Manila may stop sending domestics to Singapore

Manila may stop sending domestics to Singapore

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines is to review its policy on the mass deployment of overseas workers and may ban domestics from working in Singapore following the hanging there last week of a Filipina maid, an official said yesterday.

Labor Undersecretary Jose Brillantes told reporters that President Fidel Ramos is to form a presidential commission to "look into the overseas employment program, the protection and the welfare programs that are in place, and a total review of the overseas employment program."

Singapore on Friday executed Filipina domestic Flor Contemplacion after she was convicted of the double murder of another Filipina maid and her four-year-old charge in the island republic.

The hanging was met with widespread public protests in the Philippines, with demonstrators claiming the government here did not do its best to save her.

The government estimates that between 1.35 million and five million Filipinos -- or 7.7 percent of the total population -- now work abroad and remit home US$2 billion yearly through the formal banking system.

But the Alliance of Migrant Workers, an independent monitor, puts the number of overseas workers at 6.5 million with their total earnings reaching $8 billion a year. The figure corresponds to 60 percent of the country's total export earnings in 1994.

Asked if the government would ban the further deployment of maids to Singapore, Brillantes said "this is being studied."

He said domestics belonged to a "vulnerable category" and that the Labor Department was now "practically discouraging" their deployment because "the brunt of all of our problems is in these categories."

He said Singapore employers paid "very very low rates" for maids, of which they are currently more than 58,000 in the country.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government yesterday prepared to deport a detained Singaporean who has received death threats, while a mayor in the south of the country burned a Singapore flag to protest Contemplacion's hanging.

Immigration Bureau spokesmen told reporters the authorities have approved the deportation of Gan Tiem Kong, 52, who had expressed fears for his safety following the hanging.

Gan, of Redhill district, arrived here in September 1993 as a tourist and was arrested 45 days later after being found with expired travel documents. He has been detained at the bureau's detention facility since then.

The spokesmen said the bureau has received anonymous threats against the Singaporean since the hanging.

In the southern city of Davao, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte set fire to a Singapore flag as he led a demonstration in front of city hall to protest the execution of Contemplacion, who had confessed to killing a Filipina maid and her Singaporean ward in 1991. Many Filipinos believe she was innocent.

Duterte, who is known for his attention-getting gestures and statements, had earlier advised the Foreign Department that his office could not assure the safety of Singaporeans visiting the Philippines' largest southern city.

The city council informed demonstrators that they had introduced a resolution banning the sale and distribution of all Singaporean products in Davao.

"They killed an innocent person. We should kill their business here," said Nenita Orcullo, a member of the city council.