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Visayan Forum Events
EXCHANGING LESSONS and effective strategies, NGO program developers from seven countries attended the 2nd Regional Field Exchange Program on Child Domestic Workers in Asia last November 13-22, 2002 in Manila. Delegates met with Visayan Forum partners from the church, local and national government, schools, legislature, ports, communities, employers groups, and international agencies. They also met first hand with members of the SUMAPI, a national association and linkage of domestic workers. The event culminated with a Good Practices Workshop to bring into theory the direct experiences they learned in the Philippines to enhance their implementation in their own countries. They came from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines. Hosted by the VF, the event was supported by Anti-Slavery International and the Oak Foundation. |
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PLANNING THREE YEARS of regional action, members of the Task Force Child Domestic Workers in Asia met last July 26-28, 2002 at the Tiara Oriental Hotel in Makati City. They lamented that many countries still fail to recognize and include child domestic workers in their policies because of the lack of comprehensive national data. According to their reports using pre-Asian crisis figures, there are approximately 1.2 million child domestic workers in Bangladesh, one million in the Philippines, 1.5 million in Indonesia, 100,000 in Sri Lanka and 62,000 in Nepal. The task force members recognized, however, that their diverse capacities and unique experiences in directly working with these children are also invaluable contributions in making these children visible. VF continues to serve as task force lead convenor. THE WEBSITE www.visayanforum.org is a comprehensive site about the issues on child labor, especially child domestic work, trafficking and child participation. This also hosts the regional task force campaign on child domestic workers in Asia. The website is updated quarterly. AN ANTI-TRAFFICKING TASK FORCE IN THE MANILA PORT was formally launched last February 13, 2003 at the Traders Hotel. Spearheaded by VF, it is composed of representatives from shipping companies, Philippine Ports Authority, port police, coast guard, porters' associations, social services department and the labor department of the National Capital Region. The task force is a quick response team formed to curb local trafficking at the Manila Port and offers a comprehensive set of protection measures for women and children. MULTIDISCIPLINARY SEMINARS ON TRAFFICKING were launched in Davao and Manila last 20-21 March and April 10-11, 2003 respectively. More than 80 representatives from various agencies attended the seminar to discuss practical approaches to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and protect victims. With the support from The Asia Foundation, a major output was the formation of anti-trafficking task forces in the two cities, which will hope to strengthen efforts inside, and beyond, the ports. A THREE-YEAR PROJECT was approved by Caritas Switzerland to sustain VF's efforts to prevent the migration and trafficking of minors in Bacolod City through community-based integrated approaches. This project, which will operate from January 2003 to December 2005, is entitled Strengthening and Expanding Community-Based Prevention Programs Against Migration of Children from Six Pilot Communities in Negros Occidental. For the next three years, the program intends to sustain existing efforts of community child watch groups in the clustered areas of Makawiwili, Pasil, Bolinao and Tanigue. It entails provision of direct services, scholarships, children's and parents' trainings, and community advocacy by working with local government officials. THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING ACT of 2002 is set for final approval at the bicameral meeting of the senate and congress for the last week of April. Senate Bill 2444 criminalizes the recruitment, transfer or deployment of a person for the purposes of prostitution, forced labor, slavery and slavery-like practices. VF has spearheaded several consultations to enhance the proposed measure to give more focus on the local dimensions of trafficking and on the plight of children as most vulnerable and most difficult to protect. VF conducted multidisciplinary seminars in Manila and Davao to identify gaps and concrete proposals for the bill. TWO MORE HALFWAY HOUSES are planned in Matnog and Batangas ports as part of the expansion efforts of the Philippine Ports Authority-Gender and Development Program (PPA-GAD). A five-year contract allows the Visayan Forum to operate these facilities in its over-all bid to prevent trafficking in transit points. VF will conduct preparatory research in these areas this year. Located in Bicol, the town of Matnog is a crucial node point between Visayas and Luzon. The Batangas Port is also the alternative international seaport that connects to the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) area, the country's export processing zone. THE PHILIPPINE TIME-BOUND PROGRAM (PTBP) officially targets child domestic workers as one of its six priority sectors to reduce the number of children engaged in the worst forms of child labor by 75% until 2015. This reinforces the country's commitment to International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor by expanding model programs to poverty-stricken provinces, improving education on a national scale, and providing alternatives to families of child miners, deep-sea fishers, fire-cracker packers, sugarcane plantation workers, prostituted children and child domestic workers. The National Statistics Office in its recent 2001 survey reveals that local child labor numbers have grown by eleven-percent for the past six years. Four million out of the 25 million Filipino children today work, with sixty-percent or 2.4 million being trapped in hazardous work. FIFTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY celebrations of the Global March Against Child Labor in the Philippines supported higher targets to reduce widespread child labor practice by 2015 and called for urgent action to pass sweeping national legislation and universal quality education. Some 5,000 working children rescued and sent to school by non-government organizations marched last January 18, at the QMC Elliptical Road, hoisting higantes (giant puppets) and waving placards that read, "Better a future without child labor than children without any future at all." They converged inside the park for a day of fun, games, music and competitions. "Stronger sanctions against child labor violators are at bay in the legislative mill. We need to give a final push to Senate Bill 2155 that will also help create a formal structure, the National Child Labor Committee headed by the labor department, to focus on the crisis," Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, South East Asia Coordinator said. AROUND 300 CHILD DOMESTIC WORKERS, in a coming out rally, availed of direct services during the celebration of the Araw ng Kasambahay (Domestic Helpers' Day) in Batangas City Basilica last February 23, 2003. Employers, volunteer doctors and dentists, social workers, SSS officers, nuns and priest provided medical and dental services and mass registration for the Social Security Service. Monsignor Boy Oriondo, event co-organizer, led the domestic workers' mass followed by their presentation of songs, dances, and theatrical play. The child domestic workers come from the University of Batangas, St. Bridgette College, Batangas National High School, Parish Youths, and the SUMAPI. BOMBING at the Sasa Wharf in Davao City last April 2, 2003, did not spare the VF Halfway House at all. The blast in the main gate hit the shelter home, which is just three meters away. It claimed around fifteen deaths and severely hurt more than sixty people. None of the VF staff was hurt. They narrowly cheated death since the explosion came just minutes after they finished their regular pier roundings and outreach in the port area. The center was partially damaged. SIX CASES OF NON-PAYMENT OF WAGES filed by VF's Legal Department have been resolved last year 2002. The National Labor Relations Commision of the DOLE has decided on six cases involving unpaid salary claims that are above P5,000. The biggest sum awarded so far was P18,800. The seventh case which remains in the Lupon Tagapamayapa (Barangay Court) has not moved at all. It was filed in 1998. RAPE CASE CHARGES against a prominent broadcaster in Visayas will continue to be heared by a regional trial court despite attempts for an out-of-court settlement. The accused failed in his several attempts to pay the complainant a large sum of money into signing an affidavit of desistance. The complainant, a 16-year old domestic worker, filed the case in June 2001 right after she gave birth to a baby boy. The broadcaster went into a long period of hiding before he was finally arrested to face court charges. |
