HK migrant orgs hit APEC, picket consulate
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This was the statement of Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, Chairperson of United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK), who spoke in the picket rally at the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) against the ongoing Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan, or New Patriotic Alliance) spearheaded the rally, which was attended by representatives of migrant organizations under the two alliances.
By BAYAN HONG KONG-MACAU
www.nordis.net
HONG KONG — “APEC is a big part of the reason why we OFWs are slaving away and are being abused in foreign countries. APEC means further underdevelopment of poor countries in the region. APEC means more forced labor migration!”
FORCED MIGRATION. Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong picketed the Philippine consulate office here to voice out their opposition against the strengthening of the APEC, which, they say would only worsen underdevelopment of third world countries like the Philippines that would result to more migrant workers. Photoc courtesy of Bayan Hong Kong-Macau
The APEC Summit opened today in Manila amidst great fanfare and controversy. Among issues raised by progressive organizations was the budget allocated by the Aquino government for the summit, which amounted to a whopping P10 billion and included wallpapering slum areas in Metro Manila where delegates are scheduled to pass.
“That 10-billion peso budget could have been better used to fund the country’s social programs, including those that provide services to overseas Filipino workers. As it is, the money has gone to funding a meeting of economic plunderers that will lay the whole region to waste through more neoliberal prescriptions,” said Vicky Casia-Cabantac, Chairperson of Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP).
APEC has been criticized by Philippine progressive organizations such as Bayan for being a “peddler of imperialist ‘globalization’”, which furthers underdevelopment among poor countries in the region and creates greater push for labor migration.
But the current summit has also received flak more specifically for uniting the whole region around the new trade agreements that are being promoted by both US and China.
“The US wants to clinch support for Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), while China wants to promote its Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). These are schemes for trade dominance that will benefit only big foreign corporations in the region, and will result in more underdevelopment and labor export for struggling economies like the Philippines,” said Joselito Natividad, Program Coordinator at the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM).
Balladares-Pelaez said that rather than “playing host to plunderers” that will further exploit the Philippines’s backwardness, the Aquino government should instead attend to the country’s fundamental economic problems.
“We want to see the day when a Philippine government will plan and implement pro-people programs like genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, which will address the poverty and social injustices in the country and set the stage for the elimination of forced labor migration,” she ended. # nordis.net
