Ordinance mulled to solve abandonment of families

While the city council already approved an ordinance establishing the overseas Filipino workers center of Davao City under the city mayor’s office in 2008, proponent Councilor lawyer Leah Librado, backed by women groups, is urging for legislation on abandonment of families.
Inorisa Sialana-Elento, executive director or Mindanao Migrants Center for Empowering Actions Inc. (MMCEAI), said there is a need for a local ordinance focusing on abandonment of families.
The group seeks to either amend the existing ordinance for OFWs or enact a separate law that will guarantee assistance and protection to women and families abandoned by either partner or parent OFWs.
The MMCEAI is currently serving 27 cases of abandonment with 162 individuals from its 10 partner communities: Sto. Niño, Mintal, Los Amigos, Tugbok, Calinan, Talomo, Matina Proper, Matina Pangi, Bucana and Barangay 23-C.
The number of cases of abandonment of OFWs is alarming, Elento said, saying that the Integrated Gender and Development Division of Davao City Government recorded 65 cases.
This is to note that there are still unrecorded cases existing in the city alone; the national scenario is even worse.
In a multi-sectoral forum on women and migration last Wednesday at Lispher Inn, Juna Subdivision, Davao City, Librado said Philippine law is “apparently blank when it comes to abandoned women, particularly those abandoned by OFW partners or husbands and parents.”
She also mentioned the ineffective enforcement of laws such as on sexual harassment, rape, anti-trafficking, and violence against women and their children which has hampered a lot of women from pursuing charges against male perpetrators.
“As cited earlier by a local study on abandoned OFW families in the city, the statistics dismally point out the fact that more and more families are affected by migration and its
consequences,” she said.
Collateral damage
Elento disagrees with the government’s statement that abandonment of families is a “collateral damage” from labor migration, such that “everyone is defenseless and it is something that should be prepared for.”
“Abandonment is voluntarily denying or ignoring key responsibilities, like parental or marital obligations. Therefore, abandoning a wife and children is intentional. There are no words that will best describe the trauma a wife or husband is feeling, especially if both parties agreed that either of them will be leaving the country to ensure the bright future of their children but end up desertion,” Elento said. [Lorie A. Cascaro]

Librado said the growing number of undocumented OFWs worldwide is indicative of the ongoing crisis of forced migration and the systemic economic crisis in the country.
“The crisis is not only economic but also psychological, considering the many families rendered dysfunctional by abandonment of parents and/or spouses,” she added.

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