MULTITUDES, MULTITUDES!

MULTITUDES, MULTITUDES!

Months passed since the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers began in Saudi Arabia and weeks after the stablishment of OFW campout outside the Jeddah Consulate office, and… nothing. The stranded OFWs are still there and concrete solutions is yet to be formulated. The Consulate has offered them to be relocated within the Consulate premises but by then there are almost 5,000 persons in the campout and the most that the Consulate could offer is an area that could accommodate 200 persons.

It is very hard to understand the mentality of the staff of the Philippine Consular Office in Jeddah and the Ambassiatorial office in Riyadh. Relocation will not resolve the question. It is temporary and inadequate. The only solution is a swift mass repatriation. The government of the Philippines must release a contingency fund to finance trhe operation with urgency.

We have not forgotten what the President himself said in his inaugural speech which wasa tantamount to direct order to all concerned Philippine government agencies to provide assistance and on-site services to OFWs particularly the stranded and distressed.

It appears that those tall words has lost its meaning even to the President himself. If the President and his cohorts has forgotten it, the OFWs has not. He promised and the OFWs are waitingfor the fulfillment of that promise, or the government under Pnoy administration will be figured in the mind of the citizens as only reaping the gains of billion dollar remittances from its lucrative Labor Export Program peddling Filipino labor abroad cheaply while neglecting its responsibility to protect deployed Filipino workers abroad, provide on-site services and programs, and secure the Filipino workers well-being.,

The multitudes of Filipino migrant workers around the world has their eyes on the Philippine President, his government and its agencies to fulfill its promise and reponsabilities.

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