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29 March 2024

OFWs continue to leave for Taiwan

Published
By Correspondent

Despite tensions between the Philippines and Taiwan over the death of a Taiwanese fisherman in Philippine waters on May 9, the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Taiwan continues.

Radio reports said 18 OFWs have been scheduled to leave Manila today, to work as electronic technicians in Kaohsiung. The Filipinos are armed with a two-year contract that can be extended for another year and renewed for three more years.

Manny Geslani, spokesman of the recruitment agency JS Contractors Inc, said the deployment has continued for those who have been issued visas by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (Teco) before May 15.

Teco is Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Manila, which adheres to a one-China policy and, therefore, considers Taiwan a province of the Chinese mainland.

The tabloid ‘People’s Journal’ quoted Geslani as saying that the departing OFWs would be wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ‘I Love Taiwan’ in front and their employer’s logo at the back.

In Taipei, meanwhile, Taiwanese students and personnel from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were seen offering food, drinks and shirts to OFWs in a park—a gesture aimed to help ease the tension between Taiwanese and Filipinos.

Bearing the slogan ‘You are not alone’, the T-shirts were obviously a reminder to when the Filipinos fought against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who went into exile with his family to Hawaii in 1986 after a bloodless People’s Revolution, according to the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’.

‘You are not alone’ is in fact the English translation of ‘Hindi ka nag-iisa’, the Filipino slogan used by the Filipino masses in their fight against the Marcos dictatorship.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou has ordered a freeze in the hiring of OFWs and threatened more sanctions against the Philippines should Manila fail to apoligise and compensate for the death of Hung Shih-chen, 65, when personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) shot at a Taiwanese fishing boat caught poaching in Philippine waters.

Manila said that Guang Ta Hsin 28 tried to ram the PCG vessel, prompting the latter’s personnel to shoot at it.

Taiwan has denied that the boat was in Philippine waters, and branded the incident as a case of murder.

Both parties have agreed to conduct a co-operative probe into the incident instead of a joint investigation, which is not allowed under the one-China policy.