Migrante USA members repeatedly confronted Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Hans Cacdac from May 3 to 5. They demanded he face Filipinos in the US and hear their grievances. The group also called for the agency to take responsibility for its criminal neglect of victims of detention, human trafficking, and of the 79th IB massacre in Toboso, Negros. Cacdac dodged every confrontation and gave no proper answers.

Cacdac represented the Philippine government at the United Nations International Migration Review Forum in New York on May 5. World leaders discussed a global agreement to ensure “safe, orderly, and regular” migration. The Marcos regime wanted Cacdac to flaunt the Philippines’ migration system as the “gold standard”.

Migrante USA called this a big lie. The Philippines’ migration model exports thousands of Filipinos to other countries with almost no value or protection for their rights and welfare. It includes failure to address the roots of poverty in the Philippines that force citizens overseas.

The group says bureaucrat-capitalists and imperialists amass huge money from the forced migration of Filipino workers. They are parasites in the Philippine government.

Besides Cacdac, members confronted Paolo Mapula, second secretary and disarmament expert at the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations. They held him accountable for the Tomahawk missile explosion in the Philippines and responsibility for the murder of two Filipino-Americans among the Toboso 19. “I know nothing,” was his only answer.

The group calls on Cacdac and Ambassador Jose Romualdez to face migrant workers and answer for their criminal neglect and collusion with the Trump government; provide immediate aid to those in need; shut down Filipino employers guilty of abusing their workers; hold accountable and immediately remove from office Philippine officials proven guilty of corruption; urgently address the crisis of continuously rising prices of goods in the Philippines; use the country’s rich land and resources for industry development and job creation; and stop the US-Israel aggression war on Iran.