SIKLAB-BC (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers)
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-BC
Press release

Overseas Filipinos in Canada hold forum, call for ouster of Philippine President Arroyo!

April 9, 2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Around 30 Filipinos and concerned Canadians came together at a forum entitled, “After People Power: Lessons from EDSA I and II,” last March 30, to discuss the current situation in the Philippines and call for the immediate ouster of Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Forum speakers Albert Lopez of Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (FCYA) and Arlene Oropel of SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers) discussed the current mass corruption scandal surrounding the national broadband network deal and the seven years of Arroyoès anti-people rule.

Since Arroyo came to power in 2001, human rights violations have increased above the levels of the Marcos regime. There have been close to 900 extra-judicial killings, 185 forced disappearances and one million people displaced.  The victims are civilians, unarmed, and those that have supported political causes.  Many were not even politically affiliated.  The political killings and disappearances have been attributed to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who receive their orders from their Commander-in-chief, Arroyo.

As human rights violations increase, economic policies continue to worsen under Arroyo’s neo-liberal agenda, leaving many Filipinos poor and desperate for jobs.  Under the Philippines’ Labour Export Policy (LEP) 3,000 Filipinos leave daily with false promises of a better life.  The Arroyo government has set a goal to send over one million workers per year – the incentive – over 13 billion U.S. dollars in remittances per year sent by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).  Essentially, OFWs prop up the Philippine’s failing economy. 

As Oropel illustrated, “migrant workers today are the administration’s top milking cow.”  According to Oropel, before they even leave the country, the workers are further squeezed out of funds by various mandatory government fees.

To show the government’s dependence on remittances, Migrante International recently launched a weekly “no remittance day.” When migrant workers from Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia responded to the call, the Philippine government called it “economic sabotage.”  

Oropel said she is all too familiar with this story.  She hopes for a time when Filipinos are not forced to leave their country to work abroad. (Oropel has a business degree but has worked as a nanny in Hong Kong and Vancouver for over ten years).  She said Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) makes her feel like, “a modern-day slave working for low wages.”

Furthermore, the LCP can keep families separated for many years. “This forced period of family separation causes real problems within the family and society,” explained  Lopez.  During his seven-year separation from his mother, he and his siblings found it difficult to understand their mother’s absence.  Once in Canada, they faced culture shock, racism and the reality of living in a two-bedroon apartment and their mother working two jobs.  Through FCYA, Lopez made the connection that the struggle of migrant workers like his mother is also the struggle of Filipino youth. He said that youth in Canada should care about the Philippines since they are also a product of forced migration. 

The forum concluded that the people’s movement in the Philippines for the ouster of Arroyo and for national democracy is relevant to Filipinos living abroad.  Inspired by this connection, forum participants suggested more education and outreach for Filipino-Canadians to realize their valuable role in affecting change in Canada and in the Philippines through creative methods such as cultural forms.  One participant called for lobbying members of the Canadian Parliament to review its role in the Philippines since Canadian taxpayers’ money are at stake. Ultimately, the participants vowed for a new people power and to learn the lessons from Edsa I and Edsa II and persevere in educating and empowering themselves and the community to fight for their rights and welfare in Canada and support the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine change and freedom.

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For more information, please contact SIKLAB or FCYA at: ph: 604-215-1103 or e-mail: siklab@kalayaancentre.net or ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net

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