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| Photo from Business World |
The partylist Partido Manggagawa slammed Chinese Ambassador Zhao
Jianhua for threatening to retaliate against OFW’s in China even as the group
opposed the call for the mass deportation of Chinese migrant workers. “We stand
for the protection of all migrant workers everywhere and thus oppose threats
and plans for deporting en masse both Filipino and Chinese migrant workers,”
stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
He added that “The Chinese ambassador’s threat is a blatant blackmail
and the government should grow enough spine for the Department of Foreign
Affairs to make a diplomatic protest.”
The group asserted that migrant workers should not made pawns in a
diplomatic war and also must not become scapegoats in a failed government
policy. “It is the Chinese investors bringing in Chinese workers that must be
made responsible for their crimes. Everybody’s hypocritically talking of
upholding the law by evicting Chinese workers but turn a blind eye to the violations
by Chinese investors,” Magtubo explained.
He furthered that “At the root of the problem is the Duterte
administration’s lax policy with regard to the entry of Chinese capital and
loans. The government itself created the problem because of its subservience to
the interests of the Chinese government and Chinese capitalists.”
Magtubo averred that “Instead of mass deportations of migrant workers
in the Philippines and China, we call for a bilateral labor agreement to
protect migrant workers. Such an agreement must secure decent wages, benefits,
working conditions and jobs including the freedom to unionize. Further, to plug
the gaping loophole that facilitates illegal migration, labor deployment abroad
must be through government channels instead of private agencies.”
February 27, 2019
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