Obsequious policy of Macapagal-Arroyo drives overseas contract workers to the lion's den

Cesar Renerio
Spokesperson
NDF-North Central Mindanao
July 09, 2004

The NDF-North Central Mindanao sympathized with the family of Angelo dela Cruz and to all Juan dela Cruzes Overseas Contract Workers (OCW) who have opted to work abroad even if this means selling their souls to the devil or be they devoured by capitalist monsters because their government here cannot give them any. This will be one of the living spectres that will forever hound Macapagal-Arroyo till her ouster in office.

Macapagal-Arroyo's blind obsequiousness to Bush's dictates is what makes the Philippines got embroiled in the war the US has kindled. Had it not for its puppetry Filipino workers in Iraq would have been spared of this tragedy. Because of its subservience to US imperialism, OCWs in Iraq now have been one of the favorite targets of Iraqi militants.

With the economy headed to downward collapse, Macapagal-Arroyo desperately sends OFWs to Iraq and other workplaces of the world to prop up its sagging economy. The growth in remittances from overseas contract workers has contributed largely in keeping alive the economy and all vultures in the bureaucracy. Thus exporting labor power as commodity has become one of the principal exports of the semifeudal and semicolonial state despite the miserableness and pitiablenes of OCWs in their places of work abroad.

The much vaunted Arroyo's claim that she would create 10 million jobs is in reality the total sell out of our sovereignty and labor power of OCWs. It is the export of labor power that she relies on for her 10-million-job scenario considering that her administration is hobbled and long been bled dry by ballooning foreign and domestic debt and soaring election-related expenses. Her boast of the so-called economic growth particularly the expansion of telecommunication services arising from additional cellphones in use, tenuous rise in the production of electronic parts, temporary rise in agricultural production due to good weather conditions are all but fleeting in character.

A deep scrutiny of the data released by the government depicting a so-called 6.4% growth of the economy in the first quarter of 2004 showed that the factors behind such growth are non-productive, fleeting and illusory.

Reference:

Mark Reyes
Media Liaison Officer
NDF-North Central Mindanao
Contact Number: 09264166821
E-mail Address: [email protected]

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