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Introduction

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the first Philippine head of state to admit that the Philippine economy is not yet ready to absorb the millions of Filipinos working overseas and that they should continue to work abroad. Previous administrations starting from the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who institutionalised the Labour Export Program (LEP) of the Philippines have time and again stated that working abroad is only a stopgap measure until the Philippine economy improves. That was more than twenty six years ago.

Indeed the number of Filipinos working abroad as contract workers and as immigrants has now reached 10 percent of the entire Philippine population. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) through its labor representatives abroad has proudly announced that they are aiming for one million jobs for Filipinos outside of the country this year. A crux to the LEP is the plan of the government to deregulate the export of labor. This will only add to the numerous problems faced by Filipino migrant workers all over the world and in the Asia Pacific region and will pose greater challenges to the Filipino Migrants Movement that is strengthening itself these past few years.

The government, through the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), continues to collect US$25 from each would-be migrant worker leaving for abroad and renewable for every contract period ostensibly to assist contract workers who are in distress. Ironically, during the administration of then President Fidel Ramos, the government has issued Memorandum Circular No. 41 (MC 41) requiring all contract workers to pass through private recruitment agencies. Not only were the migrants charged with excessive placement fees but recruitment agencies were required to set up their own welfare centres for the same migrants that they have already earlier exploited.

In effect, the Philippine government has surrendered its responsibility to provide services to the migrants through OWWA and at the same time becomes the de-facto protector of crooked recruitment agencies. This can be seen, for example, in the implementation of the "hands-on conciliation" that virtually makes recruitment agencies immune from any prosecution. Instead of prosecuting the placement agencies for overcharging or as is stipulated in the government's own Migrants Act as illegal recruitment, Philippine labor representatives abroad act as mediators between recruitment agencies and complaining migrants. The poor migrants only get 20-50% of what they paid and are made to sign waivers by the labor representatives that prohobit them from filing any other charges against the recruitment agencies.

To add insult to injury, the Philippine labor attach? to Hong Kong has admitted that the main job of his office is to find markets for Filipino migrants. That is why it is not surprising to see that if migrants face problems with their employers or with anti-migrant policies of host countries, they are met with indifference by their own government officials. The latest example of this, is that when 30 Filipinos were illegally arrested in Brussels, Belgium, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) brushed aside the incident and defended the actions of the Belgian police instead of taking up the cudgels of its citizens.

There are also the preposterous statements made by Philippine government officials to the plight of undocumented workers and those of migrants who did not process their working papers through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) or through its labor representatives abroad. The DFA has recently made a statement that if migrants need to be evacuated in the Middle East in case conflict engulfs other countries in the area because of US attacks in Afghanistan, there will be no repatriation funds for undocumented workers. In Macau, the Philippine Consulate General has said that it can not involve itself with labor problems involving Filipinos in the enclave because the workers' contracts did not pass through them.

President Arroyo best exemplifies the Philippine government's attitude towards what it calls its "New Economic Heroes". She stated that the Philippine economy will be, for the foreseeable future, heavily dependent still on oversees workers' remittances. Besides the remittances that prop-up the bankrupt Philippine economy, the government makes milking cows of the the migrants by extracting from them various fees before and even when they are already working abroad.

It is not surprising then that a Filipino migrants movement has evolved worldwide and in Asia Pacific in particular. This has a rich and inspiring history and as earlier stated is strengthening itself. This paper will tell of that history from scattered initiatives and protests until it became a coordinated movement spawned by years of patient grassroots organizing. It also tells of the lessons of that movement both negative and positive that can be used as a guide in organizing migrants of other nationalities and in many more countries.

Particularly we will show the historical development of organizing work among Filipino migrants in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The three mentioned countries have a relatively rich experiences and lessons after years of organizing work of APMMF in these areas.