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| MWO officers and staff greet Tulfo at their office, despite it being a holiday |
A recurrence of overseas Filipino workers committing or attempting suicide topped the list of concerns that Senator Raffy Tulfo brought to the attention of officials of the Migrant Workers Office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration during a surprise visit to Hong Kong this weekend.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Senator Raffy Tulfo
who heads the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers said he will call for a
hearing into the problem on his return to the Philippines.
The senator said that in his talk with OFW Mirma
Miguel on a chance encounter in Hong Kong she told him how bothered she was by the
growing number of her fellow OFWs taking their own lives, mostly over financial
problems.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Miguel must have been referring to the death of a longtime
OFW who slashed her wrists, then hanged herself in her employer’s house in
Discovery Bay last Wednesday. Another OFW also cut her wrists and overdosed on
medicines nine days earlier, but survived. Both left suicide notes citing money
problems as the reason.
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| Tulfo's interest was piqued after talking with Miguel, a HK OFW |
Senator Tulfo said he immediately called up Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac for an update, and got the following statistics: six OFWs committed suicide in 2023; five in 2024; and one in the first four months of this year.
The SUN’s own records showed that at least three of
the cases last year involved OFWs hanging themselves, while one had downed
bleach.
In 2023, the spike in suicides reflected the overall
rise of such cases in Hong Kong, which non-government organization Samaritan
Befrienders said was the highest since 2007. A total number of 1,080 people took
their lives that year, meaning14.73 out of 100,000 people in Hong Kong.
Cacdac reportedly told Tulfo that MWO has extended all
possible help to OFWs in distress, with OWWA setting up a hotline, +852 63459324, to
respond to their concerns.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
OWWA
Administrator Arnell Ignacio, on the other hand, admitted to not having enough
people to attend to those who call up the hotline.
During talks this afternoon at the MWO and OWWA
offices in Hong Kong, Welfare Officer Marilou Sumalinog said they had briefed
Tulfo on their “intervention” efforts, such as providing financial literacy and
other trainings to OFWs.
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| Sumalinog (in brown) joins meeting with Tulfo |
Apart from Sumalinog, MWO officers Tony Villafuerte
and Angel Sunga were also present during the brief meeting with Tulfo, which
was held despite the Consulate being closed for the Easter Sunday holiday.
Also discussed during the meeting was the ongoing
overseas voting in Hong Kong, and the OFW Global Centre, a lounge and activity
center for OFWs which is the first to be set up outside of the Philippines.
Afterwards, Tulfo was seen being mobbed by Filipinos
as he walked through Chater Road, the OFWs’ favorite hangout in Hong Kong.
