Manila, Philippines – COMMON it was, a house in a quiet neighborhood facing the village’s lone covered basketball court. The wall in front was made of hollow blocks with steel bars pointed to the sky, while its roof was sloped and unremarkable. One wouldn’t even notice this house had it not been for the clothes hanged out to dry in its frontyard. There were just too many of them.
An informant who knew what it was being used for as a den for women and minors recruited from the provinces for illegal deployment overseas gave the Blas F. Ople Center clear instructions on how we could get there. The information was correct, as a rescue mission jointly undertaken by the National Bureau of Investigation’s AntiHuman Trafficking Unit headed by Atty. Dante Bonoan affirmed.
I went with the rescue mission formed under the aegis of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking to that bungalow in Villanueva Village, Parañaque City, and these were what I saw: a living room without furnitures not even a single chair, and a kitchen without a refrigerator or an oven, or a matching set of utensils; several women, huddled on the floor, some with their backs turned and with shawls and scarves used to cover their faces; a single room with a bed and its own private bath where the recruiter’s caretaker lived, with drawers containing passports and full-body photos of women; and, hand luggages of women, the kind that you tug at to roll effortlessly on the airport floor, standing mute and halfpacked in room corners.
These women are not from here. Most of them were taken from small communities in Mindanao, and given air tickets for Manila. They were waiting for their turn to leave for Dubai where, according to their recruiters, they would be able to work as foreign domestic workers.
My heart broke when one of them asked me in the vernacular, “Does this mean we won’t be able to go abroad?“ These women equate departure with a fighting chance at economic survival. On the day of their rescue, we who wanted to help them were unwanted strangers and human obstacles to dreams within reach.
Had they been able to leave, some of them would have ended up in Syria where Filipino women continue to arrive despite government efforts to bring our citizens home.
Had they been able to leave, some of them would have ended up in Jordan where so many domestic workers before them have sought refuge at the embassy’s Bahay Kalinga, after experiencing unspeakable horrors at the hands of employers and agencies.
All these women knew the part of the plan that was not concealed from them was that they would exit the Philippines via Cebu then onward to HongKong then to Dubai where they would enter as tourists and be dispatched by the recruiter to different employers in places yet to be mentioned.
Poverty’s face is unkind whether in Maguindanao where several of the women came from, or in conflict areas in Syria, and even in the towering enclaves of Dubai. Unfortunately, this truth is foolishly ignored in favor of dollar-denominated dreams, often unfulfilled and converted into living nightmares.
The bungalow in Villanueva Village was a rental for R13,000 a month. The recruiters paid for the local airfares, and would also shell out money for the international fares. This they can do because the women were already paid for in advance by foreign employment agencies in dire need of Filipino maids to supply their clients. Many of these women kept in transit bungalows or dwellings are unable to come and go freely. They are not even allowed to call home, even while in Manila.
A friend of mine in the Foreign Service said that in the Middle East, Filipino household workers are considered as the “Rolls Royce“ of the housekeeping supply chain. They are willing to pay premium rates (US$3,000 per Pinoy household help) because they say our women are clean, diligent, educated, smart, and compassionate. Unfortunately, most of these bosses turned out to be the exact opposite. Some have children that are little monsters in disguise. But illegal recruiters and human traffickers don’t really care how these women end up and where. Their services are handsomely rewarded.
If you are aware of any house that resembles the bungalow in Villanueva Village, please let me know. My e-mail address is written below. All information shall be treated with utmost confidentiality and shall be subject to verification by the proper authorities. Your help is needed to keep our women from being sold from Manila to Dubai and from Dubai to other points in the Middle East.
This corner wishes to acknowledge the valiant agents of the NBI and the full support of the Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking that is chaired by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima with no less than Vice-President Jejomar Binay as its chairman emeritus. Special thanks also to the informant that must remain unnamed, but whose concern for these women is deep and inspiring.
Source:http://www.tempo.com.ph/2012/the-bungalow-in-villanueva-village/#.T3GLy2HxqSo
