OPINION
Migrante Canada`s Fourth Congress:
A Success
Tinig Migrante
By E. Maestro
Migrante Canada successfully
held its Fourth Congress in British
Columbia’s Lower Mainland last
February 10th with over 60 delegates
from its 21-member chapters from
BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ottawa,
Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba.
They were joined by observers and
guests from migrant workers, unions,
faith-based groups, youth and
students, women’s groups, migrants’
and people’s organizations, and the
academic community, including a
delegation from Seattle.
Migrante Canada, established
in 2010, is a proud chapter of
Migrante International, the biggest
global alliance of over 200 member
organizations of overseas Filipinos in
more than 23 countries.
The Fourth Congress of the
Canada-wide alliance of Filipino
migrant and immigrant organizations
began with a moving tribute to
Migrante member Petronila Cleto who
passed away on January 11, 2018.
Tess Agustin, the outgoing Chair of
Migrante, presented the gains and
challenges of Migrante Canada’s
member organizations from 2015-
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY February 16 - 28, 2018
A group shot of Migrante Canada delegates and observers (Feb 2018)
2017.
Social activist and Ibon
International’s
former
Executive
Director Mr. Antonio Tujan delivered
the keynote speech which focused
on migrants’ struggles in the context
of the Philippine national situation
and the global imperialist crisis.
Solidarity greetings came from the
International Migrants Alliance, many
Migrante chapters from the different
global regions, the East Indian
Defense League, Rev. Stu Lyster
from Churches Witnessing Migrants,
A group photo from the Migrante BC Family! (Feb 2018)
and from Ms. Consuelo Ledesma, a
member of the National Democratic
Front Panel in the Peace Negotiations
with the Government of the Republic
of the Philippines.
Migrante Congress delegates
collectively worked together and
passed a three-year General Program
of Action that reflected the theme of
the conference to consolidate and
strengthen Migrante Canada. They
also passed several resolutions, and
one of them was to support and
promote a social media platform
called
Compass
to
safeguard
help
migrants to network
and communicate with
other migrants.
Carrying
the
General Program of
Action forward is the
new set of elected
officers of Migrante
Canada:
Maria Sol
Prieto (Chair), Aimee
Beboso (Vice-Chair),
Joselito
Calugay
(General
Secretary),
Jane
Ordinario
(Treasurer), and Marco
Luciano
(Solidarity
Officer).
Newly-elected Chair
Maria Sol Prieto said,
“Overseas
Filipinos
continue to leave the
Philippines under the
labour export policy,
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driven by many social and political
problems such as poverty, lack of
jobs, landlessness, the lack of health
care and other social benefits. Current
figures estimate that 6,000 Filipino
men and women leave for jobs overseas
every day.” She continued,“One of the
important tasks that we need to do in
order to meet our overall objectives is
to work hard to increase the number of
member organizations in the Alliance.
So go forth and multiply and advance
our militant struggle against tyranny
and fascism and towards genuine
economic development and peace in
the Philippines.”
The Fourth Congress ended
on a high note with a Cultural and
Solidarity Night with performances
from Migrante Canada organizations
and Professor and poet Nora Angeles,
classically trained tenor Jeremiah
Carag, the Solidarity Notes Labour
Choir, and songwriter and cultural
worker Levy Abad.
Migrante Canada and the
local host committee Migrante BC
acknowledged the many volunteers
and supporters for their time and
resources in making the Fourth
Congress a success, specifically the
Gold sponsors MLA Mable Elmore
of Vancouver-Kensington, Unifor
and LiUNA!; Silver sponsors Kairos
Canada and Joyce Lovitos; and
Bronze Sponsors Oxfam and Desi
Louvris.
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