The Federation of Filipino Organizations in the Netherlands (FFON), in which 10 Filipino community organizations are united, organized a Public Forum on International Migration on 24 November at the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague. The forum sought to highlight the phenomenon of international migration and its impact on the Filipino migrants in the Netherlands.
The main resource persons from the Philippines were: Congressman Romeo Candazo, who is a member of the House of Representatives Special Committee on Overseas Contract Workers, Sociology Professor Randolf S. David, and Villalyn Lachica from the Cotabato-based NGO Kaagapay. The inputs from these guests comprised the first half of the public forum.
Congressman Candazo said that the steady stream of OCWs who die abroad show " the inability of the Philippine government to protect the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers". According to Prof. David, no other phenomenon has had as comprehensive and dramatic an impact in Philippine social history than overseas employment.
Ms. Lachica said that it was not President Ramos who turned the Philippine economy around, but the overseas Filipino workers. Kaagapay is a migration NGO that mobilizes local communities, raises funds, conducts advocacy work, counsels, assists, networks and provides alternative programs e.g. livelihood projects for Overseas Filipino workers and their families.
The second half of the forum was devoted to analyzing Filipino migration to the Netherlands. The various sectors of Filipino migrants in the Netherlands e.g. the seafarers, oil rig workers, permanent residents, au pairs and undocumented workers presented their specific situation, and proposed measures to improve this.
In the open forum that concluded the one-day event, there was a widely shared sentiment that Filipino migrants ought to be granted the right to vote in Philippine elections.
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