Delivered by Riya Ortiz, Mass Campaigns Officer
Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan
In front of the Philippine Consulate, New York City
August 1, 2008
Mula sa hanay ng mga progresibong kabataang Pilipino at mga anak ng mga Pilipinang domestic workers, isang militanteng pagbati sa inyong lahat!
From the ranks of the progressive Filipino youth and sons and daughters of Filipina domestic workers, a militant greeting to you all!
Filipina domestic workers like Tita Marichu are called "modern-day heroes" in the Philippines. In reality, they are literally modern-day slaves. They are slaves not just to their employers like Lauro Baja, a former UN diplomat who allegedly engaged in trafficking and forced labor. More so, domestic workers are slaves to the system that allows the "slave masters" to continue to strip them of their dignity as humans and as workers.
Let us not forget though that these hardworking Filipina domestic workers are also mothers. And they are OUR mothers. Like Tita Marichu, they are mothers who have made the sacrifice of being separated from their families back home to work abroad and ensure their economic survival.
We can only imagine the pain that Tita Marichu went through during the three months that she worked for the Bajas. But who could fathom the unbearable pain that she endured when she could not send money to the Philippines to sustain her family? Her family in the Philippines had to sell their TV just so they could eat. Her children were forced to stop going to school because they don't have enough money for their tuition.
We from Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan who are also children of domestic workers and who were separated for years from our parents are familiar with the struggle that Tita Marichu's children went through.
While our mothers do the dirty and dangerous jobs and take care of rich white blond babies abroad, we were left behind in the Philippines and had to deal with the impacts of family separation. We were raised by our father or an auntie or uncle. Some of us were prone to abuse - even sexual abuse - from the people who were supposed to take care of us.
Our mothers sent their hard-earned wages to sustain us when we were in the Philippines. They sent us to good schools to receive "good education". But even if we graduate, the inutile Philippine government cannot give us jobs with decent wages. And with the ever-worsening crisis in the Philippines, we too are hit by the crisis and are forced to go abroad.
The struggles of the children of Filipina domestic workers don't end when we are reunited with our parents. Most of us become undocumented workers. As new immigrants, we enter the pool of cheap immigrant labor in the US and become inheritors of our mothers' low-wage jobs. We end up doing service-sector jobs where we work as warehouse workers, food-service workers or domestic workers. Like our domestic worker mothers, we work for long hours, low wages and don't receive benefits that we deserve. We also face the added struggle of supporting our families and relatives who are still in the Philippines.
That is why the struggle of the youth whether we are immigrsants or born and raised here is highly integral to the struggle of the domestic workers. We are one with Damayan and all its allies in calling justice for Marichu!
Let us also bear in mind that Baja is just another dog that feeds off the flesh and labor of its people. Let us hold Baja and his family accountable. Let us also hold who has the dog's leash accountable and that is the Philippine government under the equally corrupt Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo!
To the Bajas, bahang-baha na at nag-uumapaw ang pagkakorap ninyo! Bajas, you are overflowing with corruption!
Bakit kayo pilit na nagtatago sa likod ng inyong diplomatic immunity? Why do you hide behind the cloak of diplomatic immunity? If you really have nothing to hide, then let justice takes its course and let the truth prevail!
No diplomatic immunity to Baja and his family!
Justice for Marichu and all Filipina and non-Filipina domestic workers!
End trafficking of all domestic workers!
