Ronnie Abeto Sr: Advocate of OFW rights

Fernando Oliva Abeto Sr, an overseas Filipino worker, has gained popularity as Ronnie among members of Filipino communities in Saudi Arabia for helping OFWs in distress and for consistently advocating migrant workers’ rights. Ronnie, 48, has been in Saudi Arabia for 17 years. Since 1995, he has been project services coordinator of Snamprogetti Saudi Arabia Ltd., an Italian-owned engineering and construction firm for oil refinery. For sharing his time and personal resources in helping OFWs in distress and for serving others without expecting anything in return (one of the virtues of the Biblical “servant leadership") Ronnie has been featured in Anginyonglingkod.com. Anginyonglingkod is an online publication that OFWs in Saudi Arabia initiated for the purpose of paying tribute to public servants –individuals or organizations –that serve people, especially OFWs who are in distress. Testimonies An article on anginyonglingkod.com featuring Ka Ronnie quoted a number of testimonies about his dedication and sincerity to his work for others. "He is the ideal of an advocate for the rights of migrant workers who practices servant leadership. He leads his team by example and he always gives great emphasis on transparency, accountability and good governance, said Joseph "Tas" Espiritu, a colleague of Ronnie in Saudi. “He is very effective in helping the distressed OFWs, giving persuasive views on many issues affecting Filipino expatriates," Espiritu added. Cef Alvarez said, “Ronnie is my officemate when we started our career with Snamprogetti in 1990 up to the present. We shared the same room and the same office from 1990 to 1992 before he was transferred to our Head office in Riyadh." Alvarez said that Ronnie’s first experience in serving distressed OFWs took place in 1991. He helped five employees Snamorigetti terminated in that year. Through Ka Ronnie's intervention, the workers got their payment for unused portion of their contracts, unused vacation and end of service benefit plus no-objection certificate from the employer, he said. “From then on, I saw how he shares his time, his own resources for helping distressed OFWs," he added. Marianito Blanco, Senior Project Architect in Prince Sultan Airbase in Al-Kharj said, “Ronnie is tireless and aggressive in his advocacies. “I knew him since in 1996 and in some ways he involved me in attending to the needs of migrant workers in distress. I witnessed how he communicated and mediated with Saudi employers on behalf of OFWs who called for his help," Blanco said He represented our kababayans before the Saudi Labor Office despite the fact that no ordinary individuals are allowed inside the court, Blanco said. “His house in Batha is a refuge and shelter to Filipino runaways and there was a time that his Ampons (adopted) reached to 17. He solicited financial help among Filipinos to provide the necessities of runaways, including those who stayed in the basement of Manila Center in Riyadh," Blanco said. Blanco could just wonder how Ronnie did all the things he has been doing for OFWs. “I know that he is shy and unwilling to brush elbows with embassy officials. But he is fearless in interacting with them (officials) especially when the welfare of the distressed kababayans is at stake." As a senior leader of the V-Team, the Jeddah-based OFW that initiated a petition for a special foreign exchange rate for remittances, Ronnie is, once again, at the forefront in the struggle to protect the welfare of migrant workers. The V-Team launched a campaign for the petition on August 1, urging President Arroyo to take steps in fixing the foreign exchange rate at P50:$1 as the rising value of the peso has reduced the value of remittances by 20 percent at the expense of the families of OFWs. Other involvements According to an article in anginyonglingkod.com, Ronnie organized the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) Saudi Arabia chapter for the 2004 national elections. The chapter covers three major cities in Saudi, namely: Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Khobar. He was able to tap respected and non-partisan groups in the three cities because of his ardent desire to protect the sanctity of the ballots and to ensure the success of Overseas Absentee Voting. Ronnie was one of the conveners of ICOFVR (Intenational Coalition for Overseas Filipino Voting Rights) that lobbied for the passage of the then OAV bill. Despite the very short notice to activate Namfrel for the May 2007 election, Ronnie still was able to mobilize volunteers to conduct quick count. Ronnie was born on May 31, 1959 in Tabon (Talim Island) Binangonan, Rizal, in southern Luzon. He is married to Mercedita “Chie" with whom he has five children – Fernando Abeto Jr., 21; Rojani Andrea, 22; Arvin Ivan, 17; Nina Chinie, 14; and Tristan Venn, 13. - GMANews.TV