HONG KONG and MANILA - Palmolive Palma, Rejoice Rivera, Lux Laurel and six
other soft-porn "Shampoo Beauties", topless or clad in skimpy underwear and
transparent yellow raincoats, didn't break a sweat literally to stop traffic in
Manila recently. Nobody knew exactly what they were up to. They could have been
mocking the Metro Manila Development Authority, whose chairman Bayani Fernando
- in the obvious absence of really serious problems in the megalopolis -
decided to go after men who refuse to wear shirts in public. Or they could have
been protesting a ban on soft-porn movies ordered by SM Holdings - the
country's biggest shopping-mall operator, controlled by Chinese-Filipino taipan
Henry Sy.
Who cares? Public scandal or not, at least Palmolive Palma and the rest of the
girls, in the midst of the current Philippine economic crisis, have found a
niche home market. They don't need to karaoke a Tagalog version of Peter, Paul
and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and then slog in daily purgatory living the
life of an OFW (overseas Filipino worker).
Filipino Central casting
There they are, concentric rings of Filipinas spread out in Hong Kong, on the
tarmac, on the subway, on the way to the Star Ferry pier, spilling over from
Statue Square through the vault of the HSBC building engulfing Armani and
Bulgari luxury compounds, mobbing wily Cantonese operators promoting lucky
draws of Nokia cellular phones with prepaid SIM (security identity module)
cards - "as little as HK$0.15 a minute [2 US cents] to the Philippines".
Everywhere there's the infectious atmosphere of a larger-than-life social club;
women of all ages chatting non-stop, comparing notes, staring endlessly at
photos of boys and girls in school uniforms, sharing their food, reading
Tagalog-language papers or calling home on their discount Nokias. By all means,
Filipino maid Sundays in Hong Kong's Central district remain one of Asia's
social-anthropology highlights.
The maids configure the most conspicuous example of Ferdinand Marcos' 1970s
drive to export Philippine labor as a policy to increase foreign currency and
so repay the country's mounting international debt. Now there are at least 7.5
million legalizedOFWs
spread throughout 186 countries, apart from at least 1.7 million illegals. The
soundtrack of Southeast Asia - and most of the Middle East - is played by
Filipinos. Officials and crews on cargo and cruise ships sailing across all
oceans are invariably Filipino. Filipino doctors and nurses migrate to overseas
hospitals by the thousands every year. At least 4,000 Filipinos risk their
lives working in Iraq. (The Philippines banned its citizens from going to work
in Iraq after truck driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped by Islamic militants
on July 7. However, 42% of all Filipinos believe they have a right to look for
a job in a danger zone such as Iraq.)
More than 200 Filipinos recently used the "southern back door" of Mindanao to
sail to Turkey and then cross the border to find jobs in Iraq. More than 2,000
OFWs have landed in jail. Two were beheaded in Saudi Arabia. One was hanged in
Singapore. One, de la Cruz, escaped beheading in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands
live under semi-slavery regimes and suffer daily abuses.
Forced by abysmal mass poverty at home and the never-ending economic crisis,
the Hong Kong amahs leave their families behind and embark on three-year
contracts that pay a fixed salary set by the Hong Kong government. They then
send 70-85% of the total back to the Philippines every month.
The "privilege" of working in a wealthy, advanced and multi-racial society
where they keep the house impeccably clean, cook tasty food, communicate well,
teach English to the children of their wealthy employers for free, and learn
Cantonese almost immediately, is rewarded in many cases with being treated as a
very low-class citizen - not to mention a back-breaking, full six-day workweek
and a single trip to see the family back home once every two years. The "social
club" spread out in Hong Kong's Central district confirms that not a few among
them have to sleep on kitchen floors or even on top of cupboards.
In Hong Kong's notorious, decades-old culture of labor exploitation, these
women get paid less than half of what is offered by the lowest job in Hong Kong
anyone would possibly contemplate taking. It's virtually impossible to gauge
how such a warm, lovely people - bearing a strong Latin influence - can endure
the worst of the Cantonese Inquisition - horrific abuse not too dissimilar to
the case of Celestina Valdez Aquino, 44, who sued her former Hong Kong employer
Betty So because she was repeatedly mistreated and then fired. Her crime: she
had three deformed fingers.
So what do they get at the end of the calvary? They get education for their
children, perhaps the possibility of opening a small business and improving
their quality of living when they return home. This, of course, if they are not
forced to come back sooner than they think - replaced by cheaper maids from
mainland China.
The national heroes' plight
The peaceful weekly downtown Hong Kong sit-in, also referred to as the Sunday
social club, is also a tremendously graphic political statement - an explosion
of joy and autonomy after every recurrent six-day prison regime. Class struggle
yes, but with a wicked smile.
How many are there in Hong Kong? The official numbers list at least 240,000
foreign maids - the absolute majority are Filipinas, with a smaller contingent
of Indonesians, Thais and Nepalese. Unofficially, they number at least 400,000.
The odds are always stacked against them. Racism is evident. Mean tai tais,
or women of taste, don't like them - it's not hard to overhear the Chanel crowd
in Hong Kong labeling Filipinas "public nuisances" or "impolite guests". In
2003, Hong Kong slashed the maids' minimum monthly wage of HK$3,670 (US$470) by
HK$400 (US$51). This year, to help fund President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's
presidential campaign, the government in Manila raised the processing fees for
their employment contracts from HK$85 to HK$297.50 (US$37).
No wonder the Sunday social club, apart from the odd beauty contest - like the
recent search for the "Summer Babe 2004", all contestants duly numbered,
carrying a rose and sporting the same mauve dress - is also the ideal place for
myriad Philippine organizations to rally against the terrible working
conditions as well as the homeland policies that encourage the export of
Filipino women.
Connie Bragas-Regalado, chairwoman of the Migrante Sectoral Party, is one of
the fiercest voices defending the interests of OFWs. Migrante's position is
that the Philippine government should at least give these women and girls
adequate protection, since it can't already guarantee them jobs in their
homeland.
Former president Cory Aquino used to call the Hong Kong amahs "national
heroes". Not only that, they were also the unknown heroes of an Asian
phenomenon - the economic boom in Hong Kong from the 1980s up until the 1997
Asian financial crisis. After all, because of the amahs the white-collar elite
in Hong Kong didn't need to worry about taking care of their homes, so there
was plenty of time to concentrate all their energies on making loads of money.
Now Arroyo's government wants to tax OFWs' income. Former Philippine labor
secretary Nieves Confesor once said that "Filipino overseas labor should be
viewed as an internationally shared human
resource, whose work benefits both the host country and the Philippines". The
people from Migrante totally disagree: "That's very degrading. How can you
share your migrant workers when they are treated as modern slaves in different
countries? The expertise of the migrant worker should be used for the
development of our own country and secondarily for the development of other
countries - not to provide 'entertainment' and cheap labor for foreign
countries." No wonder the crucial theme of Migrante's platform is the struggle
for the creation of a sustainable internal market so millions of Filipinos are
not forced to go into exile to find a job.
In Manila, Bragas-Regalado lays down the line: "GMA [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo]
is pushing OFWs to pay taxes, despite the absence of adequate government
services and protection here and abroad. This administration is propagating a
big lie by indirectly blaming us for the fiscal crisis and poor tax
collection." And this is happening while "big-time tax evaders like
[Chinese-Filipino tycoon] Lucio Tan go unscathed". Migrante stresses that the
US$7.6 billion in remittances by OFWs in 2003 "is almost 100 times the figures
of foreign direct investments".
Bragas-Regalado points out that "both the dollar remittances and government
fees on OFWs help keep the economy afloat. How can this administration even
think that OFWs are not helping the country? President Arroyo and her minions
brought the country to this fiscal crisis. They are the culprits who should be
made to account to the overseas Filipinos and the people in the homeland."
Nightlife economics
There are OFWs who are not as patient as the Hong Kong amahs and prefer to take
a shortcut. Every day, when the bright lights start shining in Wanchai, one of
Hong Kong's financial districts, an army of made-up, dressed-up young Asians -
Chinese, Mongolians, Thais and most of all Filipinas - hits a string of bars
like the immense Neptune II. At 4 or 5 in the morning, if they're lucky, they
may be richer by US$100 or so - courtesy of business executives and expats.
This certainly beats one week of toiling under the domestic Cantonese
Inquisition.
These so-called public relations girls play the game with deftness. All it
takes is to be "tabled" (served drinks by a customer), occasionally danced
with, served as many drinks as possible, and then the girl can collect a
percentage from the bar or club owner (who is not her employer). In one hour in
a nightclub, a girl makes three or four times what she would make in one hour
under the Cantonese Inquisition. And everything extra that happens outside the
nightclub is the girl's own business. More than a few young Filipinas in Hong
Kong end up following the bumpy road of working as a maid, then a waitress, and
then PR girl, until they reach Valhalla: marriage with a Westerner.
There is no shortage of websites advertising Filipino ladies for Westerners;
some even boast a top 10 on why they are the ultimate prize. (For the record: a
Filipino lady is loving, romantic and caring; puts family first ahead of money;
is deeply religious; believes in a one-man, one-woman relationship; is
understanding, patient and supportive; has a flexible personality and is very
optimistic; is well educated; dedicates profound respect to her partner or
provider in the family; and adores a partner that makes her feel good about
life.) Since the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are not doing
much to alleviate the Philippine economic crisis, some Western lonely hearts
are more than happy to volunteer for the job.
Tomorrow - Part 5: All quiet on the second front
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