Eyewitness Philippines: ‘Squatters in our own country’

Poverty and pollution taint life along the Pasiq River. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Based on a talk given at Workers World Forum, “Eyewitness: Building Solidarity in the Philippines,” held Aug. 6 in New York City. Moorehead represented the Women’s Fightback Network at the First General Assembly of the International Women’s Alliance, an anti-imperialist coalition, held in Quezon City, Philippines, July 5-6. To hear the podcast of her talk, go to workers.org.

Before the Philippines became a U.S. neo-colony in 1898, it was colonized by Spain for hundreds of years and briefly occupied by Japan during World War II. It is home to close to 94 million people.

The national economy of the Philippines is controlled by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, under the guise of foreign debt, to the tune of $60 billion at the end of 2010. Instead of providing jobs, arable land, education, health care, housing and more, the majority of public monies go toward paying just the interest of this endless debt service.

Eighty percent of the population — 69 million people — survive on less than $2 a day. Forty-six million people are literally starving. The indigenous economy has been undermined by U.S. global conglomerates.

The minimum hourly wage in the Philippines is 43 pesos, or around $10 a day for 10 hours of work. Factory workers receive an average wage of 25 pesos an hour, or 50 cents. The vast majority of factory workers are women in the garment and electronics industries concentrated in “special economic zones” created by foreign capital. Multinational corporations, especially from the U.S., are rabidly anti-union; in 2009, only 5 percent of the Philippine workers were unionized.

There is no national industry in the Philippines. The economy is dominated by the export of human beings or migrants. It has the largest migration of workers of any country — more than 4,000 people leave the Philippines daily to seek living wage jobs in 150 countries. This is forced displacement on a massive scale.

Filipina workers, as health care providers and domestic workers, are forced to go abroad to help their families survive. These workers have no kind of protection. They are forced to work endless hours for slave wages; are subject to domestic violence, including sexual abuse by bosses; no childcare, no health care or any other social services. This includes women migrant workers in the U.S. Human trafficking, especially the sex trade “industry,” is a huge crisis for Filipinas, including children.

Filipinas have the highest rate of suicide and depression among Asians, according to Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment.

No education, no jobs

Six out of 10 people in the Philippines are under the age of 24. Public education is not free on any level. Tuition for one year of elementary education is 300 pesos, which does not include school uniforms, books or even an electric fan for your classroom despite the high heat and humidity.

High school students pay 400 pesos a year tuition. The average classroom size for all grades is between 42 and 60 students. Without a college diploma, you can’t get a job even in call centers — a global phenomenon involving millions of low-wage workers, including those in the Philippines. Because of the dire poverty in the Philippines, armed security guards are stationed everywhere large groups of people, especially young people and workers, congregate.

The government tries to terrorize the well-organized, united mass movement with death squads, preventive detentions, kidnapping and torture. The Philippine government fears a justified rebellion against inhumane living conditions aggravated by the global capitalist crisis.

This writer took a tour of an urban squatters’ area July 7 inhabited by about 4,000 people within a several-block radius. The tour was organized by the Gabriela women who live and organize among the poor communities. They offer services to these communities, especially for women regarding health care, sanitation, food nutrition and more. One resident told this reporter, “We have become squatters in our own country.”

This urban area — Kaingin Bukid — has been scheduled for government demolition, but because of the people’s resistance it is still standing, but just barely. Residents live next to the Pasiq River which contains tons of domestic and industrial waste. Swimming in this water has caused a major outbreak of diarrhea among children.

During the monsoon period, flood waters rise above the banks and flood homes. There are no basements. The people either have to leave for a higher area or go to a third floor until the polluted water subsides and everything dries out.

Lack of health care is a big crisis. While there are government-run hospitals for the poor, there is a lack of medicine. Large numbers of young pregnant women, many of them teenagers, do not have access to reproductive services, including birth control, prenatal and neonatal care.

The resilience of the women who survive intolerable conditions on a daily basis was truly inspirational.