PORTLAND, Oregon (MindaNews/06 Aug) -- The order “lacks seriousness and the dignity that is required of a head of state attempting to resolve perhaps the greatest problem that the country is faced with.”
By tone and language, this is a rebuke – the reaction of Asian Human Rights Commission to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s order to the Justice Department and the Philippine National Police to solve within 10 weeks 10 cases of political and journalist killings (INQ7.net, 08/03/2006).
Why dignify that order with a rebuke? I think it was a big joke, a comic relief to ease a bit the tension of the political crisis that will not go away.
And my president has a bigger surprise – a super joke. The country will send abroad “super maids” (INQ7.net, 08/03/2006).
Training Program
My president appeared serious in laying out her “super plan” to Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque, PMS Chief Arthur Yap, TESDA Director General Augusto Syjuco, NLSF Executive Director Lina Amata, and Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral. They must be all ears praising the “super idea”.
What’s the “super plan”? Put up a training program to upgrade the skills of Filipinos going abroad as domestic helpers.
What skills? To be able to administer first aid, to attend to emergency procedures such as evacuation when there is fire, and to speak the language of the country of employment.
With this training, my president said, the country would be able to deploy abroad not just ordinary domestic helpers but “super maids” and she must be excited at the super idea: “Yes, mga super maids ang papadala natin.” What does my president envision? The “super maids” will command higher salaries from foreign employers. That will mean more dollars for their families and for the country.
To fully support the “super plan”, Roque said the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration will undertake the training in language and culture for specific countries; TESDA, Syjuco said, will take care of the training in first aid and emergency procedures complete with certificates of competency.
Labor Policy?
It appears that my president has just laid down a new labor policy. Henceforth, no domestic helper will be allowed to go abroad without proficiently completing the training of a “super maid”.
The policy should put more emphasis on speaking the language of the country of employment especially where English is not the country’s second language. Failure to communicate comprehensibly must be the root of the troubles of Filipino domestic helpers in the Middle East.
All the above must be included in the courses for the training programs that OWWA and TESDA will offer. Domestic helpers who do not enroll in the training programs for “super maids” must undergo a proficiency test.
Question
Will the training be offered free? Will the government have enough facilities to accommodate the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands wanting to go abroad as domestic helpers?
First aid and emergency procedures may be learned in a weeklong seminar. But earning the language and culture of the country of employment will take much longer. Anyone should know that it will take months, if not years, to learn efficient basic communication – the learning difficulty varying according to language.
Why not make na lang “super maid” a certificate course in technical schools like the courses for mechanics, electricians, etc. complete with board examinations? Filipinos going abroad with a CSM (Certificate in Super Maid) will perhaps feel as dignified as other careered and professional overseas workers.
Will the program not discourage domestic helpers from going abroad?
In Shock
However, my president will probably be in for a shock. She said that the “super maids” would command higher salaries from foreign employers. On the contrary, “super maids” will most likely not be hired if they demand for higher salaries.
Brion, Roque, Yap,Syjuco, Amata and Caral should have politely told their -- and my -- president to forget the “super plan” for the “super maid”. Higher salaries are not the immediate problem of Filipino domestic helpers in the Middle East and elsewhere.
For some, if not many, their immediate problem is how to collect their salaries. Complaints about this commonly come from the Middle East – not from Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong and Brunei. This is aside from the inhuman treatment the Filipino domestic workers suffer.
Will making Filipino domestic helpers “super maids” improve their dignity in the eyes of their Middle East employers -- the way they are being treated?
National Dignity
The indignities that Filipino domestic helpers suffer in the Middle East do not seem to affect my president. She’s obviously more concerned about the unemployment problem and more interested in the dollars that these workers send to their families and the country. So, to be more competitive, make them “super maids”.
There’s nothing wrong sending Filipino technicians and professionals where they are in demand. It’s a national pride to see Filipino professors in leading universities of the world; to find Filipino doctors and nurses in leading hospitals; to know of Filipinos among the staffs of the United Nations agencies and organs. And so forth.
But is it a national pride to see Filipino women, among them college degree holders, working as servants in the Middle East, in the ASEAN countries and elsewhere in Asia and Europe?
It is known in these countries, and worldwide, that Filipinos go abroad as servants because their country has no work for them and very many of those who have work are paid lower than the servants’ pay in other countries.
Perhaps, the Philippines now is the world’s capital of domestic helpers. Soon it will be the land from where come “super maids”. And my president will be known as the patroness of “super maids”. That will be the “super joke”, with us as the butt.
(“Comment" is Mr. Patricio P. Diaz' column for MindaViews, the opinion section of MindaNews. Mr. Diaz is the recipient of a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Titus Brandsma for his "commitment to education and public information to Mindanawons as Journalist, Educator and Peace Advocate." You may e-mail your comments to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.) |
