BAGONG Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay rejoices at the impending release of Mary Jane Veloso. We also recognize the years of struggle behind Mary Jane’s freedom. Her family, her counsels, human rights advocates, migrant workers’ organizations, and countless supporters refused to allow her case to disappear. They kept fighting when it would have been easier for those in power to forget. Mary Jane’s freedom is a victory of collective struggle.
Mary Jane is home and about to be free. This is something to celebrate—but it also raises deeper questions. The Marcos Jr. administration may now seek to claim political credit for her release, but after she was transferred to the Philippines in 2024, the government has not explained why her release could not have been secured sooner, resulting in her continued detention.
Moreover, this recent development strengthens the demand for labor policy change. For years, Mary Jane became a symbol of the thousands of Filipino workers who leave the country every day because of the labor export policy. For decades since the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, successive governments have promoted overseas employment as a response to unemployment and poverty.
The scale of this forced migration is staggering. In 2024 alone, the Department of Migrant Workers recorded nearly two million land-based Filipino workers deployed abroad — an average of around 5,400 workers every day. Behind these numbers are millions of families separated by borders, workers exposed to exploitation and abuse, and parents who leave their children behind. Mary Jane’s ordeal exposed just how vulnerable Filipino migrant workers can become, particularly those who are poor and have limited choices.
Filipino workers are sent abroad so that their labor can bleed billions in remittances that buoy the Philippine economy in deepening crisis. While OFWs sent an estimated P262.2 billion in remittances in 2024 as per PSA survey, the Marcos Jr. administration still fails to create enough secure jobs at home. The government maintains an economy that pushes its own people to work abroad, then hails the OFWs as “heroes”.
To advance workers’ welfare, we must confront the neoliberal economic framework that successive administrations have pursued. These include policies that prioritize the liberalization of labor markets, and the privatization and deregulation of social services that should have been accessible for families. Such policies leave workers with low wages, insecure employment, and inadequate livelihood opportunities.
Protecting Filipino workers ultimately rests upon an economy that creates productive local industries and decent jobs and livelihoods, and is grounded on national industrialization and genuine land reform. We need an economy that puts the dignity of Filipino families above the interests of big business and foreign capital.
After the release of Mary Jane Veloso, the real measure of change is a country where Filipinos no longer have to leave home simply to survive. – ELMER FORRO, secretary general, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Panay <bayanpanay2014@gmail.com>
