ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
OFWs in Afghanistan
Saturday, 07 25, 2009
With the recent death of 10 Filipinos in Southern Afghanistan in a helicopter crash, the government must now revisit its deployment ban to that country. The government may well consider the following statement issued by the Filipinos in Afghanistan (FIA), the association of OFWs spread throughout the 33 provinces of Afghanistan: "It is unfortunate that such a horrible accident happened in Kandahar, Afghanistan. We are united in prayer for the repose of the souls of the victims and for the well-being of their families. We are also one in saying, however, that the deployment ban is ill-advised and not based on reality. Banning all the Pinoys who are willing to work here in Afghanistan would not do us any good. We have been here for some time, against all odds, and we are one in saying that it is about time our government rethinks and does something good for us here.
"Almost every politician back home has something to say about the situation here. They want us to go home and stay in the Philippines, and then what? Can the government give us work? Is it safer there in the streets of Manila or in the jungles of Mindanao? Will the rebel groups promise not to harass us if we go back to work in the farms we used to cultivate? Are the politicians willing to sacrifice by not getting their kickbacks from government contracts even for a year just to allocate funds for us Pinoys who would leave our jobs? If the answers to these questions are positive, then we are willing to go back.
"It is true that Afghanistan is not safe for the tourist Pinoy, but the same cannot be said of the working Pinoy. For the information of everyone, we are not allowed to go out of the military bases where we are quartered. No single civilian worker can leave the camp at any given time. We have body armors and protective gears in times of serious threat. We have air-conditioned cabins and bunkers to run to in case of emergency. We have thousands upon thousands of NATO forces inside the camp to protect us; the ratio of soldiers to civilians inside a camp is 5 to 1.
"Our government is maybe the only country in the world that bans its citizens from working in Afghanistan. The Malaysians, Bhutanese, Indians, and many others are working here to help deliver Afghanistan from the Talibans and usher in world peace. The Philippines does not have any official here, not even one to at least pretend to help. Nobody has the guts to come here; all they can do in Manila is just sit and watch the whole world fight.
"We Pinoys here in Afghanistan are doing our government a huge favor. We send at least 80 percent of our salaries every month. We saved the asses of our government officials who pulled the plug in support of NATO in Iraq, because of the Angelo de la Cruz case a few years back. We are not condemning the government for that kind of decision, because there was a life that was put at risk. But how about us here in Afghanistan? Our government officials are only good at press releases, but are always missing in action. If the government is really serious in helping us, then why does it not even try to visit us here to check the real situation?
"Their statistics are even worse. They claim that there are at least 1,500 OFWs here! Where did they get their data? Probably from the unreliable POEA! We also believe that some people connected with the BID are already trembling, because there is a possibility that one of the casualties in the crash might be the one they escorted to pass through immigration at NAIA for a fee ranging as high as P15,000.00. That is the reality.
"The accident was horrible as it is. We cannot do anything about that. It was force majeure. What the government must do is to at least visit us here and then decide what is really best for us. And we believe it is not by sending us back home, but rather by providing us better alternatives, better benefits, better protection. We believe our employers would even be willing to increase our insurance coverage if only our government would lift the deployment ban.
"We are not described as ‘daring Pinoy workers’ for nothing. But mind you, we are not as daring as the ordinary Juan de la Cruz who lives in the slums of Tondo, or who fights in the jungles of Mindanao, or the taong grasa who struggles to live in the streets of Manila. We have food here that are better than what most mayors in the Philippines are eating everyday. We have rooms that have the comforts enjoyed only by middle class families back home.
"We dare the politicians who really care about us and the future of every Pinoy back home to make the move now.
"Vice President De Castro, please visit us here, and see for yourself if we have to go home or should we stay here in Afghanistan."
Having been to Afghanistan until last year to work there with the United Nations, I saw for myself that Afghanistan is no different from other countries where violence occurs occasionally. The ban should be lifted, to allow the OFWs (about 700 of them) in that country to work unhampered. What the DoLE and the DFA instead should do is to field personnel in Kabul to look after the welfare of the OFWs as required by law. The Philippine Embassy in Pakistan — which services only about 300 Filipinos in that similarly violence-prone country — attends to the consular requirements of Filipinos desiring to work in Afghanistan, but is too far off and cannot be relied on for immediate response. There is nothing better than implanting diplomatic personnel in Kabul.
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