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| Dole wants Taiwan to deport the OFW for alleged cybercrime |
Migrant workers groups have blasted Philippine labour
officials for calling for the deportation from Taiwan of a Filipina caregiver
who had criticized President Rodrigo Duterte online.
In several video posts that went viral, Elanel Egot Ordidor,
a caregiver in Yunlin County, had asked the President if he never considered that
the lockdown of Luzon and other regions would starve Filipinos to death ahead
of the coronavirus killing them.
But her statement was mainly aimed at Duterte’s supporters,
who she said shouldn’t be blinded by their loyalty to the President since their
own relatives are suffering due to the lockdown.
“Isipin nyo naman ang kapakanan ng mga anak nyo, ng mga
pamilya nyo, hindi lang ang inyong mga sarili. Huwag nyo lang isipin ang utos
ng Pangulo…Sigurado ako na 80% ng mga kamag-anak nyo ay umaangal na rin sa
hirap na dinaranas nila ngayon,” she said.
The videos prompted the Philippine labor attaché in
Taichung, Fidel Macauyag, to issue a statement on Apr 25 that he was seeking an
unnamed OFW’s deportation for allegedly trying to “discredit and malign” and
“destabilize the government.”
The Department of Labor and Employment subsequently named
the unidentified OFW as Ordidor.
“We are constrained to act for the deportation of [Ordidor]
… for the crime of cyber libel for [her] willful posting of nasty and
malevolent materials against President Duterte on Facebook, intended to cause
hatred amidst the global health crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic,”
said Macauyag.
His move prompted an immediate rebuke from several migrant
organizations, including Migrante International, which called out Dole and the
Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Taichung for “harassing” Ordidor who had
merely stated an opinion.
“There are thousands upon thousands of distressed, abused,
stranded and neglected OFWs needing to be rescued and assisted, but these
overseas Polo officials opted instead to expend all their time…to gang up on
Ordidor [for] her critical views on Duterte,” Migrante said.
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“This is definitely meant to divert people’s attention from
the Duterte regime’s inutility in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and
recession in the Philippines
United Filipinos in Hong Kong echoed the criticism, telling Dole
and Polo “to stop wasting time and public resources just to harass and
terrorize an OFW for criticizing the government.”
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| Balladares says it is not Polo's job to harass and intimidate an OFW |
Dolores Balladares, Unifil-Migrante chairperson, asked:
“Since when did harassment and intimidation of our OFWs become part of the
Labor Attaché’s job description? Have they now transformed into attack dogs of
the Duterte administration against critics overseas?”
Balladares said OFWs and their families, especially during
the Covid crisis, “need timely and sufficient financial assistance plus moral
and material support from the government.”
Separately, a Philippine lawyer said on Facebook that the
call for Ordidor’s deportation was “wrong on many levels.”
Wilfredo Garrido said that first, it is not the job of Dole
to intervene with foreign governments on immigration matters.
Second, there should first be a determination of whether a
crime had been committed before Manila could ask Taipei to deport a Philippine
national, otherwise a dangerous precedent would be set.
Garrido cited other legal reasons before saying that Labor
Secretary Silvestre Bello III was in a conflict of interest situation because
his principal function was to protect Filipino workers, “even though they are
guilty of the worst offences, including murder and drug trafficking.”
In his statement, Macauyag said representatives from Polo in
Taichung met with Ordidor on Apr 20 “to enlighten her that her actions amounted
to a crime for which she might be prosecuted both in Taiwan and the Philippines.”
Ordidor reportedly promised to delete her videos and
promised to post another one to publicly apologize to Duterte at 9pm on Apr 20
but this never happened.
Instead of an apology, Macauyag said, several “fake
accounts” posted messages of sympathy and support for the worker on the Polo Taichung
Facebook page.
