May 7th

Throughout the Week of Action, BAYAN members were on the ground speaking with the different migrant worker communities and areas with large concentrations of Filipino workers to understand their most pressing concerns. We continued the Barangay Lakbay in Jersey City to meet more contacts and share about our activities during the Week of Action. Many people had not known that these Philippine representatives were in New York conducting bilateral meetings nor collaborating with other foreign countries.

During the IMRF, the Philippines was projected to be a model of for labor migration - praised for their departments and welfare programs. One representatives claimed that the Philippine government had $300 million in welfare funds however, our campaigns show that these have not been adequately distributed among the migrant workers who face the brunt of the economic crisis - whether through wage violations, labor trafficking and or experience severe gender-based violence.

In the evening, BAYAN Northeast and ILPS hosted a Peace Forum highlighting the urgency to build the broad anti-war movement. US-led war is a major factor of forced migration globally. Panelists from different organizations such as Brooklyn Against War, FUIE, Adolfina, and NYCHRP spoke on the significance of waging campaigns against local war profiteers whose business impacts the safety and security of the people in the Philippines and in other developing countries.