Government and non-government organizations working for the welfare of household workers or kasambahay in Negros Oriental are resurrecting efforts to push for the passage of an ordinance that will put in place protection mechanisms for the domestic work sector in Dumaguete City.
This after two proposed kasambahay ordinances failed to get the needed votes at the Dumaguete City Council, with the first one proposed by former City Councilor and now Second District Board Member Rotelio Lumjod and just recently by City Councilor Kenneth Arbas.
Proponents of the ordinance, mostly from the non-government organization Visayan Forum and its mass-based group of domestic workers Samahan at gnayanng Manggagawang Pantahanan sa Pilipinas (SUMAPI), were dismayed over the successive rejections but remain adamant to see the ordinance passed at the council.
“We will not give up because we believe this ordinance will benefit not only the domestic workers but their employers as well,” said Marlene Pepino of the Visayan Forum in Negros Oriental during a Kapihan forum held April 27, 2011 at Plaza Ma. Luisa Suites Inn.
Visayan Forum, said Pepino, has lately secured the support of the Provincial Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking in Persons (PIACAT), a council spearhead by the provincial government, to round up the needed support and figures to back the Kasambahay ordinance the next time it is pushed at the city council.
Romualdo Señeres of PIACAT, in the same forum, said they have started tallying the number of domestic workers in the city. “Next time we face the city council we can present the statistics to show how big a sector the local domestic work is,” he said.
The group likewise met with barangay captains and plans to organize the public schools with large numbers of working students to gain more support for the Kasambahay ordinance.
“We are looking at reviving the ordinance at the City Council either third quarter of this year or first quarter of next year,” Señeres said.
Should the ordinance be passed, Señeres said they are looking at promoting Dumaguete as a Kasambahay-friendly city in the region.
Aside from addressing the needs and protecting the welfare of domestic workers, the Kasambahay ordinance also mandates barangay captains to come up with a comprehensive listing of househelpers, including working students, in their area. This also includes taking the kasambahay’s photo and their pertinent details.
“This listing would also protect the interest of the employers whose families are at the care of domestic workers,” said Pepino.
She said there are around 2,000 household helpers in Negros Oriental listed by the Visayan Forum, but this is just a drop in the actual statistics. “Most of those we listed are working students only and does not include domestic workers who are not going to school,” she said. (RMN/PIA Negros Oriental)