Some call them modern day heroes of The Philippines.

Others refer to them as modern day slaves.

Every day more than 3,000 of them are exported overseas to toil in foreign lands.

Last year they sent home US$14.4 billion to keep the Philippine economy afloat.

This economic powerhouse is now being mobilized like never before to bring political change to The Philippines.

From the streets of Vancouver and the malls of Hong Kong to the instantaneous global network of the Internet, millions of overseas Filipino workers are lending their voices to oust Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom they accuse of corruption and neglect.

Around eight million Filipinos, or a tenth of the population, are working overseas. They are employed mostly as nurses, ship crew members, domestic helpers, and engineers.

“As overseas Filipinos in Canada, we are outraged…by Arroyo’s overall disregard for the Filipino people in the Philippines and abroad,” said Glecy Duran, Chairperson of SIKLAB-BC, an overseas Filipino workers organization in Vancouver.

“We want the Philippine Consulate, the local representative of Arroyo’s government, to know that overseas Filipinos abroad are not turning a blind eye to the Arroyo regime’s corruption and theft and to the regime’s seven years of anti-people rule. We are enraged, we are politicized, and we join the global call for the ouster of President Arroyo,” said Duran.

Since 2004, an alliance of popular peoples’ organizations in The Philippines - under the banner of BAYAN, and including supporters in Canada - have been calling for Arroyo’s ouster based on allegations of corruption, electoral fraud, and languishing poverty, as well as land and human rights violations.

Last Friday, Duran and her supporters held an  “Oust the corrupt and fascist Arroyo from the Philippine presidency” rally outside the Philippine Consulate in Vancouver, one of many simultaneous protests around the world against the beleaguered leader of The Philippines.

In an open letter to Arroyo, Duran stated that, “As Canadians concerned with human rights, genuine peace and democracy, we write to express our solidarity with overseas Filipino workers, women, and youth who are calling for your immediate and unconditional resignation. We are in solidarity with the thousands of Filipinos who have taken to the streets to demand your ouster from office.”

Read through a temporary public address system set up on the doorstep of the Consulate, the letter continued, “By this open letter, we the undersigned express our support and solidarity for the Philippines’ progressive mass movement, the legal opposition, church leaders and even retired military officials that are now calling for your immediate resignation and will support the growing call for your ouster if you refuse to step down.”

Arroyo has been battling intensified calls for her resignation amid allegations her husband and a key ally demanded at least US$130mn in kickbacks from a government contract with a Chinese firm.

The US$329 million contract for a national broadband network has been scrapped, but the Senate is still investigating the kickbacks scandal.

The embattled leader suffered a further setback this week when Jose Maria Sison, the communist idol of the foreign workers, called for 100,000 Filipinos to gather in a street protest in Manila to unseat the president.

Sison, founder of the Communist Party of The Philippines (CPP), who is living in self-exile in the Netherlands, cited popular people power uprisings in 1986 and 2001, which led to the ouster of scandal-tainted presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, respectively.

Sison has strong support in Canada’s Filipino community, which is about 500,000 strong.
The latest version of Philippine people power is being boosted by the Internet with an alliance of overseas Filipino groups launching an online petition calling on President Arroyo to say goodbye to her job.

Called Babay Gloria, or Bagong Bayani Ayaw kay Gloria (New Heroes against Gloria), the petition was launched by Migrante, the umbrella body that looks after the welfare of  Overseas Filipino Workers, or OFWs.

“The Babay Gloria petition shows that our countrymen abroad are one with the movement here for the ouster of Arroyo,” Migrante chair Connie Bragas-Regalado told local media.
The petition, addressed to Arroyo, says overseas Filipinos have had enough of the President’s “affronts to our dignity, violations against our rights and welfare, and your lies to the people.”

The petition will be circulated among Migrante’s member-organizations in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States.

The petition comes in the wake of a “blogswarm” where bloggers freely posted their calls for Arroyo to resign.

Some expressed their rage against the corrupt system, others shared their own forms of protest poetry, some ended up name-calling, while others reminded readers of the litany of issues plaguing the Arroyo administration.

There were those who posted photo-edited images of the President, while others hosted online polls and lighted virtual candles.

Media in Manila said blogger Erwin Rafael, 29, a worker for a non-government organization and a teacher, on his website www.akosipaeng.blogspot.com, came up with a new acronym for a new people power – EDSA, or “Electronic Data Swarm Against Arroyo.”

He also called on bloggers to EDSA, or “Expand the Democratic Space through cyber-Activism.”

A blogger on www.bayanikabayan.blogspot.com enumerated 46 issues confronting the Arroyo administration, which for him were more than enough reasons for Arroyo to step down.

Another blog, www.pedestrianobserver.blogspot.com, catering to “critics of dysfunctional governance,” listed another 41 reasons for Arroyo’s removal.

Blogspot Pedestrianobserver noted that the continuing support of the Philippine  government’s “corrupt and evil” system are made, directly or indirectly, through people who are either “paid, employees of the government, relatives and friends of corrupt officials, and beneficiaries of corruption.”

Hundreds around the world are now lighting virtual candles on www.philippineupdate.com/lightacandle.

“Don’t just curse the darkness, light a candle!,” the website invited online visitors.

“For those who are unable to join mass actions in the Philippines, light a candle for integrity in government, the pursuit of unvarnished truth, for prosecution of corrupt officials, for the immediate resignation of leaders who have lost moral ascendancy to govern, for a government that truly represents the interests of the nation, for political and economic development of the Filipino people,” the website proclaimed.

Menchie Edejer S. of Vancouver wrote, “ God bless The Philippines! May His Will be done under her candle.”

Liz Sison of Montreal said, “May this candle lit and brighten up the dimmed and darkened minds of our own people. MABUHAY!!!”

Florchita Bautista of Vancouver added, “ I join the Filipino people in praying for the best for our country and our people.”

“Progressive Filipinos in B.C. are fed up that the Arroyo regime continues to freely export Filipino workers to countries like Canada, where Filipino workers face racism, violence, economic exploitation and oppression, and little to no protection from the Philippine government,” said Glecy Duran in Vancouver.

She said Arroyo’s Philippine Labour Secretary Arturo Brion recently signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with the B.C. government which will import more Filipino temporary workers under exploitative conditions. 

“Arroyo continues to send Filipino women to Canada as modern-day slaves under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program,” she fumed.

Her group, like others worldwide, plans to intensify the campaign against Arroyo on the web and by using community forums.

Duran’s next big push will be at 1 p.m. on March 30, when members of the Filipino community will be invited to speak at a forum at the Kalayaan Centre at 451 Powell Street in Vancouver.