HermieGarcia.net

May 1, 2009
(The Philippine Reporter, May 1-15, 2009, http://philippinereporter.com)

NOW that the campaign for changes in the Live-in Caregiver Program has reached a higher level, the caregivers, their advocates, the community and their allies need to assess what are the correct strategies to adopt in order to win the substantial gains they want.

First, they need to solidify their ranks to strongly support the major call for permanent resident (PR) status for caregivers upon landing in Canada.

I say this because judging from the one-hour roundtable consultation with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last Sunday, April 26, three major speakers from the side of the advocates separately dwelt on three areas of concern: 1) the major recommendation for immediate landed status; 2) the settlement challenges of caregivers, with emphasis on a project proposal; 3) recommendations that are considered “doables” or “winnables”.

This is a fragmented approach in presenting recommendations on a government program that affects the lives of tens of thousands of caregivers. This is practically a three-pronged approach, intentional or not, that actually weakens the main recommendation of immediate permanent residence status.

But to be fair to those heard by the Minister, of the 17 or so who attended from the Filipino community, about nine emphasized or supported strongly the immediate PR recommendation.

One emphasized the “doables” and another focused on settlement problems and drew attention to a project proposal separate from changes in the Live-in Caregiver Program.

The rest, about six, merely expressed gratitude to the Minister for lending his ear to the community. Only one caregiver was given the chance to speak and she batted for the main PR recommendation.
The bone of contention in the talks, undoubtedly, is the immediate permanent status. And Minister Kenney unmistakably showed he understood this when he said at the outset that in offering recommendations, the individuals representing various groups in the one-hour consultation should be aware that there could be “unintended consequences” and that there should be “balance” by considering the interests of other affected sectors like the employers.

Kenney made it clear that in his view, the LCP is a good program but that there are aspects that need to be fixed. He was not for eliminating it because it is helping Canadian families and helping caregivers attain permanent resident status faster than if they were to go through the point system for skilled professionals.

He set the tone of the talks and gave strong hints where the boundaries are. In fact, when he heard the items on the “doables” he thanked the speaker profusely and said that before when he had talks with the Filipino community, the latter had no specific proposals to offer. Now, there are these specific items and these will help him and his staff do their work.

These are the seven items in the position of the Grassroots Hub. Not that they would not help caregivers if these are implemented.

They would, for sure. Some of them are: moratorium on deportations, making the work permit work- specific rather than employer-specific, making the three-year window adjustable, removing the second medical, making availavle a federal health plan, EI, etc.

Still, emphasizing these has the effect of de-emphasizing the demand to do away with temporary resident status, which, as described succinctly by Pura Velasco of the Caregiver Support Services, is the heart of the problem. She argued that even if the provincial government enforced the implementation of the Employment and Standards Act in the caregivers’ workplace which is the employers’ homes, the caregivers would still be vulnerable to abuse because of their temporary status.

Proof of this is the now very common story of caregivers that they are threatened with deportation by employers and recruitment agencies or with reporting them to authorities for deportation whenever they resist unreasonable demands at work or for failing to pay on time the exorbitant agency fees.

Even if temporary foreign workers are assured on paper that they have rights and benefits, being not on equal footing with landed immigrants and citizens basically puts them in a very disadvantageous and precarious position.

In the position paper “Respect and Dignity for Caregivers” authored by the Coalition for the Protection of Caregivers’ Rights, presented to Kenney last year by CASJ and during the recent consultation, the emphasis is on the immediate permanent status.

Read the stories of caregivers Maribel Beato and Catherine Manuel on pages 12 and 13 and you will have a taste of how it is to be exploited by agencies and employers. These experiences are repeated hundreds or maybe thousands of times in Canada. MPP Mike Colle calls it Canada’s dirty secret.

Which brings me to my second point: the caregiver campaign leaders and advocates should disabuse their minds of the notion that if they are nice and not try to rock the boat, the politicians will listen to them.

This is an illusion, to say the least. Just like any campaign or movement for changing the status quo, the caregiver campaign is up against great odds. There exists the employers’ lobby group which, for all we know, may have developed relationships with political parties and politicians of all stripes. For sure, it has a clout that the caregiver campaign groups don’t have.

Check the Canadian Caregivers Association, run by employers of caregivers, which believes that agencies’ fees charged to caregivers should be capped rather than abolished because employers could not afford paying these fees.

The caregiver campaign cannot match the employers lobby group’s resources and connections with politicians. It cannot make political contributions. But although it cannot play this game, its strength is in mobilizing people, organizations, communities and public opinion to show the justness of its cause and exert pressure. Look at the Toronto Star expose which became possible due to the courage of the caregivers who came into the open with their stories of abuse and exploitation. They readily won public opinion and that’s when politicians took notice. First the federal and Ontario politicians played the blame game until it became untenable to not produce solutions to the caregiver problems.

Add to that the persistent organizing and public forum activities of the caregiver support groups and other organizations. Juana Tejada’s case became a rallying symbol. Cancer stricken caregivers surfaced: Celia Mansibang, Madonna Galinato, Precy Limpiado. More caregivers were emboldened to come out to tell their horror stories.

Then the Bill 160, MPP Mike Colle’s private member’s bill, which mainly wanted to ban agency fees on caregivers and set up a registry of these agencies. Then Ontario Labour Minister Peter Fonseca raised the bar and announced he would introduce a bill at Queens Park to stop the abuse and exploitation of caregivers in Ontario. He said it’s a federal program and needs fixing at the federal level.

Enter Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who gladly lent his ear on April 26 and collected position papers for study. No specific commitments but he listened obligingly enough even for only one hour. Which brings the movement of immigration issues of the LCP in a standstill.

Advocates and caregivers should bear in mind that the LCP is an integral part of the immigration policy of Canada. The LCP is touted as an easier means of entry for immigrant aspirants yet numerous nanny stories have exposed its fundamental flaws due mainly to the temporary status and horrible labor conditions.

For these flaws to be removed, the campaign should align itself with other forces that work for fundamental changes in Canada’s immigration policies.

But internally within the Filipino community, a strong mass movement must be built that should include both the traditional groups and the traditionally militant formations that were hardly present in the Kenney consultation.

The LCP battle must be waged by the larger part of this community. It is a great opportunity to empower this community.

Yet before we can achieve this we have to open our eyes to the realpolitik of the caregiver campaign. The politicians need votes, resources and need to look good to stay in power. The community, if it builds a strong movement, cannot be ignored by politicians who thrive in crisis. Some even help build a nation and shape history if they truly serve their people.

April 2, 2009
(The Philippine Reporter, April 1-15, 2009, http://philippinereporter.com)

The recent Toronto Star series of articles about unscrupulous recruiting agencies preying on Filipino caregivers has triggered a public outcry that sent politicians and public officials singing a chorus on protecting these vulnerable foreign workers and vowing to go after these greedy recruiters.

A private member’s bill has been filed in the Ontario Parliament that intends to curb this practice by setting up a registry of agencies, banning the charging of fees on caregivers and penalizing those in violation of this bill.

Hearing the stories of the caregivers on how they were milked thousands of dollars for often non-existent jobs has provoked public anger. Those responsible deserve to be charged with fraud and brought to justice. Victimizing foreign workers who have already spent a fortune for government fees and who are willing to be separated from their families just so they could support their siblings, parents and spouses, is like sucking the blood of these poor people. There’s no doubt about it, these predators need to be exposed and made to answer for their crimes.

But I am a bit uncomfortable with how this is turning out to be. These unscrupulous recruiters need to be punished for sure but to me they are like vultures feeding on the miseries of the caregivers. They bring the caregivers here for a scandalous fee, which is absolutely wrong. But what we forget is the already unjust and outrageous terms and conditions under which caregivers and all foreign temporary workers find themselves in are what allow the unscrupulous recuiters to extract their huge fees.

These caregivers and other temporary workers come from poor and lower middle class families in poor countries like the Philippines. They couldn’t find decent jobs there because of both the unwillingness and inability of the government leadership to provide decent employment. As the country reels from crisis after crisis amid everyday reports of scandals and mind-boggling corruption in high places, people lose hope and in desperation go overseas where life looks better.

The government of the sending country is interested mainly or solely in the billions of dollars these overseas workers remit home, in the case of the Philipppines, about U.S.$18 billion a year. These desperate people are pushed to work overseas as cheap labor without the necessary protection. In Canada, for instance, caregivers under the Live-in Caregiver Program are like indentured slaves tied to their employers who know that they are desperate to escape from poverty in their home country and many wouldn’t mind being exploited working 12 hours or more without overtime pay doing chores not specified in their contracts. Besides, the carrot at the end of the 36 months, after they have worked live-in for 24 months - eligibility to apply for permanent residence status - is too attractive to resist.
That is not available in most other countries.

The stories of abusive working conditions, physical, verbal and sexual abuse, cheating on salaries and tax deductions are too common to be ignored. That’s why, it’s revolting when some consular staff used to say that these are nothing compared to what OFWs experience in the Middle East. That may be true but it doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.

So you have desperate poor people who would grab the first chance of working abroad and would accept any terms of employment rather than have their family go hungry.

The receiving country, Canada, knows these are desperate people so it imposes working conditions it wouldn’t normally impose on its citizens and immigrants who have rights and privileges that couldn’t be taken away easily. These caregivers are treated like second-class workers and in practice indentured slaves who are “willing” anyway to bear their miserable conditions since their life here is much better than where they came from. Besides, again, there is that light at the end of the dark tunnel, permanent residency and being able to sponsor their family, which is becoming illusory now, judging by the numerous cases of deportation or “removal”.

Now comes the public outcry to crucify the unscrupulous recruiters who are like vultures feeding on the miseries of the desperate caregivers. Those who caused these miseries in the first place escape the blame and join the chorus to go after the heads of the vultures.

To me, it’s like the classic comparison to rounding up some drug pushers on the streets while letting the drug lords and their protectors in law enforcement do business.

So what is the solution to this seemingly complex problem? Since the root of the problem is the unjust impositions on the caregivers, then remove these chains that tie them to modern slavery. Let them come to Canada with permanent resident status so there is no carrot that is dangled to them as a prize for accepting slavery. Remove the live-in requirement so they are not treated like they are owned by their employers who can make them work on demand 24 hours a day. Let their workplace, their employers’ home, be subject to labor standards and their work conditions and wages be like those of Canadian workers. Not only treat them like ordinary Canadian workers are treated. Treat them like human beings with dignity who deserve respect. After all, they make life comfortable to countless families who have kids, elderly and ill persons in Canada.

The Philippine government should stop sending them as desperate cheap labor bound by onerous work conditions but as workers with rights and benefits accorded to regular workers in modern society and who while still Filipino citizens should be fully protected by their government wherever they are in the world. If and when this happens, no recruiting business will be able to extract blood from caregivers with impunity.

March 13, 2009

On page one of this issue are photos of four people whose lives have become meaningful to others beyond their own personal circle of friends and family. Each had either chosen to take initiative to make a difference for others or by force of circumstance, suffer and in the process expose man’s inhumanity to man.

Francis Magalona pioneered as a rap artist in his country. His legacy, however, was more his message than his art. Although his art was his medium to highlight his ideals to his legion of fans and followers, his passion and pride for his national identity distinguished him from other artists of his generation.

Thus his signature “Mga Kababayan,” “Tayo’y mga Pinoy” and “Man from Manila”. But more telling was his seething criticism of corruption, greed and callousness in high places. No performing artist at his level of popularity was willing to unleash such rage against the powers that be, if ever they felt his rage.

In the process, his fans grew far and wide in the country and even in north America where culturally disoriented Filipino youth felt his pulse and warmed up to his performances. For decades, he was the Rap King of the Philippines so that when he died last week, the whole entertainment industry and its legion of fans, especially the youth, mourned their great loss.

Juana Tejada, a live-in caregiver stricken with cancer in Canada, had to leave and stay away from her husband, siblings and parents in the Philippines so she could lift them from poverty. She came from a country where the lower middle class and the poor working class have no hope for decent livelihood unless they go abroad.

She was away for nine years without ever having the chance to visit home. She was denied twice of a chance to get permanent residency in Canada due to her illness because Immigration authorities said she would be a burden to the health system. When advocacy organizations and fellow caregivers, with the support of the community, rallied to her support and pressed the government for a reversal of its position, she was granted her wish.

In her statements before audiences and the media, she consistently took the cudgels for the other caregivers whom she knew were in the same situation. She asked them to be brave and come out because the community and other groups were there to support them. And with the help of her lawyers and supporters, the campaign for the Juana Tejada Law was launched for the removal of the second medical test for caregivers when applying for permanent residency. Her death symbolizes the extent of suffering her people are subjected to in this age of labor migration.

Rebelyn Pitao, a 20-year old teacher in Davao City, met a violent death after being abducted, tortured and probably raped by armed men who didn’t bother to conceal their crimes. Rebelyn’s only “crime” apparently was being a daughter of an alleged Commander of the New People’s Army, Leoncio Pitao.

That her uncle, Danilo Pitao, was similarly abducted and murdered in June last year in Tagum City, indicates a pattern of “punishment” being inflicted on the family of suspected armed rebels. Upon learning of her death, her mother blamed the military.

Church groups, lawyers groups, legislators, women, labor, youth and other groups from her country and overseas are rising in protest to condemn the unspeakable crime against humanity.

Rebelyn would not have comprehended why she had to be subjected to mindless cruelty by her tormentors but torture and summary execution have become common in her country where almost 1,000 extra-judicial killings have been reported in recent years.

Rebelyn’s life is gone but her name will always remind everyone that the armed guardians of power will stop at nothing and can be ruthlessly cruel in preserving their masters’ rule.

Eulogio “Tay Gipo” Sasi, Jr., a native of President Roxas, North Cotabato, discovered a new pest-resistant rice variety and was honored by the Norwegian government for this achievement.
The Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food Lars Peder Brekk cited him “for upholding diversity through indigenous knowledge on crop conservation,” said a news item.

Eulogio died days before the event where he would have received the citation. The story further quoted a Mindanao leader on community empowerment, “He reminded all of us that the seeds being deposited in the Global Seed Vault and all the genebanks are products of generations of farmers’ knowledge and innovations across the world that are entrusted to this generation and for the future generation.” It’s ironic that Tay Gipo’s work is recognized by a government of another country and not his own.

Four Filipinos passed away in the past weeks and what they’ve done or what happened to them have touched many other lives to an extent they would not have known. Someone said the significance of one’s life is measured not in the power one wields or in the possessions one acquires but in how it has impacted other people’s lives.