Yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) through its spokesperson Atty. Raul Hernandez on a radio interview confirmed that OFW Violeta Cortez, on her mid-40’s from San Pablo, Laguna reportedly found dead at an undisclosed street in Damascus on January 5, 2012.

Asked what could have been the cause of her death, the DFA spokesperson said she allegedly was a victim of hit-and-run while in Damascus.

But Migrante-Middle East (M-ME), a migrant rights group, says it is not ruling out that OFW Cortez was possibly hit by a stray bullet while cruising her way out of Homs, where heavy fighting still ensued, going to Damascus to seek the Philippine embassy’s assistance.

“Information reaching us is that she was on her way going to Damascus from her employer’s abode in Homs in her own effort to save her despite pleading assistance to the PH embassy to evacuate her and other fellow OFWs stranded in Homs,” said John Leonard Monterona, M-ME regional coordinator.

Monterona said OFW Cortez is one of those OFWs in Homs who have sought assistance to them sometime in May 2011. “OFW Cortez was among those whose names M-ME submitted to the PH embassy in Damascus pleading to be evacuated out of Homs and eventually repatriated back in the Philippines.”

“There were about 30 of them then in Homs who have called me and plead for assistance as they fear for their lives due to heavy fighting between anti-government protesters and the Syrian military forces,” Monterona confirmed.

“The only reply the stranded OFWs in Homs, including OFW Cortez, got from the PH embassy is an advice to find its way to escape from their employer by riding a taxi going to Damascus where the PH embassy building is located, not minding the high risk present while travelling out of Homs to Damascus,” Monterona added.

Monterona citing the accounts of stranded OFWs in Homs he had spoken then, they could not find the embassy’s presence and its evacuation efforts contradicting DFA’s statement that many OFWs do not want to leave Syria.

“PH embassy in Syria has just appointed its ‘coordinators’, who are OFWs themselves, in Homs, Latakia, and other cities in Syria and direct them of what to do. Thus, we could say there was no actual evacuation done by the PH embassy when the time the situation is not yet that heightened that would allow evacuation of stranded OFWs in Homs, Latakia and other Syrian cities going to a safer place like in Damascus where the PH embassy is also located,” Monterona averred.

Monterona calls on the DFA to probe deeply on the death of OFW Cortez.

“More OFW deaths, though we pray that no other OFW would be hurt or died in Syria, is the price of a ‘wait-and-see evacuation and repatriation stance’ by the PH govt., the DFA and other concerned govt. agencies. Evacuation and repatriation efforts must be pro-active, this is what the MENA crisis taught us so far,” Monterona concluded.

Reference:

John Leonard Monterona
Migrante Middle East regional coordinator
migranteme@gmail.com

It has become clear that the ambassador has failed his position and responsibilities to take the right decision at the right time to save his people. He did not assess the severity of the situation well enough and did not order the evacuation of Filipino workers in Syria who were seeking refuge at the time.

Hopefully with time, more competent staff are put in place and less corrupt and/or irresponsible ones are placed in vulnerable countries (countries where migrants are most vulnerable) like those in the region.

Follow up on this and more thorought details can be found here.

Full text including footnotes: http://www.annd.org/userfiles/file/latestnews/ANND-CESR%20joint%20submission-Economic%20and%20Social%20Rights-%20Syria-UPR%2012th%20session.pdf

(…)
38. The majority of foreign domestic workers (FDW) are female and hail from Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa, particularly Indonesia, the Philippines, Somalia, and Ethiopia. They face multiple levels of gender and ethnic discrimination and are further made vulnerable by the unique characteristics of their sector of work. They often have less bargaining power due to their “invisibility” as they work in isolation and in the privacy of households . They often face difficult work conditions, including: long, often unpredictable hours, low salaries and lack of leave days, physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse; difficulty in reporting abuses to Syrian authorities and seeking remedy, illicit measures affecting salaries such as non-payment, limitations on their freedom of movement, confiscation of passports or other identity documents (prohibited by Syrian law and by the International Convention of the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families) .
39. Although on 10/12/2000, Law No. 24 was amended as to regulate the minimum wage and other employment issues for casual or temporary workers, including domestic workers, the working conditions of domestic workers remain regulated almost exclusively by their contracts. There is no standard contract or mechanism to enforce employment contracts signed in other countries.
(…)

Below are the English translation of the video:

Investigator: What happened with you?
Maid: Madam hit me!
I: Show us your hands and arms! (She shows an old unhealed broken elbow).
M: She hit me with the hammer, hit me with the knife, and seared me with the iron.
I: Who did that to you?
M: Madam!
I: Madam who?
M: Niveen.
I: What is the name of her husband?
M: Samer Al-Masri.
I: Samer Al-Masri, the actor?!
M: Yes!
I: Can you show us your back? Turn around please! (The maid turns around to show bruises, wounds, haematoma, and pierces on many parts of her back).
M: She kicked me with her boots.
I: Did you receive your money?
M: No!
I: How long have you worked for them?
M: 3 years without wage.
I: Is there any pierce in your stomach or chest?!
M: In my head. She used to push my head in the wall. And also cut my teeth.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said Migrante continuously receives numerous requests for assistance from OFWs working as domestic helpers and from their families in the Philippines pleading for assistance for their abused and maltreated OFWs.

On Tuesday (5 October) the DFA issued a statement saying that the department “has received certifications from 10 countries, namely: Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Kuwait, Laos, Myanmar, Ireland, Saipan, Norway, Syria and Vietnam. This will then be given to the POEA Governing Board.”

The DFA is referring to the required certification issued by the concerned RP ambassador in compliance of the requirement of the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act or Republic Act 10022.
Concerned RP diplomatic post must issue an certifications that verify that these labor-receiving countries: (1) have existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of migrant workers; (2) have signed or ratified multilateral conventions, declarations, or resolutions relating to the protection of migrant workers; (3) have concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino workers and; (4) are taking positive and concrete measures to implement the first three criteria.

Monterona said the inclusion of Kuwait and Syria in the list of “safe” countries for OFWs is ill-advised.
“This is misleading. How could you consider Kuwait and Syria as safe destinations for OFWs if on a daily basis we are receiving 2 to 3 average cases of OFWs abuses and maltreatment?” Monterona added.
Monterona said RP govt. declaring Kuwait and Syria safe for our OFWs is misleading as this is the same Kuwait and Syria where numerous cases of abuses, maltreatment, and labor malpractices have been committed against migrant workers, including OFW-domestic workers.

“How would the RP embassy explain why there is still a quite huge numbers of distress and run away OFWs victims of their employer’s abuses and labor malpractice seeking refuge from its Filipino Workers Resource Centers and their numbers are increasing?” Monterona averred.

Monterona said he is worried that just for the sake of issuing the certification as required by the amended Migrant Workers Act (R.A.10022), the safety and protection of OFWs in countries where there are rampant cases of abuses will again be compromised.

“Again, what we observe is that even the government is trying to circumvent the Migrant Workers law just to suit for its continued exportation of cheap human labor abroad even if there is no guarantee that OFWs well being and safety will be protected on countries of their destinations to work,” Monterona.

“If the present Aquino administration is not distributing land to the landless sans implementation of genuine agrarian reform and would not work for national industrialization, then there will be no jobs that can be created to absorb the millions of unemployed, then OFWs will be forced to seek employment abroad and an opportunist government will continue to exploit sending its cheap human labor abroad,” Monterona concluded.

There was no proper investigation into this case. The employer was not questioned by the police to ensure that his treatment of the maid didn’t trigger her suicide.