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COMMENTARY: The victimization of Mary Jane 


Mary Jane Veloso desperately wanted to earn to give her kids a good future. Despite almost being raped in Dubai where she worked as a domestic helper, she decided to again leave for Malaysia for a new job. Now, her two boys, aged six and twelve, are likely to lose her.

She is only 30 years old, a poor, single mom who barely reached high school.

Mary Jane is scheduled to die by firing squad today, April 27, 2015.

She was arrested and convicted in 2010 for drug trafficking after authorities found 2.6 kilos of heroin lining her bag as she was entering Indonesia. As of this writing, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has reportedly rejected Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III's appeal to save Mary Jane.

To this day, Mary Jane has maintained her innocence of the crime she is likely to die for.

Reading her own account of what transpired will make one's heart bleed. There is no reason to not believe this poor, unschooled, desperate mother who only wanted to do good for her sons.

Having worked with women in the same situation as Mary Jane's for almost 30 years, I believe she would do as she said she did. I know many women from poor communities who would do the same under the same circumstances. They are quite vulnerable and gullible. 

Mary Jane's case is not the first, sadly, surely, it will not be the last if we continue to not learn our lessons. We have lost a number of OFWs before including Flor Contemplacion who faced the death penalty in Singapore in 1995.

One would think that with the 11 million Filipinos we have sent abroad, our government should already have effective mechanisms and processes in place to protect and assist our OFWs. Money cannot be a problem here because of the huge amounts they send back home. For instance, remittances for 2014 reached a staggering 23 - 24 BILLION DOLLARS. It is but reasonable to expect some of these to be used for the welfare of our citizens abroad.

After all, we call our OFWs our "bagong bayani". They are our saviors because their monies kept our economy afloat for many years. Our OFWs are our lifeline. Yet, we cannot even adequately protect and assist them.

Take Mary Jane's case. During police interrogation, she did not have assistance. There was no interpreter as she was being questioned in Bahasa, a language she did not understand. During her six-month trial, she was represented by a police-designated lawyer and had an interpreter who was barely a student.

Where was Philippine government all that time? What did the Philippine embassy do to help her. She was already convicted by October 2010 but our government appealed her case only in 2011. 

Mary Jane languished in death row for five long years. Her case only gained public attention in January of this year after Pres. Jokowi rejected her request for clemency.

Mary Jane's case should jolt us into seriously and critically considering the social costs of our unofficial labor export policy.

It is said that the 1974 Labor Code under former President Ferdinand Marcos' Presidential Decree 442 paved the way to formal deployment of Filipino workers abroad. Now, we have the Migrant Workers Act of 1995.
 
Presently, the Philippines is among the biggest labor exporters in the world sending out an average of 4,500 Filipinos abroad DAILY. And these are only the documented ones who went through the legal, formal processes. People like Mary Jane are excluded from this. We can only guess how many go through illegal recruiters.
 
The 2011 Overseas Filipino Survey, National Statistics Office (NSO) and Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) data indicate that of our 11-12 million OFWs, 52.5% are males and 47.8% are females. In the past, there were a lot more men than women OFWs. The numbers are indicative of what we call "feminization of migration" where more and more women leave.
 
Our documented OFWs are young. Almost half of them are between 25 to 34 years old. It is not unreasonable to think that among the undocumented ones, many may be younger than 25. Women OFWs dominate the age groups 15 to 24 and 25 to 29.
 
One in three OFWs is unskilled. This category includes our DH and construction workers. They make up the biggest bulk - 32.7%. Service workers like chambermaids, waitresses and waiters come next - 15.5%. Professionals only make up 10.6% of our OFWs.
 
What do these numbers mean? Simply put, we send away our people, mostly young mothers, and put them in types of employment where they become highly vulnerable to all forms of abuse. Do not forget that Mary Jane was almost raped the first time she worked as a DH. Remember the case of Sarah Balabagan who accidentally killed her employer in self-defense as she was being attacked.
 
Back home, fathers and/or mothers leave their children behind in exchange for the precious money earned abroad. As our women take care of foreign children and families, here, we raise parentless generations.
 
The mindset on overseas employment has changed. Whereas before, people went out to work because no jobs were available here, save, and come back, now, OFW work is seen as a total and permanent escape from our country. Just talk with those who go out and we will find out that if the opportunity arises for them to bring their families abroad, they will readily grab it.
 
We have observed this to be particularly true among the educated ones, those with better opportunities to permanently stay away. This is lamentable.
 
Years ago, our group ran Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) among young people with one or both parents working abroad to understand their situation and perspectives as children of OFWs. The results were revealing.
 
Virtually all of them said that while they understand why their parents had to leave, they would rather that they stayed. A significant number of them harbored resentment against their absentee parents with some saying that they did not really know their father or mother.
 
We also interviewed children in poor communities (not necessarily those of OFWs) about their ambitions in life. The top answer was to work abroad without even thinking of a career they want. Their reason was money. They believed that being an OFW was the only way to have a good life. What kind of children, citizens are we raising?
 
While I maintain that we all should have the option of working, even living abroad as a matter of right, we should also create an environment in our own country where people can really advance. We urgently need to address the root causes of migration -- poverty and absence of gainful employment opportunities.
 
At the same time, we need to better protect and assist our citizens abroad. We should stop this hypocrisy of calling them "bagong bayani" without adequately responding to their needs.  Our OFWs are not sacrificial lambs
 
We cannot remain blinded by OFW dollars and oblivious to the social costs of this labor export policy. We have to learn our lessons and act accordingly.
 
Mary Jane is a victim many times over. She was victimized by the harsh realities in her own country, trafficked, duped into unknowingly bringing drugs, neglected by her government, and will most likely die of a crime she did not commit.
 
Mary Jane's life should jolt and wake us up.
 
Elizabeth Angsioco is an advocate for human rights, especially women's rights. She is the National Chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) and has been working with women in poor communities for the past 30 years.
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