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On the recommendation of some Philippine embassies in the Middle
East, the government has convened at least two meetings in
Malacanang since January to look into ways of curtailing the
deployment of physically and mentally unfit overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs).
In those meetings, policy guidelines were
adopted, ranging from increasing the age requirement of
overseas-bound workers to rigid mental and psychological evaluation
by the Department of Health.
On April 17, Foreign Undersecretary Esteban
Conejos of migrant affairs called a meeting in his office to monitor
the implementation of the guidelines. A representative of the labor
department attended the conference.
The deployment of mentally-unfit and
emotionally-disturbed Filipino workers has been a recurring headache
to the country’s diplomatic missions not only in the Mideast but
also in other regions.
When I was assigned to Singapore as labor attaché
in 1985 to 1987, I came across cases of employers complaining
against their Filipino maids for “strange behavior.” I sent at
least two maids to Singapore’s mental hospital for treatment. Both
eventually recovered and returned to the Philippines.
There was one instance when three maids were
taken one after the other to the Philippine Embassy by their
employers for alleged “mental problems.” There being no place
where they could stay, I brought them home and gave them a place in
the living room where they could rest and sleep.
One night, my family and I were roused from our
sleep at about 2 a.m. when one of the maids screamed and tried to
force her way into our bedroom. She complained that one of her
bedfellows tried to strangle her. I later arranged for their
repatriation to the Philippines.
In another instance, a maid came to the embassy
to complain that the father of her employer had tried to molest her.
I took her to the embassy’s welfare center. (This was the first
ever welfare center set up by the labor department, on my
recommendation, and inaugurated by then-President Corazon Aquino as
the overseas workers’ “home away from home” during her state
visit to Singapore in August 1986).
One evening, the maid tried to kill herself with
a kitchen knife but other maids in the center were able to stop her.
The following afternoon, she rushed out of the gate and tried to get
into the path of a speeding taxi. Seeing her deteriorating
condition, I took her to the Singapore General Hospital. On a Sunday
morning, I got a call from the hospital that she had jumped to her
death from a sixth-floor window.
The involvement of OFWs in the killing of their
employers and members of their families may have been provoked by
the extreme cruelty of their masters. But in some cases, the cause
is traced to mental imbalance, exacerbated by culture shock.
At least 53 OFWs are facing the death penalty in
various host countries for different crimes. Many are for possession
of drugs but some for the killing of their fellow workers and
members of their employers’ household.
The Philippine embassies in the Middle East have
a good reason for seeking a stricter screening of OFWs to determine
their mental fitness. Generally, medical clinics accredited by the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) only perform
physical examination on OFWs sent by licensed recruitment agencies.
The POEA should make it mandatory for these
clinics to make a psychiatric examination of OFWs. No fitness
certification shall be accepted unless it contains the result of a
mental examination.
A disappointing election
I was greatly disappointed when Roman Floresca,
whom I endorsed in this column for president in the National Press
Club election last Sunday, texted me that he lost.
“We did what we could but it was obviously not
enough. We were simply overwhelmed by the immense resources of our
opponents,” he said.
I told him I couldn’t believe it. I was
expecting all right-thinking members would vote for him. But it
seems that even if they did, their number was not enough as a result
of the proliferation of members whose qualifications as legitimate
journalists are in question.
This is a sad chapter in the history of the NPC.
There is a feeling of nostalgia among many of its members over its
glorious beginning.
agr0324@yahoo.com
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