Education key to prevent modern slavery, solon says

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker suggested that education is the key to prevent overseas Filipino workers from ending up as "modern slaves" abroad and to help them find more decent jobs.

Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian made this statement in response to the 2014 Global Slavery Inder report that half of the Filipino women working outside the country are unskilled and are being employed either as domestic helpers or sex workers.

The report defined modern slavery as one person possessing or controlling another person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal."

The lawmaker noted that most of the said Filipina workers are high school dropouts which makes them vulnerable to modern slavery.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that there are more women who have higher educational attainment than men - 21.3 percent of women finish high school while men recorded 20.1 percent - but labor force participation for men (78.1 percent) is still higher than women's (49.8 percent).

"The government also needs to create more job opportunities for women with families so they need not go abroad for work just to perform their duty to help in the household's finances. The government can do so by stepping up its efforts in drawing foreign direct investments," Gatchalian said.

The Global Slavery Index revealed that Filipinas are often subjected to forced labor and experience sexual and physical abuse from their employers, especially those in Asia and the Middle East.

The Philippines ranked 103rd out of 167 countries in the Index, with 261,200 people in modern slavery in the country.