OFWs appeal: Lift the ban to Iraq, Afghanistan

Open Letter to the Vice President of the Philippines NOLI DE CASTRO Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines PICC, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines Your Excellency, May the blessing of the day and favorable political atmosphere be with you always. We are a group of overseas Filipino workers working here in the developing country of Iraq. We belong to different companies, numbering in thousands and we are scattered all over the US and other major coalition forces camps. Though scattered, we are united and have solidified to a common goal and aspire to somehow let our position on the current imposition of the travel ban to Iraq and Afghanistan be heard in the Office of the Vice President of the Philippines. We urge the government through your Honorable Office to put an end to the continued banning of the deployment of Filipinos to Iraq and Afghanistan to work. The following reasons are hereby enumerated, and may WE respectfully request that these be put into consideration: THE ISSUE OF THREATS TO FILIPINOS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN: 1. The fact that there are armed conflicts happening in these countries. This is not as threatening as during the early months of the war. Events of skirmishes have reduced dramatically over the years. 2. All Filipinos here are working with other foreign nationalities inside the US camps. These camps are heavily fortified to secure not only the military but also the civilians working for the logistical and civil augmentation programs. (Logcap). 3. Filipinos here are issued their own armored vests and Kevlar helmets and are living in well-protected quarters. There are fortified bunkers within running distance. There are events of mortars or rockets attacks coming from the outside but these are so rare and happen only once every few months. However, these security measures remain at all times and are even upgraded. 4. Security and battle assessment information is regularly issued through email, radio and other means of information dissemination. 5. Traveling from camp to camp is by helicopters and always with security back-up as standard operating procedures. Filipinos here do not travel most of the time, except during vacations or end of contracts which require them to be brought to the international airport. 6. No one is allowed to go out of camp at any time nor is anyone allowed to go near the station security checkpoints. 7. Most of the Filipino quarters here are away from any direction of mortar range. Also, all camps are well-protected by highly sophisticated C-RAM computers (Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar), thus warning is given ahead in case of an attack. THE FILIPINO OPPORTUNITIES ARE EVENTUALLY LOST. 1. Filipinos here are holding important and responsible positions, from team leaders to supervisors. Others are even departmental managers and camp managers. These opportunities will be lost if they decide to take their vacations back home in the Philippines because of the travel ban. Although there are possibilities that they can be hired in the same position elsewhere, the income will not be the same. That is the honest point of working in a war zone. 3. Here, threats of war do not exist anymore but the opportunities of having a better life continue growing. 2. Filipinos here are well-respected when it comes to job performance and capabilities and they are well-taken care of compared to other countries where salary is compensated up to the last minute of working hours. 4. No report of any maltreatment has ever been heard or recorded here because the US military is so strict about respect for human rights of every worker without discrimination to nationality. We can not find this in other parts of the Middle East as we all know. As WE all know, the history of this travel ban started with the unfortunate event of the unforgettable hostage-taking of Angelo Dela Cruz. This caused the sudden pull out of our Filipino troops ahead of schedule. We respected the government with its position and its sovereign decision on the event. BUT time has changed. The threat of Saddam's loyal Republican Guards has vanished into thin air and threats from Sadr's private army and other rebel groups along with other terrorist groups have reduced dramatically over the years. However, the threat to our economic independence has somehow increased as the Philippine government intensified the banning of Filipinos to go to Iraq. We are in single belief that the continued ban for the Filipinos to work here in Iraq is threatened rather than protected by the welfare of the so-called Bagong Bayani. It no longer supports the basic purpose of its very reason of imposition. The fact is that all Filipinos here are safer than the Filipinos living in Southern Mindanao. The continued airing by international media of situations happening outside the US camps where skirmishes are shown do not actually happen where Filipinos and other civilian Foreign Nationals are working. These events are not a daily threat to us nor do they happen on a daily basis. WE ALL KNOW THIS, because we are here everyday and have personal knowledge of the events happening around Iraq. It so unfortunate that because of the continued imposition of the travel ban, most Filipinos can not take their vacations in the Philippines because of the fear that they can not go back to their work and will eventually lose all the opportunities they have. Just recently, more than a hundred professional and highly-skilled Filipinos lost their biggest job opportunities when they decided to grab offers in Afghanistan by multi-national companies when the Philippine government issued a travel ban to Afghanistan just before their deployment. They were hired to work in Afghanistan (since at the time of hiring, there was no travel ban), but the untimely imposition of the travel ban caused the employers to rescind the offer. Imagine that although there was NO untoward incident involving a Filipino, a ban was issued for Afghanistan? The worse part was that these Filipinos had resigned and were already in the Philippines working on the requirements. Some were in Houston, Texas already for a basic orientation course and medical examination prior to their deployment to Afghanistan. NOW, if there is one life of OFW under threat in war zone, his whole family is under the threat of starvation and bad fate from having no job at all. We all know that job-hunting in the Philippines is not as easy. But if these travel bans were to be lifted, the horizon of great opportunity for Juan Dela Cruz will broadened. Today, there are two sides to the fight against terrorism. On one hand, the calling NOT to support the COALITION Forces in its ambition to re-develop Iraq announced by rebel groups, and the calling of the US and its allies to support them to rebuild Iraq and to fight terrorisms. On the other hand, with this travel ban, where do we stand? We are in the single belief that IT IS HIGH TIME for the government to lift the travel ban to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to open the door of great opportunities to all Filipinos. We believe that instead of a travel ban, a rather comprehensive and strict procedure of hiring and deployment be imposed instead so that nobody can exploit these chances and that nobody will be deployed outside the 'ring of safety' whether in Iraq or in Afghanistan. We feel that there is injustice in the continued banning of Filipinos to Iraq and Afghanistan if one tragic event is the only basis of this ban. There were more tragic events in other countries and more maltreatment of OFWs have been recorded in these other places but not even a travel advisory was issued. There is a mistake in the supposed "protection of the state" in this case as you have said in Estrada's case during an interview, " SOMETIMES WE NEED TO SWALLOW THE BITTER PILL." The supposed JOB OPPORTUNITIES for the Filipinos are now given to other nationalities, like Bosnians, Indians, Kosovans and others. It is high time that the grievances of the so-called Bagong Bayani in Iraq and Afghanistan be heard and be given justice for after all, WE ARE PART of the billion-dollar remittances that help the country. MABUHAY PO KAYO at sumasaludo kami. BEST THINGS WILL COME WHEN WE LIFT THE TRAVEL BAN. Mabuhay ang mga Bagong Bayani sa Iraq. Astig Pinoy in Iraq Filipino-Risk Takers for Filipino Nation - GMANews.TV