An appeal by the Filipino migrant workers “Bagong mga bayani’s” of West Africa to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines We, the Filipino migrant workers of west Africa, 1,979 of whom are in Sierra Leone, 880 in Guinea, and 900 in Liberia, Appeals to your good senses and reason to hear our position before imposing a much higher alert level in this African region. First and foremost, we are not just statistical numbers. We have names, we have families that depend on us, we have dreams, hopes and admirations. Please act with good reason and judgement if you will decide the fate and future of more or less 4000filipinos working in west Africa. 4000 filipino workers might just be a number for you, but we are Filipinos, fathers, brothers, bread winners and providers. We are not just statistical numbers,faceless and soulless. We are not just statistical numbers, we are flesh and blood. If you prick us, we will bleed. This is not an appeal to pity. We are proud Filipinos, we pride ourselves as honest and hardworking workers. We endure hardships and constant emotional challenges due to being away from our fatherland and our love ones. We take pride in knowing that we are helping build our nation. We are not self-declared heroes, nor we claim to be one. It is the government that wishes to call us as such. We are just like you Mr. government official, we laugh, we cry, we love and we provide to the ones we love. We are just like you Mr. Government official, if our honest livelihood will be threatened, both of us Mr. Government official, will not take it lightly. As to date, there is not a single case of Ebola virus in the Philippines, nor are there any filipinos living abroad who is infected with the virus. As far as we know, EVD hasn’t reach the continent of asia. To substantiate our claims reputable official websites are linked for your perusal cdc.gov/…/…/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/ We understand the definitions of alert level as published by the DFA, we understand that we are on alert level 2 here in west Africa. Before you decide increase the level alert of West Africa, based on your definitions, We the 4000 filipino overseas workers would like to state our opposition to increasing the alert level in west Africa, from level 2 to level 3. We oppose the increase in alert level from 2 to 3 due to the following reason. 4000 filipino bread winners will be economically displaced On an average of 10 member family and with the uniquely Filipino extended family setup, easily the number of Filipinos that will be economically displaced would be tenfolds. 40,000 filipinos will be in whole or in part will be economically affected. Yes we are aware that OWWA will provide assistance to displaced OFW’s, noble as it may, it is unrealistic and naïve at most. Deployment ban will not stop the ebola from entering the Philippines, rather it will hasten the risk of chances that ebola virus will enter the country undetected. In reference to the first reason above, Our government wouldn’t be offering us much in terms of the transition in case the alert level will be increased and repatriations will be imposed. Knowing that we are highly-skilled workers and not entrepreneurs as OWWA would have envisioned, and our employers will guarantee us of an open offer of employment with or without diplomatic guidance. Realistically, most of us will contemplate on defying that deployment ban, not because were deviants but rather of basic human instinct of self preservation. We would lie and cheat on our way back to our country to avoid persecution and prosecution. We would undisclose the information that we came from a west African nation and we would do what any normal OFW on furlough… eat, mingle, socialize. Before we realize it, a single undocumented OFW would be a contact-tracing “nightmare”. To demonstrate the reality of a single “leaker” lying about his travel history is USA’s patient zero, here is a relevant portion of his medical file. On Sept. 19, Thomas Eric Duncan boarded a flight in Monrovia, Liberia, possibly after having lied on a screening questionnaire about his contact with persons carrying the Ebola virus. The next day, Duncan arrived in Dallas to visit his fiancée and son. Initially complaining of a fever, Duncan would soon become the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola. Before dying of the disease on Oct. 8, Duncan would transmit it to two nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who treated him at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital. Instituting a deployment ban would just encourage those undocumented OFW’s to lie about their travel history to avoid being stopped. That could lead to potentially infected people coming into the philippines without the governments knowledge. Under the present system that the DOH has placed, we believe that even without a deployment ban the measures of the DOH will be enhanced because OFW’s will be confident enough to disclose that they have travelled to west africa. If we institute a travel ban instead of the protocols that we put in place now, history shows that there is a likelihood of increased avoidance, he said, adding that under a travel ban people may not readily disclose information and engage in broken travel, where they break up their trip to hide that they were in one of the countries ravaged by Ebola. Obama said there could be more cases rather than less with a travel ban because the federal government may be less likely to get information from people entering the country. BARACK OBAMA Though we might wish we can seal ourselves off from the world, there are Americans who have the right of return and many other people that have the right to enter this country, Dr. Thomas Frieden told a press conference To simplify the scenario, you just can’t seal our country. If you blocked air travel, it would only force desperate filipinos to use alternative routes. Knowing how lax and underprotected our southern seas are, most of the undocumented OFW”S will still find a way back home in the philipines, except that this time you won’t know who they are and where they are and the hundreds if not thousand of the Filipinos they have physically contacted. We are an archipelago, so technically each island has a 360˚ possible exit and entry points then factor that with 7,100 islands. Knowing this, are we still confident that a deployment ban will prevent the ebola from landing on our shores? Filipinos will, and always will, find ways to leave the country and enter our country, because most us are experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity by working here in west Africa. Most of us will be forced to use illegal means of entry and exit points. Having a few undocumented OFW’s who had recently traveled to west africa undetected and unscreened running around our islands is a sure-fire way to help ebola spread faster. On a related note, what if Ebola spreads from West Africa to middle east? Would the Philippines, using the same logic, then would have to ban all deployment from middle east or elsewhere for that matter? Banning deployment of filipino workers might contribute to the collapse of an already ailing and fragile western African nation, and will accelerate the event of the ebola virus entering the country As mentioned above, most of us OFW’s working in Africa are highly technically-skilled, mostly in the mining industry. A massive withdrawal of highly technically skilled OFW’s from west Africa could wreck havoc to an already unstable mining industry as a direct result of the economic restrictions since the onset of ebola virus outbreak in the region. We must remind ourselves that some of these west African countries are at the bottom part of the human development index, recently ravage by war and famine and incessantly plagued by unstable political structures that could easily turn ugly at the drop of a dime. Mining as one of the foremost industry will collapse, so does a fragile economic structure. The next phase would be uglier, power struggle, civil unrest, civil war, famine. Then the massive exodus of citizens, ebola stricken or not will be dispersing to neighboring countries were we don’t have a travel/deployment ban, were there are OFW’s also working. The OFW deployed from an african country with no travel ban, comes home to the Philippines, doesn’t undergo quarantine, wouldn’t be monitored because he didn’t come from ebola high-risk area. We believe that the decision to heighten the alert level from level 2 to level 3 is based on political calculations and assumptions of the DOH and the DFA rather than being as a result of an in-depth scientific study, good science and meticulous calculated sense. Given that we have access to the latest communication technology nowadays, much of the reliable information and updates regarding the Ebola virus can be freely viewed, discerned and dissected. Majority of the conclusions and opinion of highly specialized international experts on disease control, crisis managers, international political analyst, and economist didn’t give much credence on the theory that a total travel ban would stop the ebola virus dead at its tracks. On the contrary, majority of the literature published by these experts supports the proven tactic of not isolating the epidemic-ridden countries ( in these case west Africa). (Links will be provided below for your perusal) During the past few months, our DOH has been showing us with confidence their awareness and preparedness in anticipation of the event that the ebola virus would land on our shores. We as a people, are sleeping soundly each night because DOH is vigilantly guarding us against the ebola virus. Recent developments in the Philippines indicate that DFA will increase its alert level from level 2 to level 3 presumably due to the increasing risk of that returning OFW’s will bring back the dreaded ebola virus in our islands. So, after trumpeting through the media that DOH is confident and ready that they could manage an event such as the entry of an ebola-infected Filipino, why would the DOH suggest that DFA would heighten its alert to level 3? We are seriously pondering the thought that the DOH is hiding their inadequacies and insecurities through the properly timed media presentations declaring its preparedness against the ebola virus. A case in point. Below are the list of countries that declared a total travel ban against west africa Angola Botswana Cameroon Chad Colombia (South America) Congo (DRC) Equatorial Guinea Gabon Gambia Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Madagascar Malawi Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nigeria Rwanda St. Lucia Senegal South Africa South Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Zambia Zimbabwe If you notice, that almost all of the above named nations except South Africa are below us in terms of human development index is concerned, a good number of them can be seen at the bottom part of any human development index study. At the early onset of the ebola outbreak in west Africa, most of the above-mentioned countries have the laudable confidence to admit to the international community that their government resources couldn’t handle the scenario of an ebola outbreak,so they immediately closed their borders. A single mining company can averagely employ 6,000 employees at any given time, the diversity of the migrant workers and expatriates ranges from 30 to 40 nations or nationalities. Only the Philipppines would implement a complete deployment ban. Going back to DOH and DFA, Since almost all of the abovementioned countries except south Africa have poor economies and readily admits that they weak health care systems. We the OFW’s in west Africa are really wondering , where does the Philippine government get our public health policies? Maybe the recent media blitz of DOH pertaining to their confidence of defense against the Ebola virus is just smokes and mirrors. In order to make sense of our unclear and confusing public health policies, here are a few facts and numbers to guide us accordingly Number of countries defined as west Africa = 3 (guinea, sierra leone, Liberia) Number of registered OFW’s in sierra leone = 1,979 Number of registered OFW’s in Liberia = 900 Number of registered OFW’s in guinea = 880 Total no. of Filipinos who died due to the ebola virus = 0 Total no. of Filipinos who has been infected By the ebola virus = 0 Average number of weekly OFW’s arriving at NAIA coming from west Africa = 7 No. of Philippine Government official who Actually set foot on sierra leone to personally Assess the plight of OFW”S = 0 No. of Philippine Government official who Actually set foot on Liberia to personally Assess the plight of OFW”S = 0 No. of Philippine Government official who Actually set foot on Guinea to personally Assess the plight of OFW”S = 0 No. of Philippine Government official who Actually set foot on Ghana to personally Assess the plight of OFW”S in sierra leone, Guinea and Liberia = 1 No. of countries that are represented in an average Mining company = 35 No. of nations that will implement a deployment ban on employment = 0 (Ghana has zero number of ebola cases and has an insignificant number of OFW’s compared to the 3 west African countries mentioned above) The present ebola virus epidemic poses a real, clear and present danger to us a nation. We believe that increasing the alert level from level 2 to level 3 will only cause undue hysteria, paranoia and insecurity among our people. We cannot deny the fact that ebola has killed thousands, are still killing thousand and will still kill thousands. If we would be blinded by irrational hysteria, we might miss the one great tool that we have at our disposal, knowledge. Knowledge that we have accumulated from the ever constantly shifting battles of other countries who are at war with this disease. We have the knowledge of how they lost and we have the knowledge of how they won. The ebola virus is a nasty, ruthless killer. If IGNORANCE would be its its tag team partner then the results would be devastating. Increasing the alert level from level 2 to level 3 at this stage of the ebola scare, will only give us and the impression that the government policy of total deployment ban is a tool to mask the inefficiency, inadequacy, immaturity and incompetence of health care institutions and our government institutions. The deployment ban would supposed to be one the ultimate defense weapon that will only be drawn after all of the rational , pro active and objective approaches has been exhausted. If our government would use this ultimate defensive weapon prematurely, then our nation would suffer undue damage. The total deployment ban will lead us to as if our nation would fall under the spell of a false sense of security that the long and deadly arms of the ebola virus will never reach us. How we wish that our government institutions have consulted us on the real scenario of our plight before Mr. pencil pushing-unmotivated-government official keeps on issuing alert levels like it will be out of fashion the next day. We could have recommended a timely and realistic solution that would benefit the not only us, and the whole of the Philippines and the whole of west Africa and the world for that matter. First, why not extend the first of line of defense of our country against ebola right here in west Africa, send a team of adequately trained medical personel to each of the three countries. To serve as an exit screening team. Not a big medical contingent but a small adequately trained team of 3 preferably a doctor, a nurse, and a medical technologist. A reference to the possible efficacy of an exit screening facility as a first line of defense is linked below sciencedaily/releases/2014/…/141020212414.htm DFA and DOH and DOLE would religiously coordinate with employers advising the government of who and when will Mr. OFW will return and with in what state of medical condition is Mr. OFW is in, then the ebola screening protocol in NAIA would be adequately informed beforehand of high risk ofw’s …. Before blindly sentencing us to a future of uncertainty, please give us the benefit of your basis for your conclusion, so that we as fathers, brothers, bread winners, providers, will be able to explain to our love ones and dependents why there would less food on their plates, less money for their healthcare , education. So that we could explain to them why our once proud families would now just be statistical numbers in malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment, and we would rely for government for the rest of our lives. musictimes/…/experts-say-travel-ban-wont-sto… blogs.cdc.gov/…/cdc-director-why-i-dont-support-a-t…/ sciencedaily/releases/2014/…/141020212414.htm From afar it seems to be selfish, but in the interest of containing the hysteria due to ignorance, it seems to be understandable
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 00:58:37 +0000
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