‘Tiglao is out of touch’

Filipino migrant workers in Canada are outraged at comments made by a former diplomat that they are being manipulated by leftist organizations and  Christian do-gooder associations, who are trying to be the saviours of the so-called “slaves” of global capitalism.
In a column published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, former Filipino ambassador Rigoberto Tiglao took aim at non-governmental organizations claiming they were exploiting overseas Filipino workers.
“There is just too much bleeding-heart sentimentalization over overseas Filipino workers, bordering on ridiculousness,” he wrote.
“One reason for the depiction of OFWs as the downtrodden of the earth is that their alleged plights are being exploited by NGOs, here and abroad, which get donations from European leftist organizations or Christian do-gooder associations, purportedly in order to come to the succor of these “slaves” of global capitalism.
They have been practically mythologized, in a manner they themselves would detest.
In fact, the reason there has been a massive migration of workers abroad is not because of extreme poverty in our country, but because OFWs are so skilled, likeable and English-literate that there is a huge global demand for them.”
“To portray OFWs as our poorest and even to weep for them as if they were wimps or refugees from poverty is to denigrate them and to miss their audacity,” he concluded.
The Philippines is among Canada’s largest source country for immigrants and Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs). The number of TFWs in Canada has increased dramatically in the last several years.  In 2008, there were an estimated 250,000 TFWs in the country compared to 100,000 in 2002.
Chronic unemployment and lack of opportunities in the Philippines has resulted in the daily exodus of approximately 3,900 Filipinos who find jobs outside the country, according to data from IBON Foundation. Many of these are university-educated women.Since 2004, the number of women working overseas has steadily increased. The Commission on Population (Popcom) attributed the feminization of labor to the growing demand for health workers, particularly nurses and caregivers, who are mostly women.
“While this has entailed risks to Filipino women—and the horror stories of OFWs indeed involves mainly domestic female workers—such risks have also emerged whenever females have left the protection of the home to work in a male-dominated world, wrote Tiglao.
“The more common horror story about OFWs is how their children or spouses splurge their remittances on the latest cell-phone model and designer clothes.”
Migrante Canada, an alliance of organisations working for the rights and welfare of migrant workers, described Tiglao’s comments as ‘insulting”.
“Mr Tiglao is out of touch with the realities of Filipino migrants…. Even in developed countries like Canada, Filipino migrant workers are faced with exploitative conditions and uncertainty,” said Christopher Sorio, the Secretary General of Migrante Canada.
In a statement, Soria said; “Migrant organizations such as Migrante do not benefit nor would even attempt to benefit from the hardships of our kababayans here in Canada. As a matter of fact all of our organizers and advocates work on a voluntary basis.
We in Migrante Canada dare Mr. Tiglao to try to work as a caregiver here in Canada to see how dangerous, difficult and dirty that job can be.
Mr. Tiglao would probably not have the guts nor courage to work as a caregiver or as a migrant agricultural worker in Canada. “
Migrante Canada asserted that Filipinos that come to Canada are from different sectors of the working people in the Philippines.
“All of them have one thing in common; they cannot survive with the wages that they get in the Philippines. A lot of migrants working in farms in the prairies and Southern Ontario come from farming communities in Northern Philippines. They recount to us how they needed to sell their land and borrow money to pay excessive amounts to government agencies for them to come to Canada hoping for a better deal.
And then there are those professionals back home who come to Canada to work as caregivers earning minimum wage, just because they either cannot find work in the
Philippines or their salaries are not enough for them and their families to live decently. They are the source of cheap and disposable labour for Canada with little or no protection.”
Quoting a survey conducted by Asian Development Bank, Tiglao surmised that Filipinos leave the Philippines because they want to or “for the sheer thrill of travelling abroad.”
“I will not leave my family to work abroad if I don’t have to,” says Migrante Canada chairperson Maru Maesa. “Like many other caregivers, I work more than 16 hours a day just
to send money home,” she added.
“Indeed as a former Ambassador, Mr. Tiglao toes the same line as the consul here in Canada
and the Philippine government,” says Evelyn Calugay, chairperson of PINAY, a member organization of Migrante Canada. “We hope that his ill-informed and careless assertions will not serve to further justify the lack of services and support that we get from the consulates here in Canada.”
“Still I would not be surprised if that same government paid him to write this article,” she added.
Tiglao is no stranger to controversy when it comes to overseas Filipino workers.
Last year, the Athens-based Filipino organization Kasapi Hellas urged President Benigno Aquino III not to re-appoint Tiglao as an ambassador saying he has not done much to assist Filipinos there.
A former journalist, Tiglao has served as ambassador to Greece and Cyprus since 2005. Before his foreign posting, he served as Presidential Spokesperson, Press Secretary, Chief of Staff and head of the Presidential Management Staff in the Arroyo administration.
The protesters last year seeking Tiglao’s ouster accused him of renting a lavish house while Filipino migrants live in underground flats and earn only 700 euros a month due to the economic crisis in Greece.