Statement of Concern: On the Rising Inflation and Cost of Living
The skyrocketing prices of essential goods—such as rice, meat, vegetables, electricity, and water—are making daily necessities increasingly unaffordable. The Philippine government’s failure to take decisive action to curb inflation has only deepened the economic hardship faced by ordinary Filipinos.
5-point Migrants Agenda (2025)
Workers’ Demand for a Living Wage
Amid relentless price hikes, current wages remain insufficient for a decent standard of living. Workers are calling for a ₱1,200 daily minimum wage to align with the real cost of living, ensuring that Filipino workers can afford basic needs and help achieve some financial security.
End Mandatory Fees and Stop Premium Increases
Migrant workers have long opposed the mandatory and excessive fees imposed by PhilHealth, SSS, Pag-IBIG, and Compulsory Insurance. Even before the pandemic, migrant workers have called for the abolition of these burdensome premiums and other state exactions. While past protests temporarily halted payment requirements, recent actions by PhilHealth to issue demand notices to both local and overseas members highlight the ongoing threat to migrants’ financial security.
Scrap the Universal Health Care Law in Its Current Form
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) demand a healthcare system that guarantees genuine and comprehensive healthcare, rather than a system focused solely on insurance contributions. Urgent amendments must be made to remove mandatory membership, stop premium hikes, and eliminate compounded interest on unpaid contributions. Healthcare should be a right, not a financial burden on migrant workers.
Criminalise all forms of modern slavery, labour exploitation and human trafficking in line with international standards.
All forms of labor trafficking must be prohibited and penalized in accordance with international standards.
Labor trafficking is a major form of modern slavery, where workers are forced, deceived, or coerced into jobs under exploitative conditions. Cases of labor trafficking in Canada continue to rise, exposing migrant workers to severe abuse and exploitation.
Prominent campaigns led by Migrante have brought attention to several cases of labour trafficking. The Dennys Case involved 70 temporary workers whose employer failed to provide promised work hours, denied overtime pay, and refused to reimburse recruitment and travel costs. Similarly, Link4Staff and Berderald Consulting scammed hundreds of Filipinos in Toronto through illegal recruitment schemes and continue to operate despite ongoing campaigns against them. Another case is The Promise Land Consultancy, a large-scale global recruitment scam that has deceived nearly 500 Filipinos by exploiting loopholes in Canada’s immigration system, luring them with false job offers while charging excessive fees.
Beyond these cases, many other recruitment and consulting agencies continue to defraud and exploit Filipino workers. This systemic abuse is rooted in the Philippine government’s Labor Export Policy, which prioritizes sending workers abroad rather than ensuring their rights and protection. Attention and action must be given especially to migrant women victimized by these exploitative acts.
We demand that the government must be proactive in dealing with these cases and that other offices and agencies of the government must not just wait in their offices for complaints but rather coordinate and monitor, starting at the barangay level, where most cases of illegal recruitment happen. In addition, the ban on direct hiring must be scrapped.
Demand for Accountability and Justice
Corruption continues to plague society, with many politicians evading consequences for misusing public funds. There is a growing demand to hold government officials accountable and end the culture of impunity and power abuse, as seen in controversies involving elected officials like Sara and Rodrigo Duterte. Transparency and accountability must be enforced to curb corruption, restore public trust, and ensure government efficiency. Meaningful reforms are urgently needed to break systemic corruption and uphold genuine public service.
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