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The bigger issue: Unemployment
MARY Jane Veloso’s case again hogged headlines. Convicted of drug trafficking, she was sentenced by a court in Indonesia to death for bringing 2.6 kilograms of heroin. Her execution by firing squad, however, was delayed after Veloso’s recruiter surrendered to the Nueva Ecija provincial police. Recent statements from President Duterte once again brought focus to her case.
But let’s look at the bigger picture. This is not just about international drug trafficking. Unless the government addresses the bigger issue of unemployment, more Filipinos are expected to be executed abroad, or suffer the brutality of being outside the country.
Remember that in a span of less than two years in office by then President Aquino, four Filipinos were executed in China for drug-related offenses. Many more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are on the list for execution in other countries around the world. In a country that has some 12 million of the population working abroad, mostly undocumented, a rise on the number of OFWs to be executed for one crime or another is a glaring reality, as the global economic crisis aggravates job uncertainty abroad.
An estimated 4,000 OFWs leave daily to work abroad because of the record-high unemployment rate in the country. For every OFW, it is not a choice but a requisite to leave the Philippines for their family to survive. It’s an adjustment to the inability of the government to create jobs for the millions unemployed Filipinos. Many more are to add to this number every graduation season.
For as long as no domestic jobs are available, the government’s main recourse is to once again seek markets abroad despite the ongoing global economic crisis that continues to displace thousands of OFWs or place them in imminent danger or war. It’s a never-ending vicious cycle that will only end if fundamental economic reforms are in place. We hope the Duterte administration’s promise of change will include job creation – lots of employment opportunities here in our soil. This is the most effective way to make sure there will be no more Mary Jane Velosos facing execution abroad.
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