Philippines Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs), Presidential Trickery and the War on Terror

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the War on Terror on Filipino Oversees Foreign Workers (OFWs). It argues that the War on Terror presents risk, but also opportunity for migrant workers. The Philippines has around 10 million of its nationals working overseas, many in the Middle East. OFWs literally keep the Philippine economy afloat. They are lauded as national heroes whilst also being an indicator of the failure of economic governance in the Philippines. This paper examines the kidnapping of Angelo de la Cruz, an OFW, in Iraq. It examines what this episode and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's (GMA) subsequent withdrawal from the Coalition of the Willing tells us about the importance of OFWs for the Philippine economy, society, and political survival. This explanation is set within the wider of context of the Philippine–American relationship. It is argued that GMA risked the wrath of the United States when she abandoned of the Coalition of the Willing. However, a satisfactory resolution to the hostage crisis was key to her political survival at that time. In conclusion it is shown that the episode was no more than a minor blip, as the United States and the Philippines have many more reasons to be friends than adversaries.

Notes

1. This presence was curtailed in November 1991 when the Philippines Senate, by a margin of one vote, rejected a 10-year extension of the 1947 Military Bases Agreement. The proposed 10-year extension was to apply to the Subic Bay Naval Complex but not Clark Air Base which was abandoned in 1991 after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. However, the 1952 US–Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty still endures. In February 1999 the Philippine Senate ratified the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement. Controversial because of the diplomatic-type immunity agreement enjoyed by US forces.

2. US Department of State, “Background Note: Philippines”, April 2009, p. 10, available <www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2794.htm> (accessed 17 May 2009).

3. At the time of writing Benigno Aquino III has been named successor to GMA in the 2010 presidential elections. Aquino has signed Executive Order No. 1 that will create a “truth” commission designed to investigate alleged wrongdoings during the GMA regime.

4. Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009), p. 376.

5. Stanley Karnow, In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), p. 324.

6. Ibid., p. 325.

7. Mutual Defense Treaty, Article II, available: <http://www.chanrobles.com/mutualdefensetreaty.htm> (accessed 20 July 2010).

8. Nicole Information Bureau, “The Subic Rape Case in Relation to the Visiting Forces Agreement’, available: <http://subicrapecase.wordpress.com/the-subic-rape-case-in-relation-to-the-visiting-forces-agreement/> (accessed 30 July 2010). See also “A Question of Justice: The Subic Rape Case”, in Roland G. Simbulan, Forging a Nationalist Foreign Policy: Essays on US Military Presence and the Challenges to Philippine Foreign Policy (Quezon City: IBON Books, 2009), pp. 91–96.

9. See RP–US Visiting Forces Agreement, available: <http://www.chanrobles.com/visitingforcesagreement1.htm> (accessed 30 July 2010).

10. See, for example, Amina Rasul (ed.), Muslim Perspective on the Mindanao Conflict: The Road to Peace and Reconciliation (Makati City: AIM Policy Centre, 2003); Samuel K. Tan, Internationalization of the Bangsamoro Struggle (Quezon City: Center for Integrative and Development Studies, University of the Philippines, 1995); Bobby Tuazon (ed.), Rethinking the Bangsamoro Crucible: A Reader (Quezon City: CenPEG Books, 2008).

11. Zachary Abuza, Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), p. 90.

12. George Baylon Radics, “Terrorism in Southeast Asia: Balikatan Exercises in the Philippines and the US ‘War against Terrorism’”, Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2004), pp. 115–127.

13. See Article II, Section 7 of the Constitution of the Philippines, “The State shall pursue an independent foreign policy.”

14. Rommel C. Banlaoi, “Should the Philippines Support Washington's War in Iraq?”, Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1–2 (2003), p. 178. See also Simbulan, op. cit., whole volume.

15. Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), 2007 Overseas Employment Statistics, available: <www.poea.gov.ph/stats/stats2007.pdf> (accessed 10 May 2009).

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Migration to Saudi Arabia has been credited with influencing Filipinos to “return” to Islam, literally Balik Islam. This is based on the idea that people are born into Islam, but may lose their way. They are thus reverting to Islam rather than converting. Upon returning they are absolved of the sins they may have committed as infidels. The Balik-Islam movement is based mainly in Luzon and the radical fringe of this group is known as the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), which is suspected of working in alliance with the ASG and Jemma Islamiya.

19. POEA, op. cit., Table 4.

20. Ibid.

21. Systematic evidence of these preferences is difficult to find. Quantitative reports which refer to “preferred destinations” actually refer to where OFWs are rather than where they would like to be. With that in mind this claim should be treated with caution.

22. Interview with Lt. General Romeo Padiemos, ex-AFP (31 July 2008).

23. POEA, op. cit., Table 21.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid., table 30.

26. National Statistical Coordination Board, “Statistics Population”, available: <http://www.nscb.gov.ph/sectat/d_popn.asp> (accessed 10 November 2010)

27. For studies on Filipina domestic workers in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively see Christine B.N. Chin, In Service and Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian “Modernity” Project (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998); Nicole Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers, 2nd edn (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2007); Pei-Chia Lan, “Maid or Madam? Filipina Migrant Workers and the Continuity of Domestic Labour”, Gender and Society, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2003).

28. National Statistical Coordination Board, op. cit., Table 17.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. The Philippine nursing profession has a long connection with migration. See, for example, Catherine Ceniza Choy, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2003).

32. National Statistics Office, op. cit., Table 23.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid., Table 25.

35. Ibid.

36. Atty. January Faye L. Risonar and Atty. Carlos Zarate, both from Union of People's Lawyers Mindanao, Interview at Halls of Justice, Davao City Hall, 8 August 2008.

37. Roland Simbulan, Interview at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines Diliman Campus, 28 July 2008.

38. The character Susan Meyer, reluctant to accept a diagnosis of the menopause, asked whether the doctor's qualifications were from a medical school in the Philippines. The episode triggered a diplomatic incident and the ABC television network were forced into a public apology.

39. National Statistics Office, op. cit., Table 26.

40. Ibid.

41. Mark Rupert and M. Scott Solomon, Globalization and International Political Economy (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), p. 87.

42. L. Huan-Ming Ling, “East Asian Migration to the Middle East: Causes, Consequences and Consideration”, International Migration Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1984), p. 21.

43. See Executive Order No. 857, 13 December 1982.

44. Ibid.

45. See Constable, op. cit., p. 160.

46. Vicente L. Rafael, Your Grief is Our Gossip: Overseas Filipinos and Other Spectral Presences, CSST Working Paper (1996), p. 11.

47. Ibid., p. 89.

49. James Hamilton-Paterson, America's Boy: The Marcoses and the Philippines (London: Granta Books, 1998), p. 245.

48. Figures from the POEA.

50. Republic Act No. 8042 Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, Section 2 (d), available: <http://www.poea.gov.ph/rules/ra8042.html> (accessed 19 May 2009).

51. Ibid., Section 2 (c).

52. See Joaquin L. Gonzalez III, Philippine Labour Migration: Critical Dimensions of Public Policy (Singapore: De La Salle University Press, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998), pp. 2–10; Rafael, op. cit., pp. 16–22; James Tyner, The Philippines: Mobilities, Identities, Globalization (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 68–70; idem, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), pp. 29–31.

53. Gonzalez III, op. cit., p. 7.

54. Marie Pauline Gulian, “Of Faith and Healing – The Life Lessons of Sarah Balabagan”, The Asian Journal Magazine (29 April 2009).

55. Tyner, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War, op. cit., p. 30.

58. Rafael, op. cit., p. 11.

56. Rafael, op. cit., p. 12.

57. Tyner, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War, op. cit., p. 66.

59. Interview with Maria Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz, Makati, Manila, 3 February 2010.

60. Interview with Cynthia Villar, Manila, 16 February 2010.

61. Interview with ex-President Joseph Estrada, Polk Street, Greenhills, Manila, 10 February 2010.

62. Migrante International, “Anti-migrant Regime: Nine Years under Arroyo” (14 March 2010), available: <http://migranteinternational.org/?p=66> (accessed 31 July 2010).

67. Personal e-mail to author, 20 May 2000, Millet Morante.

63. Hamilton-Paterson, op. cit., p. 246.

64. Gonzales III, op. cit., p. 101.

65. Interview with Prof. Roland Simbulan, Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman Campus, Manila, 28 July 2008.

66. Former Director of Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD, Movement for National Democracy).

68. Gonzales III, op. cit., p. 87.

69. Ibid.

70. Migrante, Initial Statement of Migrante International to the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers, Tenth Session, 23 April 2009, p. 2.

71. For a critique see Walden Bello, “The Role of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ in the Violation of International Law and Universal Human Rights”, Speech given at the World Tribunal on Iraq, Final Session, Istanbul, 24 June 2005, available: <www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?page=archives_bello_wti> (accessed 19 May 2009).

72. Tyner, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War, op. cit., p. 3.

73. See Supreme Court E-Library, Executive Orders 194 and 195, available: <http://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/index10.php?doctype=Executive%20Orders&docid=a45475a11ec72b843d74959b60fd7bd645f713e7d7d68> (accessed 19 May 2009).

74. Bobby Tuazon, “GMA Boards ‘Coalition of the Coerced’”, Bulatat, Vol. 3, No. 8 (23–29 March 2003), available: <http://bulatlat.com/news/3-8/3-8-coalition.html> (accessed 29 July 2010).

75. Ibid.

76. Interview with Bobby Tuazon, CENPEG Offices, UP Diliman, Manila, 29 July 2009.

77. Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine (London: Penguin, 2007), p. 347.

78. Tyner, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War, op. cit., p. 91.

79. Klein, op. cit., p. 347.

84. Jessica Tulloch, “Angelo dela Cruz is One of Millions”, Bulatat, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1–7 August 2004), available: <www.bulatat.com/news/4-26/4-26-angelo.html> (accessed 17 May 2009).

80. Migrante, op. cit., p. 1.

81. Philippines Overseas Employment Administration, op. cit., Table 21.

82. “Iraq OFWs Share Stories in War-torn country” (3 August 2000), available: <www.gmanews.tv/story/54275/Iraq-OFWs-share-stories-in-war-torn-country> (accessed 18 May 2009).

83. Personal e-mail from Millet Morante, 25 May 2009.

85. Rod Nordland, “The Missing”, Newsweek, 10 March 2006, available: <www.newsweek.com/id/47205> (accessed 30 May 2009).

86. For accounts of Estrada's downfall see, for example, Aprodicio Laquian and Eleanor Laquian, The Erap Tragedy: Tales from the Snake Pit (Manila: Anvil, 2002); Ellen Tordesillas and Greg Hutchinson, Hot Money, Warm Bodies: The Downfall of Philippine President Joseph Estrada (Manila: Anvil Press, 2001).

87. Critics of the manner in which Estrada was removed from office cite the Philippine Constitution which states that a president can only be removed from office because of death, permanent disability, removal from office (after an impeachment trial), or resignation. Arguably none of these apply in the case of Estrada. See Alan F. Paguia, Rule of Law or Rule of Force? (Manila: Icon, 2003).

88. Subsequent criminal proceedings against Estrada lasted for six years, during which time he was held under house arrest. He was eventually convicted of plunder in 2007 and sentenced to 40 years in jail. Six weeks later GMA pardoned him and he walked free. Her critics claimed that her actions were designed to offset criticism of her own regime; she claimed that they were in recognition of the public support that Estrada still enjoyed from the masses.

89. Presidents of the Philippines can hold office for only one six-year term. When GMA left office in 2010 she had been in power for 10 years.

90. Temario C. Riveria, “The Philippines in 2004: New Mandate Daunting Problems”, Asian Survey, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2005), p. 127.

91. Frank Frost, “The Philippines Elections 2004: Issues and Implications, Research Note no. 13 2005-5”, Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Library, 11 August 2004, available: <www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/pubs/rn/2004-05/05rn13.htm> (accessed 31 May 2009).

92. Shelia Coronal, “The Full Monty: Download Transcript of Three-hour Recording”, The Daily PCIJ (10 June 2005), available: <www.pcij.org/blog/?p=106> (accessed 31 May 2009).

93. Sarah Tome, “Philippine Tape in Ringtone Craze”, BBC News (22 June 2005), available: <www.news.bbc.co.uk/1hi/world/asis-pacific/4120042.stm> (accessed 31 May 2009).

94. This was raised by members of Philrights, Interview, Quezon City, 1 August 2008.

95. Ibid.

96. This was raised by Dr Temario C. Rivera at the Centre for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG), State of the Presidency Meeting, 26 July 2008; Lt. General Romeo Padiemos, ex-AFP, 31 July 2008; members of Philrights, Interview, Quezon City, 1 August 2008; Joel Virador, member of Bayan Muna, former representative in Lower House of Representatives, Interview, Inpeace office, Davao City, 7 August 2008.

97. Pepe Escobar, “All Quiet on the Second Front”, Asia Times (7 October 2004), available: <www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FJ07Ae02.html> (accessed 31 May 2009).

98. Roland Simbulan, Speaking at the Centre for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG), State of the Presidency Meeting, 26 July 2008.

99. R. Quilop, in “Hostaged? Philippine Foreign Policy after Angelo de la Cruz”, Proceedings from a Public Forum, Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2004), p. 126.

100. Ibid.

101. Fely Marilyn E. Lorenzo et al., Migration of Health Workers: Country Case Study of the Philippines, Working Paper (Manila: Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies, 2005), prepared for the ILO, p. ix.

102. Quilop, op. cit., p. 121.

103. Tyner, Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War, op. cit.

104. See, for example, Roberto N. Aventajado with Teodoro Y. Montelibano, 140 Days of Terror: In the Clutches of Abu Sayyaf (Manila: Anvil, 2004); Gracia Burnham with Dean Merrill, In the Presence of My Enemies (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2003).

105. Interview, 29 July 2008.