Dancing...
Dancing...
Posted 00:25am (Mla time) Feb 04, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THAT the Philippine government continues to flail at the immovable object that is Japan on the matter of its new policy of regulating the entry of Filipino entertainers poignantly illustrates the arid employment landscape -- and the knife-edge quality of life -- on these fair isles. Per reports, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo was again to fly to Japan yesterday to plead for leniency in the implementation of the new policy, although he was quoted as saying that he was harboring "no false hopes" that he would succeed in his mission.
He could well be dancing in the dark. Romulo and various other Philippine officials, including Representatives Edcel Lagman and Roseller Barinaga of the House committees on overseas workers' affairs and labor and employment, respectively, had made earlier attempts to negotiate Japan's reconsideration of its new policy that was formulated expressly to fight human trafficking. But all their efforts were for naught, and the fortress of Japanese resolve as it applies to this labor issue has remained impregnable.
Unless a miracle occurs and the fortress opens a crack to let slip a glimmer of hope, a Filipino meaning to work in Japan as an entertainer must present proof of at least two years of training in music or dance at a foreign educational institution or two years of experience in another country before he/she can be deemed eligible for a visa. The artist's accreditation card issued by the Philippine government certifying the bearer's skills in the fine art of entertainment will no longer do. And no, not even those who have logged years of working as such in that country are "safe" from the new requirement.
Consider the figures as reported. Japan's new policy will mean a radical cutback in the issuance of entertainer visas from 80,000 to 8,000. The number of Filipino workers in the Land of the Rising Sun is estimated at close to 300,000 (most of whom are said to be employed in bars and nightclubs). Last year alone, the money they sent home amounted to as much as $258.26 million, according to Bangko Sentral records.
This is the problem of an economy that rests on the perilously unsteady foundations of labor export that includes the deployment of desperate men and women to uncertain fates. Imagine the upheaval that will be caused by the Filipino entertainers' sudden unemployment, as well as the dashed hopes of tens of thousands more who are determined to find survival in the neon paradise of the Ginza -- and understand why the Arroyo administration is moving heaven and earth to avert the inevitable.
...In the dark
UNDERSTAND also the position of the organization called Talents and Artists Managers Association (Tama), which is seeking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's intervention in behalf of some 197,000 Filipino entertainers in clear danger of being repatriated from Japan -- and into the arid employment landscape at home. Tama is cognizant of the fact that its "performing artists" easily fall through the cracks and into the dark fleshpots of Japan "no matter how talented or legitimate" they are. But it insists that the "corrupt and abusive labor practices" of local recruitment agencies and Japanese promoters are to blame. And it proposes the creation of a monitoring center, to be run by concerned artists and independent nongovernmental organizations, to oversee the Filipino entertainers' daily activities and their general situation.
Tama's Joegrad de la Torre concedes that the Philippine government had as much chance to bend Japan's stance as a snowball in hell. He makes the point -- and the problem -- crystal-clear when he says: "We should be prepared for these new rules. The Japanese are concerned about human trafficking; our problem is economic."
Mighty Japan hastened to put its new policy in place after the US government cited it as among the countries where human trafficking is rampant. Shuhei Ogawa, spokesperson of the Japanese Embassy in Manila, has gone on record to say that more than 90 percent of the Filipino women working in Japan were forced to become "hostesses" in the nightclubs and bars. He described the situation as "very terrible," and wondered why Philippine authorities would want to "sacrifice those girls" in the course of seeking a moratorium on the new policy.
A pithy, if sanctimonious, question that this "strong republic" seems loath, or quite unable, to answer.
Posted 00:25am (Mla time) Feb 04, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THAT the Philippine government continues to flail at the immovable object that is Japan on the matter of its new policy of regulating the entry of Filipino entertainers poignantly illustrates the arid employment landscape -- and the knife-edge quality of life -- on these fair isles. Per reports, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo was again to fly to Japan yesterday to plead for leniency in the implementation of the new policy, although he was quoted as saying that he was harboring "no false hopes" that he would succeed in his mission.
He could well be dancing in the dark. Romulo and various other Philippine officials, including Representatives Edcel Lagman and Roseller Barinaga of the House committees on overseas workers' affairs and labor and employment, respectively, had made earlier attempts to negotiate Japan's reconsideration of its new policy that was formulated expressly to fight human trafficking. But all their efforts were for naught, and the fortress of Japanese resolve as it applies to this labor issue has remained impregnable.
Unless a miracle occurs and the fortress opens a crack to let slip a glimmer of hope, a Filipino meaning to work in Japan as an entertainer must present proof of at least two years of training in music or dance at a foreign educational institution or two years of experience in another country before he/she can be deemed eligible for a visa. The artist's accreditation card issued by the Philippine government certifying the bearer's skills in the fine art of entertainment will no longer do. And no, not even those who have logged years of working as such in that country are "safe" from the new requirement.
Consider the figures as reported. Japan's new policy will mean a radical cutback in the issuance of entertainer visas from 80,000 to 8,000. The number of Filipino workers in the Land of the Rising Sun is estimated at close to 300,000 (most of whom are said to be employed in bars and nightclubs). Last year alone, the money they sent home amounted to as much as $258.26 million, according to Bangko Sentral records.
This is the problem of an economy that rests on the perilously unsteady foundations of labor export that includes the deployment of desperate men and women to uncertain fates. Imagine the upheaval that will be caused by the Filipino entertainers' sudden unemployment, as well as the dashed hopes of tens of thousands more who are determined to find survival in the neon paradise of the Ginza -- and understand why the Arroyo administration is moving heaven and earth to avert the inevitable.
...In the dark
UNDERSTAND also the position of the organization called Talents and Artists Managers Association (Tama), which is seeking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's intervention in behalf of some 197,000 Filipino entertainers in clear danger of being repatriated from Japan -- and into the arid employment landscape at home. Tama is cognizant of the fact that its "performing artists" easily fall through the cracks and into the dark fleshpots of Japan "no matter how talented or legitimate" they are. But it insists that the "corrupt and abusive labor practices" of local recruitment agencies and Japanese promoters are to blame. And it proposes the creation of a monitoring center, to be run by concerned artists and independent nongovernmental organizations, to oversee the Filipino entertainers' daily activities and their general situation.
Tama's Joegrad de la Torre concedes that the Philippine government had as much chance to bend Japan's stance as a snowball in hell. He makes the point -- and the problem -- crystal-clear when he says: "We should be prepared for these new rules. The Japanese are concerned about human trafficking; our problem is economic."
Mighty Japan hastened to put its new policy in place after the US government cited it as among the countries where human trafficking is rampant. Shuhei Ogawa, spokesperson of the Japanese Embassy in Manila, has gone on record to say that more than 90 percent of the Filipino women working in Japan were forced to become "hostesses" in the nightclubs and bars. He described the situation as "very terrible," and wondered why Philippine authorities would want to "sacrifice those girls" in the course of seeking a moratorium on the new policy.
A pithy, if sanctimonious, question that this "strong republic" seems loath, or quite unable, to answer.
posted by Dante at 3:09 PM
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