On Ronquillo’s “Saudization? It might be a blessing” piece

My letter to the editor of the Manila times was published today 23 July 2011.  Here's my letter:

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On Ronquillo’s “Sau-dization? It might be a blessing” piece

Published : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 14:20

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/2225-on-ronquillos-sau-dization-it-might-be-a-blessing-piece

Article Views : 93

Dear Marlen V. Ronquillo:

I think you are ill informed of the Saudization program of the Saudi Arabian government and the reason why they stopped hiring domestic workers from our country. You should have at least called the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and asked information from the POLO before you wrote your column. Saudization is the Kingdom’s policy that compels companies in the private sector to hire Saudi nationals. Quotas are given by the Labor Ministry depending on the which sector the business is operating in. Saudization does not include the household workers.

The Saudi government banned deployment of the household workers from the Philippines after they and the Philippines could not agree on the salary scale for household workers. The PHL government is asking for USD 400 minimum wage for a Filipino domestic worker while the Saudi Government only wants USD 200. This has nothing to do with the Nitaqat program.

I’m disappointed considering that you call yourself an opinion writer. The least you could do is research before you write something. I’m also appalled why your editor even published your column,

Regards,

braggito

[Editor’s note: Once the editors have chosen a writer to be a Times columnist, we allow him to stand or fall on what he writes. We do not censor our columnists. And we rely on alert readers like yourself to make the correction or amplification. If we do not get a reader’s reaction to a columnist’s error after a couple of days, a Times staffmember would then write a correcting piece and an amplification.]