President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Statement
March 08, 2003
The decision of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region (HKSAR) to slash the minimum wage for foreign domestic workers in
the territory is unfair and unjust.
On
the very night that this new policy was announced, the Philippine
Government, through our Consulate General in Hong Kong, immediately moved
for the reconsideration and the deferment of its implementation.
It
will be recalled that I sent HKSAR Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa my
personal appeal on this matter last year yet. The DFA and the DOLE, in the
persons of no less than Secretaries Blas Ople and Patricia Sto. Tomas,
assiduously pleaded our case with the Hong Kong Government. Even Senate
President Drilon and Speaker de Venecia gallantly threw the weight of
their respective offices behind this cause.
Today,
I have directed the POEA Board to temporarily suspend the processing of
all contracts for domestic helpers in Hong Kong. I have also instructed
the Secretary of Labor to review existing policies on the development of
Filipino domestic helpers in other problem areas around the world.
I
have likewise ordered the DFA to forge a coalition with other labor source
countries in order to protest unfair levy wage cuts.
Even
the Hong Kong Equal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission has ruled
that a levy imposed on foreign domestic helpers discriminates against
those workers.
Accordingly,
the Philippine Government fully supports our workers in Hong Kong who are
availing themselves of available mechanisms to contest the levy or wage
cut even as Government itself is exploring all means possible in calling
upon the sense of fair play of the Hong Kong SAR, for it to reconsider the
implementation of this discriminatory policy.
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