July 18, 1994

To my dear People of God in the Archdiocese of Manila:

Today we take this occasion to direct our attention to our brothers and sisters, who in dire search for greener pasture, or even just livelihood to assuage the poverty they experience in our very own country, are forced to work in foreign lands. Truly, away from their roots and the familiar comfort of their native land and countrymen, they are “like sheep without a shepherd.”

Overseas contract workers:

Unsung heroes and victims

The phenomenon of Filipino Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs) has become an inescapable reality in Philippine society. To date, there are about three million of our fellow Filipinos who labor abroad, 80 percent on land while the rest at sea. A great number of these are women.

Their foreign employment has of late been encouraged by a government who has seen the value of the sizeable foreign money they remit to its cash-strapped coffers. Our government leadership has in fact referred to them as “unsung heroes” helplessly aware of the great sacrifice they endure to lift families, and even themselves, from the state of destitution which the lack of opportunity in their homeland has forced them into. Indeed, employment, however menial, in the First World countries and the Newly Industrialized countries of Asia, offers far more attractive remuneration than the low wages, and even unemployment, the OCWs face here at home. Then, too, in the case of those who seek well-compensated professional advancement such as those in the medical and scientific fields, these same countries provide the more challenging arena for career development.

But while the OCWs present apparent advantages, there lies beneath, insidious situations and consequences, both social and psychological, not only to the workers themselves but to the society as well.

The unsung heroes, newspaper reports sadly show, are themselves victims. On Palm Sunday this year in a Catholic Church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian authorities swooped down on some 1,200 Filipinos, most of them women, rounded them up and detained some 20 who were found not possessing the requisite work permit. Now the subject of diplomatic ironing out, the reprehensible incident nevertheless points to the vulnerability of Filipino OCWs, and how easily they are marked for acts violative of basic human rights.

We are aware of more horrowing tales: Filipino domestic helpers in Kuwait, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia who are virtual slaves: women forced into prostitution in Japan and in Belgium and other European countries; Filipino men who undergo dehumanizing hardships and conditions in foreign fishing vessels. We grieve over the harshness, cruelty and inhumanness of their foreign employers, or shall we say, exploiters. But we weep even more for those in our very own country who knowingly and deliberately deliver them to the cruel fate of exploitation and oppression.

Illegal recruitment: Exploitation at Home

While the problem of OCWs are manifold, and indeed overwhelming, and already the object of pastoral concern of the Church through its many ministries in the Commission on Migration and Tourism, we feel the urgency at this point to strike at the root of most of these problems: that of illegal recruitment.

Admittedly, a sickening moral depravity accompanies the act whereby a person or persons deliberately pushes another into an abominable fate for material gain. For this is what illegal recruitment brazenly and criminally does. This is where exploitation blatantly starts. Jesus warns us that a hired hand pretends to be with the sheep, but only up to the point that he can profit from them (Jn 10:12). When the danger comes, “at the sight of the wolf” the hired hand leaves the sheep behind to be preyed upon to death. Illegal recruiters bring desperate Filipinos desiring to earn much needed money abroad to a slow and painful death.

Statistics show us that in 1991 there were 1,366 reported victims of illegal recruitment. This number grew to 1,433 in 1992. But these are figures on record. We shudder at the thoughts not reported, and remain a such, largely because of bureaucratic inefficiency and also of the fear, helplessness and ignorance of the victims.

Yet how many of our brothers and sisters have fallen prey to these unscrupulous “hands”? Many have sold precious belongings: they have withdrawn lifetime savings, and incurred unpayable debts for the promise these illegal recruiters have dangled before their eyes.

Moreover, these illegal recruiters have spawned an underground operation that falsifies documents and craftily dodges procedures which only leave the recruited to suffer the dire consequences.

It thus behooves us as Church, as followers of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd to denounce and rout these “wolves,” these illegal recruiters, these immoral recruiters.

Beware of the Labor Hirelings!

Today we ask you, dearly beloved faithful, to look around you and expose the hired hand who work only for pay and do not have true concern for others (Jn 10:13).

This year the Scalabrinian Fathers who are deeply involved in the pastoral apostolate of migration have initiated a survey in all the parishes that seeks to identify illegal recruiters. We exhort you all to lend your full support to this effort.

Upon completion of this survey, a nationwide campaign against illegal recruitment will be launched. This will include a massive information drive against illegal recruitment which will be undertaken at the parish level. This may seem to be a gargantuan effort, but the pernicious and debilitating effects of this dastardly art demands its undertaking.

We call upon the government to take the results to heart and initiate moves — and to make bolder steps to implement the already existing policies — to rid Philippine society of this problem. Not enough — in fact, much too little — has been done. Identifying the illegal recruiters in our midst should be a most significant step.

On this day when the Lord gives us His gentle assurance of abiding guidance, let us pray for our brothers and sisters who are the victims of exploitation in the hands of illegal recruitment. During the public ministry of Jesus, as He saw a vast crowd, he had compassion for them, “the shepherdless sheep.” Then He began to teach them at great length (Mk 6:34). In our turn, let us be the good and faithful shepherds of the Lord. In knowing and loving our people, let us teach them to cautiously “beware of the labor hirelings!” More than their readiness to lay down their lives for the needy, the hirelings who are the illegal recruiters will unscrupulously sacrifice the lives of their innocent and helpless victims for their own profit.

My dearly beloved people, as good shepherds, take up your posts. Stand firm and strong with our suffering people in this time of need. God loves us all!

(Sgd.) + Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

Villa San Miguel

July 17, 1994