not even allies of the Aquino administration.
“We hope that the investigation will not be selective. All those who committed mistakes must be prosecuted, not just those from the opposition but also their allies,” Pabillo said in an article published by the CBCP.
A majority of Filipinos are Catholics.
According to reports, some of those that had benefitted from the PDAF largesse are people close to President Benigno Aquino III.
Napoles, who is currently detained at the Makati City jail, would be transferred to secured area inside a police commando training camp South of Manila in Santa Rosa, Laguna, according to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
Aquino had announced last week that the PDAF will be abolished and a new system on providing funds for local development projects will be put in place.
For his part, Archbishop Ernesto Salgado of Vigan said, “The abolition will not solve the problem of corruption. Investigation of the pork barrel scam and restitution from errant officials and their accomplices should follow. The baneful political culture needs to be converted.”
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