Archive for the ‘The Philippines’ Category
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
22/2/08
The Indian Embassy has issued new regulations for the recruitment of Indian housemaids with immediate effect. The minimum wage has been raised from Dh600 to Dh1,100 per month, besides the provision of food, accommodation and return airfare, said a statement issued by the embassy. The potential employer (other than a UAE national) will have to approach the Indian Embassy or Consulate accompanied by an Indian national of good standing who will personally testify to the character and social standing of the employer, the statement said.
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Posted in Asia, Gender & Marriage, Health & Children, Human Rights, India, The Philippines, Workers | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Ronald Concha & Gloria E. Melencio; 21/2/08
Workers stranded at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah yesterday asked Philippine officials to find a diplomatic solution and get them repatriated. Many of the workers had their heads shaved and greeted visitors to the consulate with a mock coffin to dramatize their demand. Painted in black color on the coffin were the words, “The future of our families lies on this coffin. Send us Home, Not to Jail!” Carlos Rebutar, a spokesman for the stranded workers, said: “The coffin symbolizes the dangers we are facing now. It also symbolizes the death of our family and loved ones as we languish here losing our remaining hope of being repatriated.”
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Posted in Asia, Human Rights, The Philippines, Workers | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Mathias Hariyadhi; 21/2/08
The public debate over the Lapindo Brantas affair is heating up as people protest over a report by a special parliamentary committee which blames nature for the Sidoarjo (Lapindo) mud flow disaster. In 2006 hot mud erupted covering entire villages in Porong (East Java province), but for the report PT Lapindo Brantas, an oil and gas exploration company, is not to blame even though its borehole is the source of the mud eruption. In reacting to the findings Indonesian lawmakers today accused the experts called by the investigating committee of being Lapindo’s public relations agents, failing in their duty to conduct proper scientific work.
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Posted in Aid / Trade, Environment, Human Rights, The Philippines | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Barbara Mae Dacanay; 21/2/08
Hundreds of Muslim ethnic groups used drums and gongs in a noise barrage meant to drive away American soldiers who were billeted in a resort since the start of their joint mission with Filipino soldiers in the southern Philippines, a local paper said. “We will not stop our noise barrage until the US soldiers leave Marawi City and the province of Lanao del Sur,” Haj Abdullah Dalidig, head of the Muslim Multi-sectoral Movement for Peace and Development, told the Sun Star. “We will drive away the evil US soldiers,” said Dalidig, one of the hundreds of Maranaos who held a protest rally at the gates of the Marawi Resort in Mindanao State University on Tuesday
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Posted in Terrorism, The Philippines, USA | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
19/2/08
Experts estimate that during the next 10 years Saudi Arabia will recruit more than two million domestic servants to work in different parts of the country, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported yesterday. Walid Al-Suwaidan, director of the Recruiting Offices Committee in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh, said that the Saudi labor market would receive two million domestic servants of various nationalities over the next 10 years. The annual figure is expected to between 250,000 and 300,000. “The establishment of nurseries will help reduce recruitment from outside the Kingdom. This would drastically reduce the entry of foreign domestic workers and at the same time create job opportunities for Saudi women,” Al-Suwaidan said.
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Posted in Asia, Human Rights, The Philippines, Workers | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Gloria Esguerra Melencio; 14/2/08
The number of marriages in the Philippines has been on the decline in the past years, while petitions for civil annulments are rising 15 percent a year, government records show. A report by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that 2004 figure of 582,281 couples who tied the knot was down two percent from the 2003 total of 593,553 weddings. Translated to daily weddings, some 1,626 pairs were wedded in 2003, while there were only 1,591 pairs who got married every day in 2004.Registered marriages revealed that married couples preferred civil weddings (47.4 percent). The rest were either we in church, Muslim or tribal rites.
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Posted in Gender & Marriage, The Philippines | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
12/2/08
Residents carrying placards rallied in the village of Ipilan to protest against large-scale mining in Palawan. About 1,000 residents of the village under the municipality of Brooke’s Point, 580 kilometers southwest of Manila on Palawan Island, demonstrated Jan. 31 carrying banners saying “No to Mining” and “Yes We Have Money Now But What If Our Conscience Bothers Us Tomorrow.” They signed a petition against two large corporations now mining in their area, whose operations they fear may destroy the village’s river and watershed areas. The area is supposed to be a Core Zone, or “No Touch” zone, under Republic Act 7611, the Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) Act for Palawan.
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Posted in Aid / Trade, Environment, Human Rights, The Philippines | No Comments »
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Gloria E. Melencio; 9/2/08
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said yesterday the government might exempt employers from a new policy on direct hiring in countries where the salaries of overseas workers are already protected. Brion issued the announcement as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) governing board met to review the policy, which has caused outrage among the people it intended to protect — Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). “We’re looking at exemptions under direct hiring because we got reports from many of our labor attachés that the protection we are looking for from recruitment agencies may already be provided for in some countries,” said Brion.
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Posted in Aid / Trade, Asia, The Philippines, Workers | No Comments »
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Mohammed Rasooldeen; 7/2/08
A diamond necklace worth SR4,000 and SR3,500 in cash is part of the compensation that will be given to a Sri Lankan woman whose daughter starved to death in October 2005 while working as a maid in the Kingdom. Al-Nashwan Recruiting Company in Riyadh handed over the compensation to W.S.M.S. Wijesundera, charge d’affaires at the Sri Lankan Embassy, yesterday. The money and jewelry will reportedly be sent to the maid’s mother, Ratnaseeli, to help the maid’s impoverished family in Gonapola, a remote village in the Kalutara district of Sri Lanka. Vasanthi came to the Kingdom in October 2000 and died five years later from complications attributed to malnutrition, according to an autopsy. It was discovered that the maid had not received her salary for the period of her work and compensation for the unpaid labor alone would amount to SR24,000.
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Posted in Aid / Trade, Asia, Human Rights, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Workers | No Comments »
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Gloria Esguerra Melencio; 2/2/08
Even unmarried Filipino women working overseas can have a claim on the maternity package that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation allots for its women members. This is the special benefit that a woman PhilHealth member can avail of should she deliver a baby normally, or normal spontaneous delivery (NSD) in medical lingo. This maternity package worth 4,500 pesos is available during the first three NSDs of any woman member, according to PhilHealth. Should the woman OFW decide to give birth in an accredited non-hospital facility such as in a lying-in-clinic, the health benefits will extend to cover prenatal and postnatal care. PhilHealth said this service is available only in the Philippines.
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Posted in Human Rights, The Philippines, Womens Rights, Workers | No Comments »
