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.