An Open letter to His Holiness Pope Francis! Greetings of peace and love from Filipino migrants in Austria on the occasion of your coming visit to the Philippines from the 15th to the 19th January 2015. We rejoice in your leadership marked by humble service to God and His creation and by a boldness that is ready to challenge power and tradition whenever it is called for. May God bless you as come to us to experience the realities of our everyday lives; hear our cries, share our hopes and joys. May He bless you as you reach out your hand in solidarity with us, lovingly aware that we, and every human being in this world, are part of God’s flock. We know no peace, Holy Father. We are ridden with anxiety no matter how we try to face our day to day challenges with humour. We come before you and lay bare the pleas and struggles of the following sectors: A ) Political prisoners. The political prisoners are pushing for the resumption of the peace talks between the NDFP and the GRP/GPH, hoping that this will oblige the GRP/GPH to release from prison, not only the still-detained NDFP peace consultants, but also all other political prisoners in the country. It will be noted that political prisoners have been arrested and swamped with multiple trumped-up criminal charges just to keep them in jail, as much as possible indefinitely. There are presently some 500 political prisoners in the country. Citizens who question the system and those who defend the rights of others are subjected to arbitrary and illegal arrests; deprived of freedom, justice, political and human rights; swamped with trumped-up criminalized charges; made to undergo the most rotten and slowest crawl of justice in the world; and cruelly left to rot and suffer gross repressions, restrictions and deprivations for years, and even up to more than a decade already, in various jails throughout the country. Your Holiness, help us in pressing for the return of the lost freedom and other rights of political prisoners, as well as those who disappear(ed), referred to as desaparacidos, and thus fully correcting such grave social and political ills that have long been reigning in our country. B) Migrants or Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). There are an estimated 15 million overseas Filipinos in over 239 countries around the world and currently 125 Filipinos on death row abroad – the most number of whom have been executed under the present Aquino administration. At least 7,000 Filipinos are languishing in jails abroad without legal assistance and at least 25,000 are stranded and awaiting repatriation in the Middle East alone. Millions are undocumented and in danger of being criminalized abroad as host countries continue to impose more strict immigration and border policies. At least half a million Filipinos, mostly women and children, are victims of trafficking. Millions more suffer labor abuses and violations and endure modern-day slavery for the sake of their families back home. The Aquino government has highly praised itself for its supposed efforts to work with migrant-receiving governments to ensure the rights and welfare of OFWs. But the truth is OFWs are plagued with an assortment of issues and problems throughout the entire migration cycle yet the Aquino government has barely done any decisive action to support and protect OFWs and their families. The Aquino government’s ability to uphold Filipinos migrants’ rights and promote their welfare has lagged behind its apparent success in implementing its so called “labor export policy.” We agree with Your Holiness that human trafficking is indeed ‘a crime against humanity’ and that forced migration is ‘an anomaly’ and a matter of grave concern for our migrant workers and their families.” Your Holiness, continue hearing our stories and stand with us against trafficking and modern-day slavery of Filipino migrants! Struggle with us against Aquino’s labor export policy!” C) The middle class. The Philippine middle class perenially struggles with food and job security. Families under this category do not have savings to speak of; a medical event, a school expense, or a temporary job loss can exert a large shock. Your Holiness, in behalf of the middle class, pray with us, among other things that the the minds of the nation’s leaders be enlightened to prioritize education and that they be chastised to “have a heart for the poor who are sick.” D) Farmers. Millions of farmers affected by “corporate and state landgrabbing” highlight their call for genuine agrarian reform. A case in point is the Hacienda Luisita. More than two years after the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of the vast estate controlled by President Benigno Aquino III’s clan for more than five decades, farmworker-beneficiaries said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Cojuangco-Aquinos have been colluding to frustrate land distribution. Your Holiness, we ask you to unite with the farmers in their fight against “landlessness, injustice and impunity.” E) Workers. The plight of Filipino workers steadily deteriorate. The government recognizes more than 1,000 wage levels across the The meager minimum wage levels set by the law, to which only 50% of workers are legally “entitled” and which accounts for only 42 per cent of the minimum amount needed daily by a family to live decently, are being openly violated, The exploitation of workers has been made worse in recent decades by contractual employment, Unsurprisingly, biggest foreign and local capitalists in the country employ the most number of contractual workers. The government,. Contractual workers now comprise the majority of Filipino workers. The government, the single biggest employer in the Philippines, is supposed to protect workers’ rights but has also contractualized the majority of its work force. Contractual workers are in the far end of the spectrum. They often get wages less than those given to regulars and less than the legally-mandated minimum wage. They are often denied benefits. They can be easily removed from work, and are hindered from exercising their rights to form unions and assert their rights. Your Holiness, bless the workers and their unity and the solidarity they receive from across the globe as they assert themselves against violations of their rights to living wage, security of tenure and democratic rights. F) The urban poor. The urban poor in the Philippines like its counterparts elsewhere in the world, does not enjoy adequate and decent living and livelihood. Demolitions and forced evictions are are carried out to give way to projects under the Public-Private Partnership implemented in different countries to promote the interests of the big local and foreign capitalists. Your Holiness, affirm that God does not want the urban poor sacrificed on the altar of development.Join us in pressing the government to ensure and not to violate the economic, social and cultural rights of its people. International human rights laws and domestic laws especially the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Philippine Constitution are in place to this effect. G. Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are those who bear the brunt of unhampered plunder of lands and resources by large-scale and destructive mining and agro-plantations by foreign and local big business. More than 500,000 hectares of ancestral lands have been awarded to mining corporations. On top of this, 165 energy projects are in the pipelines, according to KAMP (Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas) and environmental groups. Resisting indigenous communities suffer under the counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan “Oplan Bayanihan resulted to bombings, encampment within indigenous communities, harassments, filing of trump-up charges, at least 17 cases of forced evacuation and 46 victims of extra-judicial killings since Aquino took power in July 2010,” Your Holiness, be with us in protecting God’s flock and God’s creation against this “development aggression.” Holy Father, truly, there is no peace, and no justice in the Philippines under the Aquino government. But we will not leave it at that. United, and with you on our side, we will press on to assert and defend our human, political, economic and socio-cultural rights as Filipinos, and as part of your flock.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:07:49 +0000
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