PRESS RELEASE l 24 DECEMBER 2011
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
Militant Center of Urban Poor in the Philippines
Reference: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary general (0921.392.7457)
QUEZON CITY, Philippines--Militant urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) says some 12 million Filipino families will 'surely' be having a blue Christmas, referring to families that will be incomplete with one or more of their members working abroad.
A Fourth Quarter 2011 Social Weather Station (SWS) survey also shows expectations of a sad Christmas increased by four points from 7 percent in 2010 to 11 percent in 2011, surpassing the all-time high sadness level of 10 percent posted in 2004 and 2009.
Kadamay national secretary-general Gloria Arellano says, a blue Christmas willl be an inevitable face of the Filipino tradition in the years to come brought by intensified labor export policy as the government has been a consistent endorser of globalization.
"Money can't compensate for an incomplete family. Even modern communication can't replace the happiness that a complete family welcoming the Noche Biena brings," Arellano adds.
The urban poor group has another recent SWS survey to back its claim, which reveals that family togetherness is on top of the non-material wish list of every Filipino this Christmas together with good health.
Kadamay has also slammed the world-record biggest Kris Kringle that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) recently offered to relatives of millions of relatives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
"For a government with economy greatly dependent on overseas remittances, all the government can offer is superficial happiness to the relatives of millions of OFWs. It remains helpless in addressing the social, economic and security risks that Filipinos face abroad," Arellano says.
OFWs on deathrows
"We are very sad as three more Filipino families are waiting for Christmas with news that their bread-winners are to be executed in Saudi Arabia in the days to come, and all we can do is wait," she adds.
Members of Kadamay cry for justice for many other OFWs who are on deathrows abroad, together with their families who feel very helpless.
"Labor export program is nightmare that we have to endure bacause of the inability of the government to provide decent and enough jobs for millions of Filipinos," Arellano says.
Arellano expalins: "Techinically, our economy is dwarfed by neol-liberal policies, in order to encourage labor export from Third World countries to maintain the low wage of workers in First World countries due to competition."
Greatest gift from the government
Even with millions of OFWs flowing in billions of dollars of remmittances to their families here in Philippines, the group asks, "Why is it that millions of Filipino families still live in penury?"
"It's about time that the Aquino government doubt its penchant for exporting millions OFWs, and think of implementing a national industrialization free from the dictates of neo-liberal policies, to offer jobs to millions of OFWs abroad and millions jobless in the country," Arellano says.
"It could be the greatest gift the government could offer to OFW families and poor Filipino families this Christmas," Kadamay says.###
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