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Round Table Discussion
Labor migration: The case of deportees from Malaysia
Mitra Building, House of Representatives, Batasan Hills Quezon City
October 21, 2009 1:00 5:PM
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I.
Persons involved:
a. Implementers:
The Zealot Group
1. Jamairah Macabanding Group leader, Over-all Chairperson
2. Ahmed Deedat Kalbit Committee on Registration & food
3. Mohammad Kahlid Gunting Master of Ceremony
4. Alimama Macabunbun Photo documentation
5. Al-musa G. Tandih Program documentation
b. Guests/Speakers invited
c. Participants from different agencies and organizations of different sectors
II.
Objectives:
a. RTD Objectives:
To update participants of different agencies and different sectors on the plight
of the Filipino Deportees from Malaysia with the help of the invited resource
persons
To gather the concern persons and agencies regarding the issue on labor
migration particularly the so-called Filipino deportees from Malaysia
b. Documentation Objectives: at the end of this documentation the group should be able
to:
Document the entire events most specially the significant point of views
during the discussion proper
Serves as a proof of evidence anytime it will be needed
To be able to assess the performance of the group in any aspects with regards
to the actualization of the Round Table discussion
III.
2:30 3:00 Topic overview through Power point presentation by Mr. Alimama
Macabunbun
Mr. Alimama was task to impart the topic overview through PowerPoint
presentation. He explained each slide of his PowerPoint presentation in relation to
the topic.
ALIMAMA
:
Ladies and gentle men, good afternoon. Before Dir. Deguzman
give his case on the topic of labor migration in Malaysia, let me give
you first the overview of the topic(Then he specified his
acknowledgement to the guest speakers) Thank you for coming.
Historically, Malaysia has always been the heaven for the Filipino
Jobseekers. (Then he went in detailed)
MR.LIGON :
Magandang Hapon po sa ating lahat! Ang laki pala ng pangalan
ko dito (laugh), ( He imparted additional information about the
IDEALS)
:
Initially I wanted to introduce our organization, so our
organization is IDEALS focused on NGO provide legal support for migrant. We
alsodo policy initiatives particularly on the face book project, I dont know if you
have face book, what we want is a picture like illegal recruiters. We are working
with the task force anti-illegal recruiters. We had already identified about 10
illegal recruiters. We had 20 thousand warrant of arrest for illegal recruiters. The
problem isreally we cannot locate who and where, yung illegal recruiter, they
change their names.sso we are trying to categorize illegal recruiter by the number
of victims. Other than that, we were in Sabah Malaysia for 10 days we would like
to share with you some of our observations: we have like around 1 milllion
migrant workers in sabah. Based on our case study, we have about 80 million
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dollars remittances coming from Malaysia alone. This are only coming from the
local channels yung mga remmitances nito not to mention yung mga kapatid natin
na nagpapadala ng 1 thousand, 2 thousand, Maraming mura sa Malaysia mura
yung sabon, mahilig sila sa whitening cream (Laugh!) at tsaka, angat doon yung
corned beef natin na argentinaat tsak blue skies.So we were their, we talk with the
government the partnership that we had is we call this the Out of the box
solutions, but we are just looking for possible models. Although we are a human
rights NGO, We try to look at this issue on the ecomomic rights not on the
economic rights aspect. Mostly of our kababayan go to Malaysia is to seek for a
job. Our initiative we partners with two academic institution WMSU and Ateneo
Research Center. We also partnered with AMIN UNDER CONGRESSMAN
HERNANDEZ AND MALAY MINDANAO FOUNDATION BASED IN CDO and
the oher one is we are also working on the Trade Union so we are trying to build
a ssort of a consortium. ( At this point, he proceeded to the powerpoint
presentation)
:
So, Initially, why we partners with house of representatives, we believe
that congress has the power to regulate the commerce. Yung congress kasi, malaki
talaga ang papel nyan. The congress should really participate on this issue. We
work with Anak Mindanao Party list in the aid of legislation on the Filipino
deportees form Sabah particularly on the construction and agriculture industry
titinginan natin yung class ng Malaysian, they have the Chinese, then Inidian
then Malaysian and the mostly, malaking porsyento ng kanilang working class ay
mga Filipino particularly in the Sabah side. In Kuala Lumpur, if you are a
Malaysian or a Chinese- Malaysian who have a domestic worker who is Filipino
medyo sikat ka. Now we are actually concentrating on Sabah Area.So i said, we
were commission by AMIN to this study.So we are looking at the possible
economic models, so we are looking at the BIMP-EAGA at the economic
partnership agreement that was established in 1994 between the territories of
Mindanao and Palawan, so we are trying to go in to that framework. The
agreement between the provinces of Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu Basilan and Tawitawi ,so this is more of a sister agreement, so we are trying to see if we can have
this sister agreement between Sabah and Malaysia. Actually Cebu city and
Malaysia is like a sister city, so we would like to bring in more in to that
sisterhood. And we really put in sa economic agreement or anything under this
kind of sisterhood. And then we are working with the Department of Labor
particularly the ILS. So ngayon, mukhang nasa proseso pa sya. And then next is
the private sector agreement between chamber of commerce in Mindanao and
sabah to provide Filipino workers in the construction and agriculture industry so
why choose agriculture and construction industry kasi heto yung demand ng
Malaysia. Relatively,we also supply on the entertainment industry, masakit man
tanggapin, when we were in Labuan halos lahat kasi yun yung parang
entertainment district nila no ang lahat ng mga GRO sa Labuan ay puro
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Filipina. Some of them are voluntary sex workers, siguro for some who would like
to look in to that, magandang area ng stud, nakakalungkot man, that is how they
look at the situation. With the idea of business framework is that Mindanao has
human resources as experienceits easier to go south form south or north di ba?
Kasi experience naman natin yung mga tao it takes 2 days form zamboanga to go
Manila to seek for work where in it will Only take them 12 hours to go to
Sandakan to work. Mindanao has lots of resources, relatively because of the war,
the lack of employment opportunities in that area they would rather go to the part
na mas madaling puntahan mas mura yung. Actually mas mura ang pamasahe, it
will only casue 1,200 Pesos to go over and then nasa Sandakan ka na.(then he
gave a short back ground about Sabah. They will rather hire Filipinos kasi yung
Filipinos hindi daw dumatakbo so when they hire Malaysian maybe after a weeks
or two weeks, nawawala na silaat hindi naman sila pwede mag reklamo kasi
pwede naman mag file ng labor case nad Malaysian unlike Filipino pwede kahit
hindi bayaran. So there were cases where in Filipinos particularly on the
construction workers, a month before the house completed, some employers
report them as illegal migrant so they tend to run away without getting their last
month salary. (Then discussed further about trade union, Filipino migrant,
the problem of undocumented documentation and about Sandakan and
Mindanao through PowerPoint presentation) .
Jalao came from the word outcast. More and more of them would like to be a
citizen. Actually malalaman mo kung dumadami ang Filipinos sa pag dami ng
bigas sa Sandakan. We have this Visa tourist mostly ginagamit ng mga GRO kasi
mas madali. From Manila to Cota Kinabalu it cost only 2,500. Visayan women
find good job sa Malaysia. We were able to meet someone na married to a
member of the parliament.
There are 12,600 deportees, on daily basis an average of 300-500 deportees a
day which is also a problem to Zamboanga City because its eating more of their
local resource. Kinkain nito yung mga social services ng Zamboanga City.
Minsan nagbibigay naman ng pamasahe sa one stop processing center (SPC).
Pumunta doon siguro because of the opportunities na may mga relatives or
friends sila doon and informed them na maraming trabaho which is true but still
its undocumented. Yung pag paaala sa mga kababyan natin na hindi madali
magtrabaho sa Malaysia I think there must be a massive education campaign.
Most Filipinos do not know the requirement of Sabah. Malaki rin ang problema
sa trafficking. ( further explained about the Sabah claim through PowerPoint
presentation)
3:30 4:00 PM Dir. Nimfa De Guzman , POAE came next to deepen the topic:
DIR. DE GUZMAN :
Thank you. Good afternoon our distinguished officials
from the House of representative, our partners in migration development, our
young and vibrant young leaders of Mindanao. In fact, when I came in into the
room, I already smell the vibrant of these young leaders and I would like to
congratulate the house for shepherding this program and hope that more batches
will pushed through so that more and more people from Mindanao will benefit
from this program. So Im glad I was call after Mr. Ed and also the one who gave
our situational earlier Mr. Alimama Macabunbun, because its just confirm the
similarities that we had of that of private sectors as well as the government. As I
started reading ore about the issue, I realized that the problem has touched a big
magnitude and that the government will not be able to solve it alone we need a
cooperation including theinterset and advocacy from our young leader. So, let us
start, This is the geographical location from where the problem emanates
(referring to the PowerPoint presentation. She had shown the Sabah and the
Mindanao Map and had deepened the topic)
:
These are my observation: Vicious cycle of entry, Uncontrollable inflow
and outflow of undocumented Filipinos, People do not recognize the borders,
resource of local and national government are very much strained and cannot
accommodate thousands of Filipinos. (She discussed the topic of sovereignty
issue on Sabah)
:
RPd territorial claim over the Island of Sabah is a political issue which
needs to be resolved (continue the PowerPoint presentation)
4:00 4:30 - Executive Director Ellene Sana, Executive Director, Center for Migrant
Advocacy Philippines was task to give the reaction:
DIR. SANA:
Thank you and good afternoon everyone, I also would like to
thank the organizers of this forum to the organizers specially the
young Muslims.
The medium term responses for example, The fact is the
Filipinos in Sabah are being depressed or their rights are violated by
the Malaysian government. now, one of the recommendations - Can
we have a office in Sabah? To look after the welfare and the response
is that we cannot do that because of this Sabah Issue. Ok, I was
thinking, but the point is we have already hundreds of thousands of
Filipinos and because of that reasoning we are not able to do
something about it. S Ii think it cannot be all the time until the Sabah
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there in Tawi-tawi, nag iisa lang po ang POAE. So how can she deal
with all of these documentation of deportees. May roon time that she
have will to go to that vessel just to make sure have you been
documented? Are you going to Sabah? So she doing it all by herself.
You can come up with a list of programs addressing this issue but
when you try to take a closer on how this programs are being
implemented medyo ma short sayings talaga yung migrant workers.
Its very nice to hear you have the one-stop but literally one person.
Hindi mo nakikita yung ibang mga ahensya much the DFA. I dont
know if is a matter of resources or what but it is the situation yung
usapin ng intervention and the involvement of other stakeholders. On
the matter of a stateless children, again, this is a very big issue there
is estimated 100 thousand stateless Filipino in sabah the reasons is
because Kuala Lumpur is very far from Sabah and they cannot
registered there children. So what can be done? It should be you who
should go there i mean parang madali syang gawin pero bakit hindi
sya nagagawa? Parang its about sending somebody there on a regular
basis to provide the service needed so that they will be able to
register, ngayon lumalake ng yung mga bata stateless parin sia so
parang dapat parang kulang talaga yung political will to do something
about the situation. Sa policy ng crack down of deportation ng
Malaysian government. They come and go kahit wala silang
documents kasi jobs are available for them. For our policy makers,
they should be cognisance of this fact that even if migrant are
undocumented of how they have violated the immigration laws of the
host country, there are still entitled to some basic rights. Yun na lang
po muna salamat po!
4:30 5:30 Open Forum
Asked
by:
NAJIR
Kinatara,
CIPYML
ALUMNUS
Question:
Address
ed to:
DIR.D E
GUZMAN
Answer:
Actually, the approach to
anti-illegal recruitment, id
that preventive and that
involves education so we
have different partners in
LGU academe, NGO where
we have MOA with themfor
information dissimination to
prevent victimizing by
illegal recruiters. We have
also expanded our
information dissemination
in addition to our website
we have radio program,
Also we Text POAE. So we
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700,000 cases of
Filipino deportees from
other countries. I
believe that there are
problems on
implementations of this
law, so my questrion is
is there any strategy or
steps that has been
taken or will be taken in
support to strengthen
this implementation of
this law? Thank you
CHRIS
LUMIBAO,
Committe
e on
overseas
workers
Affairs
MONALIZ
A ADAM,
CIPYML-9
INTERN
DIR.
DEGUZM
AN
10
Dir.
NIMFA
MRS.
SANA
Me personally, wala a
kong masyadong alam
sa Sabah. And I think,
the leats that I can do is
respect. Ifg there a way
for our government to
claim back definitely on
go kami doon, kaya
lang, ang bumabangga
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in a way is yung
reasoning ng Sabah
claim is whats
happening to our people
in Sabah? If you see the
applicators. Malaysia
has all tyhe requirement
para sabihin talaga na
this is part of
Malaysia.even if you are
Filipino you are require
to have a passport,
paano mo sasasbihin na
hindi ka pumunta sa
abroad? Pero ayaw ko
pong doon bumara yung
usapan eh na because
of this claim, were
stuck! Because I think
even we have that
claim, lets put that
claim pero we can still
have do something our
kababayan in Sabah. At
the end of the day,
whats matters to
people is that
natulungan ba kami? Na
uphold ba yung dignity
namin?kasi yun yung
mas burning na issue in
the migrant group. With
our prejudices, I think
we are not in the
position to say na
definitely we support!
yung sabi n gating mga
leaders sa south na
there is a legitimate
claim to Sabah
WILLIE
from
Committe
on
Muslim
Affairs
PAMELA
FROM
CPBD
DIR.
DEGUZM
AN
DIR.
NIMPA
12
PAX
THELMA
DIR.
NIMPA
4:55-5:00
Closing Program
(Note: Jam kulang record sa tape heto lang yung nakuha ko doon, insert mo
rin yung complete names ng mge invited speakers)
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