Filipinos living in Taiwan say they are closely watching Saturday’s presidential polls there, the results of which could impact the island’s policies toward migrant workers and its already tense relations with next-door neighbor China.
Voters are to elect the successor to President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female president who is ending her second term, as well as members of parliament. Tsai, who is term-limited and cannot run again, belongs to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which emphasizes Taiwan’s autonomy.
China’s communist government, which has never ruled the democratic island, views Taiwan as part of its territory.
Gilda Banugan, 40, a domestic helper for a Dutch family in Taipei, said the vote would have direct consequences on jobs and living conditions in Taiwan, home to about 150,000 Filipino migrant workers including many employed as maids or factory workers.
“We are monitoring the election updates because we want to know if the candidates care about migrants,” Banugan on Thursday told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. “We are worried the policy might change, that the new president will be anti-migrant, pro-employer or pro-broker.”
Migrant groups have been pushing to include caregivers and domestic workers in Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act, the law that sets the minimum standards for working conditions and protects workers’ rights and interests, said Banugan, who hails from Davao city in the southern Philippines.
The Philippines is the third largest source of foreign workers in Taiwan, trailing other Southeast Asian countries Indonesia and Vietnam. Migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries make up 3% of the population.
In terms of domestic workers and caregivers, 180,000 Indonesians, 28,000 Filipinos and 28,000 Vietnamese live and work in Taiwan, according to labor ministry data.
“There is no law that protects us domestic workers and caregivers. We are left on our own to negotiate with our employers,” Banugan said, adding that many have complained of not having insurance and benefits or regular days off.
Filipinos working in the Taiwan fishing industry walk past boats at Suao harbor in YiIlan, Dec. 4, 2020. [Sam Yeh/AFP]
She said labor groups have called on the Taiwan government to remove the “exploitative” and “problematic” labor broker system, where foreign workers must pay fees, ranging from U.S. $2,000 to $6,000, to employment brokers in their countries. On top of those fees, the workers can be charged a recurring monthly fee of around $50.
Banugan said migrant groups were pushing for a program involving direct hiring between governments.
“Hopefully whoever wins will listen to our side and abolish the broker system which is unfair and not transparent,” she said.
The three candidates vying to succeed Tsai have offered differing proposals for dealing with migrant workers, according to Taiwan’s national news agency, the Central News Agency (CNA).
Ko Wen-je, the presidential candidate from the Taiwan People’s Party, has vowed to create a “national recruitment platform to make the introduction of migrant workers more open and transparent,” the CNA report said.
Lai Ching-Te, who serves as Tsai’s vice president and is the Democratic Progressive Party nominee, said the government should first ensure fair wages of local labor before introducing foreign workers.
The third candidate, the Kuomintang Party’s Hou Yu-ih, said he would create an outreach platform to engage with migrant workers, employers and brokers even as he is inclined to retain the broker system.
Other Filipino migrants expressed concern over the growing tension between China and Taiwan, especially around the election.
It did not help that days before Taiwan went to the polls, the defense ministry issued an urgent alert, in English and Chinese languages, to mobile phones across the island’s 23 million people. The alert in English said “missile flyover Taiwan airspace, be aware.”
But the report turned out to be erroneous. The Chinese version of the alert used the term “satellite,” not missile. The defense ministry apologized an hour later but the panic had already spread.
Elanel Ordidor, 39, a caregiver in Yunlin County in southwest Taiwan, recalled her shock upon receiving the message.
“I was so scared and shaking when I read it. But I had to control myself because I was taking care of Lola [grandmother or elderly woman],” Ordidor told BenarNews in an interview. “I thought, is war really happening?”
Ordidor, who is from Zamboanga del Sur, also in the Philippine south, has been working in Taiwan for six years. She said she had witnessed her employer’s grandchildren actively campaigning for DPP’s Lai, “the anti-China candidate.” She said they would drive around the countryside to give away campaign posters, masks and alcohol.
Philippine troops raise the national flag on Mavulis island in Batanes province, June 29, 2023. [Ezra Acayan/Pool via Reuters]
She hoped Lai would win because “China is a bully,” Ordidor said, citing Beijing’s harassment in the West Philippine Sea, the part of the disputed South China Sea within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“I don’t want a pro-China candidate to win. I am saying that not only as a Filipino worker here because I think China is not only harassing the Philippines and Taiwan, but also other countries as well,” she said, without identifying those nations.
Ko and Hou are seen as more pro-China.
Neighbors
Meanwhile, the Philippines’ northernmost territory, the Batanes islands are within 150 km (93 miles) of southeast Taiwan’s Orchid Island.
Batanes has seen a spike in foreign assistance in recent years from China and the United States while it has served as a venue for military drills between U.S. and Philippine troops.
Analysts have said the U.S. and China could seek to occupy Batanes if war were to break out in the Taiwan Strait.
China could seek to take control of Batanes and use it as a base for enclosing the Bashi Channel, the waterway between Batanes and Taiwan, with anti-ship and anti-air missile coverage, said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines.
“A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would require blockading and isolating [Batanes] from access by the U.S. and other allied forces. China will bombard Taiwanese defenses first before launching amphibious and air invasions,” Batongbacal told BenarNews in June as he painted some possible scenarios.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.
