Maria Imelda "Imee" R. Marcos, the eldest daughter of the ousted former president, has picked up the cudgels for overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
She visited Dubai as part of her tour of Filipino communities now able to register as absentee voters and said she was rooting for domestic helpers and entertainers who fall into virtual slavery, as well as seafarers and those who did not finish formal schooling.
Imee, who was herself an OFW for nearly three years working for the New York-based producer of Sesame Street until 1979, told Gulf News yesterday: "We cannot ignore the issues confronting OFWs. Their remittances of about $9 billion annually will soon surpass the tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
"They keep our economy afloat, so paying lip-service by labelling them as present-day heroes does nothing."
She stressed that education, basic skills and a good command of the English language offer the key to protecting overseas Filipino workers.
"I've heard so many horror stories about domestic helpers and entertainers being dragged into white slavery. Even Ilocos has a lot of stories like that. These are the sectors so vulnerable to abuses. I wish they did not have to go overseas to find work," the 48-year-old lawyer said in a mixture of Tagalog slang and English.
She represents the 2nd District of her father's old province, Ilocos Norte, in the Philippines' 12th Congress. "There are far too many illegal recruiters. Applying for a job overseas is too complicated and disorganised. The worker coughs up so much money even before he or she earns the first dollar. The policy framework for our overseas workers is much too iffy. But it's a reality we have to deal with."
Imee, who learned Arabic in Morocco after topping her Princeton undergraduate class in the US, said she wanted to visit Filipinos in every Middle East country. Critics say, however, that Imee is campaigning too early for a Senate seat.
As the chairperson of the Kabataang Barangay (Village Youth), Imee helped send the first batch of out-of-school youth who underwent training at the National Manpower and Youth Council to the Middle East during the construction boom years from 1976.
It was her father's idea to send Filipinos overseas in droves as primary dollar earners after the oil embargo in 1973 sent the global economy into a tailspin.
"My dad thought then that Filipinos may need to go out of the country for five or 10 years as a stop-gap measure to keep the dollars flowing. But it turned out that overseas work has become a national fixture," said Imee.
She also aired concern over the procedures for absentee voting registration overseas which has listed less than 40,000 worldwide.
Gulf News
