Press Release
July 21, 2009

Press statement of Senator Loren Legarda

On Repatriate all OFWs in danger areas

The death of 10 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan is most unfortunate because it shows that the lack of employment opportunities in our country is forcing many of our countrymen to accept dangerous job assignments abroad, even in countries on which our government had imposed a ban in the deployment of OFWs.

OWWA says that the 10 fatalities were among the many OFWs who were not repatriated from Afghanistan after our government stopped the sending of OFWs there. The question now is whether the government really exerted an effort to repatriate those OFWs who were already working in Afghanistan after the ban was imposed, or whether the OFWs chose to remain and brave the dangers rather than suffer unemployment at home.

In the face of this tragedy, our government must again reach out to and repatriate all OFWs who are still working in Afghanistan and such other countries like Iraq so that they won't be coming home in body bags.

On SONA must not be sugar-coated

President Arroyo must tell our countrymen the true state of our nation and not a sugar-coated view of where we stand right now. As this will be her last State of the Nation Address (SONA), she can no longer dwell on mere plans of actions because hers is already an outgoing administration.

The President can be likened to a doctor upon whose care a patient - our country - had been entrusted to for almost a decade. She must be forthright in telling us whether we are indeed on the road to recovery or whether we have worsened and have become terminally ill.

If her SONA fails to address the true state of our country and people, who are grappling with extreme poverty, a faltering economy and the worsening drug menace, then I believe that we, the people, should then tell her what the true state of our nation is.

News Latest News Feed