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On March 17, 1995, Filipina Flor Contemplacion was hanged in Singapore after a court convicted her of murdering another domestic helper, Delia Maga, and Nicholas Huang, the three-year-old son of her Singaporean employer.
Her story
Flor, 42 years old in 1991 and with four children, was executed early morning on a Friday together with three male drug traffickers. She had left her hometown in San Pablo, Laguna, to be a household helper in Singapore.
One widespread belief is that Contemplacion was framed. At least a week before Contemplacion was hanged, two Filipina maids came forward to suggest that Huang drowned during an epileptic fit in a bathtub. In rage, Maga’s employer Wong Sing Kiong reportedly killed Maga and framed Flor.
Flor was incarcerated at the Changi prison for four years before she was hanged. At the time of her execution, Flor’s family, friends and migrant workers’ organizations held a vigil outside the Singaporean Embassy in Manila. Despite several appeals, the Philippine government under then-President Fidel V. Ramos, failed to save her.
That fateful day was regarded as "a day of shame" both for Singapore and the Philippines. Then, Ramos was advocating the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan or Philippines 2000 with labor export policy and overseas job generation at the core of the government’s employment program.
Beyond what happened to Flor, the real tragedy is that thousands of women who leave the Philippines for domestic work overseas suffer cruel injustice in many countries.
Flor’s execution was met with outrage by Filipinos. Human rights advocates and womens’ groups launched protests. Her fellow overseas contract workers were appalled. It was then that the government called OFWs as "Modern Day Heroes."
Flor came home in a wooden makeshift coffin, without the usual carton balikbayan box brought home by domestic and contract workers coming from abroad.
On the day of her burial, more than 5,000 people joined the funeral procession. At the requiem mass, Bishop Teodoro Bacani said, "She is a symbol of millions of Filipinos driven by poverty to take their chances abroad… Their lot is pathetic. Their own government neglects them.”
More like Flor
Contemplacion’s execution caused a diplomatic row between Philippines and Singapore and after many years, things slowly went back to normal. But the stories and fate of overseas Filipino workers remained the same – from Sarah Balabagan to Angelo dela Cruz, who were both saved and the others that didn’t make it home alive.
Many OFWs are languishing in jails, even worse, in death rows. Out of the 33 OFWs facing death sentence in different host countries documented by OFW group Migrante International, seven were executed.
Jenifer Beduya (aka Venancio Ladion) was convicted of murder in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and was beheaded on October 14, 2008. Five other Saudi-based OFWs - Antonio Alvesa, Sergio Aldana, Miguel Fernandez and Wilfredo Bautista were executed in 2005. In 2007, Reynaldo Cortez was sentenced to death in Riyadh after killing a Pakistani driver who allegedly attempted to molest him in 2002.
Rodelio ‘Dondon’ Lanuza is constantly appealing for help through emails and social networks. Marilou Ranario’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Kuwaiti Emir. May Vecina was granted full pardon and was repatriated last year. But 33-year old Jakatia Pawa’s life is still in peril after the Kuwaiti Supreme Court upheld her death sentence.
OFWs are even lured to work in war-torn countries like Afghanistan. Last year, 12 Filipinos died in a chopper crash at a NATO airbase in Kandahar.
At the height of the global economic crisis last year, Pres. Arroyo issued Administrative Order 247 to find more markets abroad where Filipinos can work.
According to Migrante, what OFWs and their families got from the administration are “anti-OFW policies” like the implementation of the codified OWWA Omnibus policies that phased out almost all welfare programs previously availed of by OFWs including the Family loan assistance; POEA Memorandum Circular 4 prescribing rules on direct hiring; and the guidelines on Land-based recruitment and Household service Workers (HSWs) that placed OFWs and aspiring migrant workers in the hands of unscrupulous recruitment agencies that collect high placement fees.
For its part, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said it continued to fulfill its mandate of protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of the OFWs and their families. For 2009, they have served 800,000 OFWs and families through benefits, social services, training programs and repatriation assistance.
But Migrante asserted that the Arroyo administration continously neglects and commits disservice to OFWs by failing to implement genuine policies and programs that would advance and protect migrant workers' well-being, rights and welfare.
Fifteen years later, as the country remembers Flor, a Filipina, Roselyn Pascua, died under mysterious circumstances in Singapore. Pascua reportedly went to Singapore as a tourist, and she ended up dead. Singapore police have classified the case as murder and they are looking for three Filipina women in connection with the killing.
Flor Contemplacion photo c/o Flickr.com. Jenifer Beduya and Jakatia Pawa photos c/o Migrante KSA. Some rights reserved.
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