Gabriela Party-list Condemns Arroyo for Bidoya's Beheading, Demands Urgent Action To Save Ex-Gabriela Leader Alcaraz

“There is no one else to blame for the beheading of Jenifer Bidoya butGMA. In favor of preparing an ostentatious welcome for current andfuture business partners in the Global Forum on Migration andDevelopment (GFMD), President Arroyo has further pushed aside thewelfare of Filipinos abroad,” said Gabriela Women's Party Rep. Luz Ilagan.

Bidoya was an overseas Filipino worker beheaded in Saudi Arabia lastOctober 14 after two years of serving detention for allegedly murderinga Saudi national.

“The support this government provided Bidoya was just a “drop in thebucket” of what a government should have done for its citizen facing alegal battle outside its borders,” Ilagan said. “They may have askedthe Saudi government for pardon, but that was it; plain lip-service forthe sake of saying that they tried to help him.”

Recently, another OFW was sentenced to death by firing squad forallegedly robbing and murdering a Taiwanese national. The Philippinegovernment remains silent on the issue and has not offered any form ofsupport to Cecilia Alcaraz, a former Gabriela women’s alliance leaderin Laguna, or her family.

“The fact that Arroyo can sleep at night or proudly call thePhilippines a model country for Labor Export while OFW blood is in herhands is a proof that she does not have even an inch of concern forthem,” Ilagan said demanding that the government seriously andimmediately take heed of Alcaraz's and her family's calls for help innegotiating for the commutation of the former's death sentence.

There are currently 29 overseas Filipino workers still languishing injails and awaiting execution abroad. According to Ilagan, the actualnumber would have been twice as many, if not for the relentlesslobbying of local and international human rights organizations for themto be pardoned.

While dozens of Filipinos are literally shedding sweat and blood inother countries for their poverty-stricken families in the Philippines,the Arroyo government is busy spending time and millions of pesos onthe Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), amulti-stakeholder process tagged by Gabriela Women's Party Rep. LuzIlagan as “a closed-door meeting between business tycoons exchangingdeals and strategies on how to maximize profits from Labor Export ofThird World countries”.

“Arroyo is far too excited about the GFMD to care about the OFWs. Andwhy shouldn't she be: this is a big opportunity for her to show off thecountry's wide variety of “cheap labor for export” to potential buyers.For a businesswoman like her who thinks about nothing but amassingwealth from the sweat of other people, labor export is lucrative.”