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12 January 1998 WORKING GAY MEN SUFFER FROM RAMOS ECONOMIC POLICIES (MANILA) -- A group of militant gay activists scored the Ramos administration for the looming economic meltdown about to swamp the masses of poor gay workers and other sectors of society with job losses, steep fuel and food prices and widespread social unrest. Oscar Atadero, secretary-general of the Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines, said that the so-called sound fundamentals trumpeted by Ramos turned out to be nothing but paper money investments that local and foreign monopoly capitalists put into real estate, tourist projects and useless commercial ventures like shopping malls. "Ramos has only himself and his economic advisers in the InternationalMonetary Fund, the World Bank, and the GATT-World Trade Organization to blame for the sufferings we are only beginning to feel. He followed all their advice on pegging the peso to the dollar, liberalizing all sectors of the economy, converting farms into golf courses and putting down workers' wages," Atadero said. "Despite all these, he will junket in Switzerland to beg for more dollars to prop up his bankrupt Philippines 2000." Progay-Philippines is also alarmed at the reports of police forces in the Middle East arresting Filipino overseas contract workers who are gay or are accused of being gay, on the excuse of trying to impose strict Islamic traditions against persons suspected of courting sexual favors. "We at Progay believe that the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are looking for convenient excuses to quickly get rid of millions of OCWs who may try to remain and work in these countries after their contract expires. These petroleum exporting countries are experiencing recessions and want their own nationals to replace the guest workers." Atadero said he believes the diplomatic employees of the Philippine government do little to help the gay workers defend their rights and has merely resorted to banning gays from being sent to Qatar. He said that after benefitting from the dollars of cheap labor of Filipino OCWs for twenty years, the government will repatriate hundreds of thousands of workers with no jobs back home waiting for them. Progay surveyed several beauty parlors where gay workers confirmed that the prices of salon products shot up over the week by five per cent at the least due to the peso devaluation. Ryan, a hairdresser who works at the Robinson's Galeria, hopes that the coming school graduation season will compensate for the drop of customer visits he said was felt in the new year's first week. Progay said it interviewed dozens of hopeful gay OCWs destined for Japan and the Middle East and they expressed fear of shrinking demand for their services this year. Gays as a group experience discrimination when seeking jobs in the Philippines, and they largely end up in the informal sector as self-employed hairdressers, food vendors and sex workers. Progay said it will join the demonstrations of militant groups to protest the impending oil price increases. The group believes that the government should stop its unsustainable policy of deregulation, privatization and liberalization of the economy. "We should build our own industries to provide stable jobs for gay men and all other citizens, stop importing almost everything we need and return the land to the peasants so we can grow our own food again," Atadero said. # # # |
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