DAGUPAN CITY—A women’s group called Women in Development (WID) Foundation said it cannot agree to a “BAND-AID MAID” strategy that the “SUPERMAID” idea of President Gloria Arroyo is trying to peddle.

In a statement sent via e-mail to this reporter, it said that it should incorporate government effort to first address basic conditions for making foreign domestic work truly decent work.

The group enumerated the following basic conditions:
1. That foreign domestic workers enjoy adequate laws in countries of destination that can be enforced to protect them;
2. That appropriate conditions for work and safety are existent;
3. That salaries are pegged at international standards for the same work;
5. That foreign posts have adequate mechanism to monitor their conditions at worksite on a quarterly basis;
4. That bilateral agreements are forged to ensure their safety in times of war and calamity;
6. That government has the social infrastructure to deal with the personal and social cost resulting from the diaspora of women.[2]
The group said that it believes that that they should be equipped with the necessary skills to handle household gadgets and basic language in their destination countries, “this is not a remedy to ensure their safety, provide them with dignity and protect them from the abuse of foreign employers and recruitment agencies”.

It cited in the statement that 74 per cent of the total deployment for 2004 are women, 72 per cent for 2005.

It added that in 2005, their major destinations in Asia are Hong Kong where 99.9 per cent are working as domestic workers, in Japan where 99 per cent of them work as overseas performing artists (OPAS) and in Taiwan where 53 per cent of them work as caregivers and caretakers.

For the same period (2005), the major destinations in the Middle East include Kuwait, where 89 per cent of them work as domestic workers; Saudi Arabia, where they work as domestic helpers 26 per cent and nurses 18 per cent; United Arab Emirates, where they work as domestic workers 32 per cent and 35 per cent are working in other service sectors (such as waiters, launderers cleaners, etc.) making the service workers the largest presence in that country; and in war-torn Lebanon where 100 per cent are domestic workers.

WID foundation added that in Lebanon, domestic helpers are called "filipinas" even by the Filipino priest who provided them shelter during the outbreak of the Israeli-Lebanese war and in Syria, a government official commented on TV that most of the employers "took their filipinas with them."

President Arroyo said in roundtable she hosted Thursday in Malacañang about the “supermaid” concept wherein domestic help who fled Lebanon will be retrained by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority .

Women in Development (WID) Foundation, Inc. is a private development organization working towards the economic and political empowerment of women with its at the 2nd Floor, OFE Telemoney Center, RCBC Savings Bank Building, 527 EDSA, Pasay City, telephone number 8893992 or email ofw_remit@yahoo.com .