SIKLAB joins the internationally-coordinated day of action to protest the killing spree of activists in the Philippines by the Philippine military and para-military.

SIKLAB statement
April 7, 2005

Stop the Killings in the Philippines

As migrant workers and members of SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino Workers Organization), we join with the multitude of people worldwide in resolutely condemning the recent killing spree and campaign of terror of the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. President Arroyo's all-out campaign of terror and repression has cost 29 peace-loving and progressive Filipinos their lives in the last 3 months alone.

Since the declaration by the U.S. that the Philippines is a second front against the war on terror, extrajudicial killings and gross human rights violations have escalated. The lives of these martyred Filipinos represent the millions of Filipinos who strive to build a truly free and democratic Philippines in the face of these state directed killings. President Arroyo is frantic to hold onto her presidency in the face of worsening economic and political crisis. The foreign debt of the Philippines alone stands at US$55 billion spiraling out of control.

In the face of this escalating crisis, the Filipino people's movement continues to grow and demand for decent livelihood and a just and lasting peace. In the face of these demands, the Arroyo regime sees to it that the Filipino people continue to be exported under the Labour Export Policy of the Philippine government in order to receive remittances and prop up the ailing economy.

As overseas Filipino workers, we struggle to help our families and loved ones in the Philippines survive. Every hour, around 100 Filipino workers are forced to work overseas in over 186 countries. With all the exorbitant fees that we pay to work abroad, the Philippine government does little to protect the rights of overseas workers. Many migrant workers find themselves abandoned by the Arroyo government in foreign countries fending for themselves.

We find ourselves in countries like Canada where we end up doing the dirty and treacherous jobs that no one else wants. Canada's Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is a perfect fit to the Philippines's Labour Export Policy. Under this program, domestic workers are forced to live-in their employer's homes and are only granted temporary immigration status as "foreign workers." There are over 8,000 domestic workers in B.C. alone and 93% of those who come under the LCP are Filipino women.

The LCP steals our dignity and strips us of previous experience and education. Even after we finish the required 24 months of live-in domestic, we still continue to be low wage workers trapped as a segregated pool of cheap labour. The Philippine government hails us as the modern heroes of the Philippines. But we know that we are really the modern slaves, forced to migrate in order to survive.

As the civil war between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippine intensifies, as the economic crisis worsens and human rights violations run rampant, we know more and more Filipinos will be pushed abroad for survival.

So as we continue to send indispensable remittances back to the Philippines to prop up the Philippine economy,we call for the Arroyo government to heed to our demands to stop the killings of Filipinos who are justly fighting for genuine democracy and a just and lasting peace in the Philippines!

Stop state-directed killings in the Philippines!
Justice to all victims of state terror!
Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program!
Long live the struggle for national freedom and democracy in the Philippines!
Long live international solidarity!