Migrante slams inutile Migrants Act, Arroyo admin for
Cortez death row case

"An ineffective law and inutile administration brings about cases of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) languishing in jails and in death row worldwide."

Thus declared the MIGRANTE Sectoral Party on the precarious situation of OFW Rey Cortez, who was recently sentenced to death by a Saudi Arabian court.

"Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has taken pains to hide the fact that she and her diplomatic officials in Saudi Arabia did not attend to the case of Cortez and to 1,115 other OFWs who are in jail - including 12 other Filipinos in death row," Connie Bragas-Regalado, MIGRANTE Sectoral Party chairperson said.

Cortez was sentenced to death row after the family of a Pakistani he allegedly killed May 2002, refused to accept P70 million in blood money.

"According to various government and non-government organization reports, there are at least 5,168 OFWs languishing in foreign jails worldwide. This sordid fact just shows that the current administration does not care for OFWs in distressful situations - whether they get ample and appropriate legal assistance and fair trials. ," Bragas-Regalado said.

"Rey Cortez' is an urgent case in point. Contrary to Phil. Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla's claims that his personnel were at Cortez' court proceedings. Cortez himself has said that no embassy representative was at his final hearing last Monday (May 30). On top of this he was not given a lawyer by the Philippine government at all," she added.

Migrante has been calling for Malacanang to sack Guinomla since 2003.

The sectoral party also railed at the Migrants Act of 1995 (Republic Act 8042) for its being a "useless law to prevent abuse and framed-up cases on OFWs."

"After being enacted at the height of the Flor Contemplacion death protests in 1995, the said law has not prevented OFWs from being unjustly jailed, executed and abused. The law is riddled with so many loopholes that cannot protect and prevent cases like that of Cortez from happening. It has to be scrapped and replaced with a better law," Bragas-Regalado said.

Migrante called on Malacanang to immediately move to save Cortez and all other OFWs in jails worldwide.

"What Pres. Arroyo must do is to personally attend to diplomatic intervention with the Pakistani and Saudi Arabian governments to save Cortez from an unjust death and all other governments where there are Filipinos in jail," Bragas-Regalado concluded. #