Visayan Forum Foundation Inc.

Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, President of Visayan Forum Foundation, is the first Filipino to win the prestigious International Anti-Slavery Award.

It is a great honour for me to receive the 2005 Anti-Slavery Award. The very evils that we all struggle to fight are no stranger to me. I was born in a small isolated province in the Philippines. I came from a very poor family in the island of Negros. I was the second of 12 children and was the eldest among the girls. At the tender age of five, I had to help my parents toil for my family's survival. I had to peddle fish in the local market just to help my family survive. Until now, I still remember the feeling of walking dirt-ridden paths under the smouldering heat of the sun or struggling against relentless typhoons, carrying a huge basket full of fish on top of my head while the warm fish juices trickled down my face. All these I had to endure because I never had a choice. The nostalgia of hardship, desperation, and helplessness has fuelled me in my everyday struggle. I had realised early on that this is not the life that I want to have nor is this the life that I would like to bestow on my children.

Early in life, I was a prisoner of poverty. Yet the love of freedom was deeply ingrained in my soul. I believe that we are all created equal, in the image and likeness of our Creator. This belief led me to my next prison. During the Marcos regime, I fought against the dictatorship. I became a mother while I was a rebel leader hiding in the mountains, endlessly pursued by the military. I had to give my eldest son to my relatives and we were separated for 12 years.

I had to start my family in prison. After almost half a decade of waging battle against the dictatorship, my husband and I were captured. Because I was pregnant, I was spared from the usual torture and murder. My four comrades were not as lucky -- they were ruthlessly gunned down before my very eyes. Thus, my second son, who is here tonight, was born inside a prison. We named him Kip from the Filipino word, "dakip" which means to capture and imprison. Kip spent four years with his parents in prison. A daughter was born two years after. We named her "Malaya", a Filipino word for the one thing that we had been dreaming of and were fighting for … Freedom. After the People Power Revolution of 1986, we were, at last, released from detention.

Sad and compelling my story may be, but it is nothing compared to the story of millions of young domestic workers in the Philippines and throughout the whole world.

The stories we encountered everyday over the last few decades mostly share the same pattern of being children from very poor families. They enter domestic work and take on such heavy responsibility in their noble desire to help their families. Domestic work is an old occupation. From one generation to the next our societies have only changed the names we call them. As time moves on and society gets more advanced and complicated, the roots of slavery grounded in centuries' worth of abuse still haunt the globalised world.

In the Philippines, as in many developing countries, the employment of child domestic workers is a socially accepted practice, with slavery as its historical root. Their work is still a necessity to many families for it is accessible and affordable. Thus, their numbers increase everyday. They remain unrecognised and discriminated against even though they are the massive invisible engine of the demanding world of work. In the Philippines alone, the International Labour Organization estimated that there were around 2.5 million domestic workers in 2004. Worldwide, nobody knows how many there are as they remain statistically invisible.

These child domestics are condemned and stigmatised because of their work. They endure slave-like conditions. Many of them are trafficked, sold into abusive domestic work. They have to pay off the debts of their parents; they pay for the unreasonable placement and finders' fee for recruiters and the inflated cost of their transportation. They are held in debt bondage and are forced to work perpetually as they can never hope to gain enough to repay what they never fairly owed in the first place.

Let me share with you the story of Rose. At the age of 14, in addition to her household duties, she cared for her employers' 14 breeding dogs. "The dogs were too big and I was afraid to go near them," she said. On the day we rescued her, she said that everyday she had to prepare kilos of dog food but, where her food was concerned, it was not enough. Even so, her employers would not allow her to eat any of the family's leftovers. One day, driven by hunger and desperation, she went to the dogs and ate what was left on their plates.

Domestic workers endure abuse. Many of them are starved, taken advantage of, exploited, and insulted daily. It is almost as if it is part of their job.

One of Visayan Forum's government partner agencies in the Philippines, the Department of Regional Social Welfare and Development on the Island of Cebu, claims that 80 per cent of their reported rape and other sexually related abuse cases are child domestic workers. Many have endured tremendous physical abuse. One unforgettable story is about a girl who died in our centre. She was forced by her employer to drink a type of acid used to unclog drains and pipes. Another child was forced to drink bleaching liquid each time she failed to finish the laundry she had to wash. In our work, we have met young girls who were burned with cigarettes and flat irons by their employers. Many of them experience torture and brutality in the name of discipline. They endure what is considered one of the worst forms of child labour situations.

Although many consider domestic work as a safe work, the question remains: is it really safe for children? Some of these children are as young as eight years old. They work away from home without any protection and support. They work in isolation and behind the closed doors of their employer's home. They work excessive hours as they are on call 24 hours a day. Above all, they are all missing out an education and other means of self-improvement and empowerment.

As a response to this problem our organisation, the Visayan Forum Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in Manila, has been lobbying and pushing for the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill, or the Batas Kasambahay, for the past 10 years.

Our work on the issue of domestic workers, especially children, involved providing specialised crisis intervention services such as temporary shelter, hotline counselling, legal and psycho-social, and medical services to reach out to abused domestic workers. As of now, around 2,000 of them have been successfully assisted to go back to school. The uniqueness of the programme lies also in the active involvement of domestic workers themselves in its implementation. With our multi-sectoral partners we believe that domestic workers are strong stake holders of their own rights and have the capability to help end the grave societal ill that abused them in the past.

To curb local trafficking in the country, we set up strategic halfway houses in various seaports across the archipelago in co-operation with the Philippine Ports Authority. Our port halfway houses provide a centre-based package of protective care services. Through this strategy, we documented cases of trafficking both within the country and of people being taken abroad. We also mobilised and built the capacity of the port community through the Anti-Trafficking Taskforce at the ports. To prevent trafficking, we advocate in communities from which people are taken and in areas they are trafficked through by using the media. In this way, we have reached out to 8,000 victims and potential victims of trafficking.

Yet, we realised that we have only touched the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I would like to say that running these programmes is not easy at all. We need to be systematic and to provide safety through a safe house that hopes to isolate the victims from perpetuators and abusers; to help victims by providing long-term healing and education opportunities while pursuing legal cases against their abusers. We need also to be strong to face all the hardships in maintaining these programmes. Every day, we encounter harassment and pressure from traffickers, employers and even from influential people who protect these unscrupulous individuals, especially now that we are already dealing with the prosecution of trafficking cases.

When I left the prison cell, I said that I would never go back to that place for the sake of my children. A few months back, a case was filed against me because the Visayan Forum refused to return six trafficked children to a recruiter. I had to re-asses my life once more. After a long and hard reflection, I told them that they may file the case if they want to, but I would not give them the children. For what is the value of freedom? What is the real worth of life other than to give hope to those who have none? There are worse things than prison bars. The real incarceration is a life without principles. The worst prison is apathy.

Today I humbly accept this prestigious Anti-Slavery Award. Yet, also I would like to share and offer this honour to my faceless freedom fighters who have fought alongside me for the last decade's freedom of domestic workers and other enslaved workers, not only from the Philippines and the rest of Asia, but also from other regions all over the world. We draw our greatest inspiration from the strength of the women and children who have decided to pursue justice against their abusers.

With this award, I promise to stand firm and continue to take part in the struggle for Domestic Workers' freedom. Like my children born in prison, I will not stop working for freedom and to see more domestic workers enjoy the life that has been denied them. Let us continue to work with them to help them find courage and strength.

I sincerely hope that this award will serve as a strong voice and an impetus for greater international attention to the issue and for the generation of concrete programmes for millions of child domestic workers. We hope to see the day when the UN bodies, especially the International Labour Organization and other members of the international community will institutionalise their commitment by adopting and seriously implementing a global standard for the protection and development of domestic work, and recognise that domestic work is indeed decent work.

The road ahead is long and dark. Journeys like this are never easy. Yet right now, when the world is finally starting to look back at abuses which for centuries were social norms, then we must take our generation's role seriously. We stand at the threshold of history, my friends. Let it be said by the future generations that we dreamed big dreams in our days, fought evil while we could and made the most out of the little time we have in this world to make a difference that will echo throughout the centuries.

Once again, with great admiration, I accept this award on behalf of so many other people who are walking the same path and I share this with all of you. Lastly, I share this award with the millions of domestic workers worldwide and with it is my belief that someday, slavery will be abolished and every man, woman and child will be free. Thank you and Mabuhay!