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Friday, January 27, 2017
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THE LACK of economic opportunities in the Philippines pushes Filipinos to work abroad, leaving their families, creating distance between parents and their children. The most horrendous stories are those of Filipino migrant workers lamenting in jails and waiting in death rows and worse, those who have been executed, rendering their sons and daughters orphans.
We are saddened by the execution of Jakatia Pawa, 44, of Zamboanga Sibugay, by the Kuwaiti government on Jan. 25 for the death of her Kuwaiti employer’s 22-year-old daughter. But blood is on the hands, too, of the Philippine government.
The government, since the administrations of then presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III, could have done all efforts to save Pawa from execution. Pawa was sentenced to death because of allegedly killing her employer’s daughter in 2007 – an accusation she consistently denied up until her remaining days. Groups have demanded action from the government to save Pawa ever since, but to no avail.
There are still 88 Filipinos on death row that need to be supported and saved. The lack of employment opportunities in the country is the major factor why more than 6,000 Filipinos leave each day, rendering almost 15 to 20 thousand children left behind very vulnerable. This is worsened by the labor-export policy that the government uses as a medium to sell cheap labor of Filipino workers overseas.
The government must stop this unwritten labor export policy. Decent jobs with decent wages should be created here at home. Job-generating economic programs can help Filipino children from losing their beloved ones abroad.
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