Families of stranded OFWs picket OWWA office
abs-cbnNEWS.com

Relatives of 16 stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who went on hunger strike last December in Saudi Arabia, launched a “kampuhan laban sa kapabayaan at katiwalian” outside the main office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Pasay City Tuesday.

"Our only request is that our husbands come home soon so that our families can be reunited," said Mary Ann Tejada, wife of OFW Josebastian Tejada. ...

3 Dabawenyos among 16 stranded workers in ME
By Christie Enriquez-Uayan
sunstar.com.ph © 2003 All rights reserved.

DAVAO CITY Philippines, 22 January 2004 - MILITANT overseas Filipino workers group Migrante on Wednesday criticized the Arroyo government for delaying the repatriation of 16 workers stranded in Riyadh, after condemning the administration for using the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) trust fund for their own interest.

To view complete news report, click here.

Philippine Official Denies Delaying Workers' Repatriation
Rodolfo C. Estimo,Jr., Special to Arab News
Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
URL : http://www.arabnews.com/?artid=38150

RIYADH, 17 January 2004 - Philippine Labor Attache Angel Borja denied the allegation made by the labor group Migrante that he was delaying the repatriation of 16 stranded workers in Riyadh.

The militant group had accused Borja of demanding letters of assistance from each of the sixteen workers.

"The allegations are not true. How could I hold them? I never subjected them to bureaucratic process by making them appear at the Labor Office to file travel documents," Borja said.

He added that he has nothing to do with travel documents. "It's a consular matter. I did not hold them in any way. I simply asked them to fill a PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) request. The PTA request form is the basis for requesting PTAs from the home office. It's an standard office procedure in repatriating overseas Filipino workers," he said.

In addition, only six of the 16 Filipinos who went on a hunger strike in December 2003 at the Philippine Embassy here are legally documented, according to Director Ricardo R. Casco of the Welfare and Employment Office of the Philippine Overseas Employment (POEA)...

Saudi gov't recommends exit visas to 16 Filipino workers
By Veronica Uy | INQ7.net | 13 January 2004
©2003 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
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THE SAUDI Arabian regional leadership in Riyadh has recommended the granting of exit visas to 16 Filipino workers stranded there ...

However, Vince Borneo of Migrante, said the Philippine embassy in Riyadh has been "dilly-dallying" in preparing the travel documents of the 16 Filipino workers...

Gov't urged to hasten repatriation of 16 OFWs
By INQ7.net | 11 January 2004
©2003 www.inq7.net | all rights reserved
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THE RIYADH Governorate has given recommendation letters that will facilitate the early repatriation of 16 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who conducted a hunger strike at the Philippine Embassy.

This was stated by regional OFW group KGS,(The Brotherhood of Filipinos in the Middle East), according to a report from Arab News. The striking OFWs left their employees citing different cases of injustices. They conducted a hunger strike to press their demand for repatriation.

KGS chairperson Richard Bautista has asked the Philippine Embassy and leaders of the Filipino community to help ease the hardships that the 16 OFWs are experiencing. The sealed letters from the Riyadh Governorate will be given to officials at the Riyadh deportation center, according to the report.

Bautista said he was hopeful that the Philippine officials in Riyadh would make the necessary arrangements for air tickets of the OFWs, the report stated...

Will new foreign affairs head succeed where Ople failed?
Letters to the Editor, Manila Times
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The biggest group of OFWs and their families challenges newly appointed foreign affairs secretary Delia Domingo Albert to "take up the cudgels for distressed overseas Filipinos, a task that the late Secretary Blas Ople failed to do as secretary."

Why the embassy wasn't entirely wrong
By Rasheed Abou-Alsamh | Dec. 28, 2003
©2003 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
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THE dramatic hunger strike by 16 Filipino workers at the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, which started on Dec. 14, ended after eight days on Sunday night when Philippine Ambassador Bahnarhim Guinomla invited in the diplomatic police to escort the workers off the premises.

Migrante, the sectoral party for migrant workers, immediately seized upon this action and denounced the ambassador and other Philippine diplomats in less than savory terms. "The Philippine diplomatic post is no longer a sanctuary for Filipinos and the officials of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh should be recalled from their posts because of the shameless way the hunger strike of 'stranded' overseas Filipino workers was effectively terminated," said Migrante in a press statement. ...

Rather than camp out in the embassy, distressed Filipino workers should have refuge centers that they can go to, run by the Philippine embassy and consulate in Riyadh and Jeddah, where Philippine labor officials would help them file legal cases against abusive employers in labor courts. These centers would also give them a place to sleep and eat while they waited for their cases to be heard.

Centers for runaway workers used to operate in Jeddah and Riyadh until a few years ago when they were shut down under pressure from the host government. I think the Philippine government should lobby to have them reopened, in view of the fact that labor abuses here seem to be growing.

Centers for runaway Filipina maids still operate in Riyadh and Jeddah, with similar centers run by the Indonesian embassy for their own runaway domestic helpers.

The other part of this whole equation are the abusive Saudi employers who cheat their employees of their salaries, delay salaries for months on end and make their employees work 12 hours a day without any kind of overtime pay. The Saudi ministries of labor, justice, interior and foreign affairs should form a task force to swiftly enforce the country's labor laws and severely punish employers who repeatedly abuse their workers. Cancellation of commercial registrations and jail terms would quickly get the attention of abusive employers, forcing them to toe the line of basic human decency.

We Saudis have to stop treating foreign workers like virtual slaves if we want to join the ranks of progressive nations. Unfortunately, the abuse of foreign workers by some continues, and as long as it does, we can expect to see more hunger strike sit-ins at embassies in Riyadh.

16 Filipino hunger strikers in Riyadh now in hiding
by INQ7.net | Dec. 24, 2003
©2003 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
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THE 16 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who went on a seven-day hunger strike at the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are in hiding after they were "forcibly taken" from the embassy grounds to the hospital, the OFW organization Migrante said Tuesday.

Philippine Embassy Faces Flak Over Hunger Strikers
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab News Staff
ARABNEWS | 23 Dec. 2003
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RIYADH, 23 December 2003 — Criticism of the Philippine Embassy here is mounting over its handling of 16 Filipino hunger strikers who were handed over to police Sunday night. The 16 say they have received death threats for speaking out against the Philippine chancery, while an organization looking after Filipinos abroad wants embassy officials recalled.

OFWs slam transfer of P4-billion Medicare fund
by abs-cbnnews.com | 20 Dec. 2003
URL:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/FlashNewsStory.aspx?FlashOID=13788

A group of overseas Filipino workers and their families picketed the meeting of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) board Friday to reject the move to transfer the P4-billion Medicare fund for OFWs via the newly formulated Omnibus Policies.

(We call for the scrapping of the Omnibus Policies. These policies grant extensive powers to the OWWA to secretly realign funds sourced from OFW contributions for welfare programs," said John Monterona, vice chairman of the OFW group Migrante.

Migrante alleged that the new policies were crafted "to rob migrant workers and their families of their funds held in trust at the OWWA and to justify questionable withdrawals authorized by President Arroyo.

"The OWWA trust funds have been raided by Malaca?ang to fund the Middle East Preparedness Team of Gen. Roy Cimatu ($293,500) and payment for the manufacture of OFW e-cards (P5 million) that did not go to direct benefits of distressed OFWs and their families," Monterona said.

He said that Policies would greatly affect stranded workers in Saudi Arabia.

Sixteen OFWs are on their fifth day of hunger strike in Riyadh. They were identified as Domingo…

Give us death or their liberty!
by People's Journal International Edition | 19 December 2003
URL:http://www.international.com.ph/articlepage.asp

Domingo Yalung, Kapatiran ng mga Migranteng Stranded sa Riyadh (KAMI-SR or Organization of Stranded Migrants in Riyadh) spokesperson, said hunger strike is their last resort to send message of urgency of their situation.

Strike in Saudi: Who'll cry for Debrah Lyn's pa?
by Norman Bordadora, Inquirer News Service | Dec. 19, 2003
©2003 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
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SPARE a thought for Danny Mondragon.

A factory worker on a hunger strike in Saudi Arabia, Mondragon will likely miss the baptism of his 6-month-old daughter, a daughter he has not yet seen, on Sunday.

Mondragon is one of 16 overseas contract workers who left their places of work in the desert kingdom because their wages remained unpaid or because they were maltreated by their employers. Now the 16 are stranded in the capital city of Riyadh.

The workers, who formed the Kapatiran ng mga Migranteng Stranded sa Riyadh (or the brotherhood of migrants stranded in Riyadh), is now on its sixth day of a hunger strike in the Philippine Embassy. Their protest is meant to pressure the Philippine government into repatriating them in time for International Day of Migrants, which was yesterday (Thursday).

HUNGER STRIKE ENTERS 3RD DAY
by Edgar Cadano, The SAUDI GAZETTE Staff
The SAUDI GAZETTE | 17 Dec. 2003
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RIYADH (17 December 2003) - FILIPINO workers staging a hunger strike inside the Philippine embassy in Riyadh entered their third day Tuesday and vowed not to move out of the chancery until their repatriation papers are ready, according to a spokesman.

"We are staying inside the embassy even if some Filipino community groups who are more concerned on projecting a good image of the embassy than listening to our plight are persuading us... to move out of the embassy," Domingo Yalung, spokesman of the group...

Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla met the hunger strikers Monday morning and told them that he is writing to Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz, Emir of Riyadh, to help the workers return to the Philippines.

The Saudi Gazette, moreover, learned that the embassy was turning away others who wanted to join the strike.

Strikers said the names of those who left the group were taken out of the embassy list that was forwarded to the office of the governor for repatriation.

However, Filipino runaway workers who were blocked from entering the chancery want their names included on the repatriation list.

No End In Sight for Crisis at Philippine Embassy
by Bien Custodio, Special to Arab News
Arab News | 17 December 2003
©2003 Arab News + All rights reserved
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RIYADH, 17 December 2003 - The 16 Filipino workers who have holed themselves up the Philippine Embassy here to press for their immediate repatriation have effectively ended their "hunger strike" on Monday by sipping coffee with the ambassador.

But the crisis appeared to be far from over, with the protesters refusing to leave the embassy...

On the second day of their protest on Monday, they had coffee with Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla and some later played table tennis at the chancery.

STRANDED FILIPINOS THREATEN HUNGER STRIKE
by Edgar Cadano, The SAUDI GAZETTE
The SAUDI GAZETTE | 14 Dec. 2003
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RIYADH (14 December 2003) - FILIPINOS seeking repatriation assistance from the Philippine embassy are on the verge of a hunger strike if they are not sent home soon.

"We will do this so President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who is visiting Bahrain on Sunday may hear our repatriation request. We already sent her an email about our situation in September when she was supposed to visit the Kingdom but was cancelled due to coup rumors in the Philippines," Domingo Yalung said told The Saudi Gazette.