On the 30th anniversary of the execution of Flor Contemplacion, Migrante International resounds its call for justice for Flor, Mary Jane Veloso, and all victims of the Philippine Labor Export Program. To this day, Filipinos at home and overseas remain furious at the unjust hanging of Flor in Singapore and the Ramos government’s failure to protect her.
In the wake of Flor’s death in 1995, Filipinos around the world came together to demand that the Philippine government protect migrant workers. Despite promises and the swift passage of the Migrant Workers Act, the three decades since Flor’s death have seen even more suffering for our fellow migrant workers. The Flor Contemplacions of today–thousands of Filipino women leaving the country every day–bear a worsening climate of abuse, exploitation, and enslavement.
Among the Flors of today is Mary Jane Veloso, trafficked into Indonesia and nearly executed for a crime that she did not commit. After our campaign to save her life in 2015 and the succeeding years of campaigning to bring her home, she is finally back in her homeland. But she has been detained for three months, with her family and supports clamoring for her immediate freedom.
Today, there are not only modern-day Flors, but also modern-day Mary Janes: victims of human trafficking and state neglect on the part of the Philippine government. Many more migrant women are still victims of unjust detention and death row abroad. The gallows that Flor faced and the firing squads that Mary Jane faced still threaten Filpino migrants today.
As the Labor Export Program passes its 50-year mark, the global grassroots movement of Filipino migrant workers has only strengthened. Each day, more Filipinos overseas are organizing and mobilizing to speak out against the injustices we face overseas and are collectively fighting for a better future for families in the Philippines by joining other sectors of Philippine society in the collective struggle for national democracy and genuine freedom. We should not have to risk being trafficked, suffering labor rights violations, bearing slave-like conditions, and losing our lives overseas only in the hopes of better lives for our families.
Let us raise our demands to Marcos Jr, whose dictator father first unleashed labor export upon our people: not another Flor, not another Mary Jane, not another year of the Labor Export Program!
