Filipino Fishermen from American Samoa Back in the Philippines
Wilfred Sab-it, Rowel Compas, Gideon Salbino, Joseph Rivera, Dexter Gragasin, and Jonathan Masquera, and several other Filipinos had various serious complaints about work conditions on the Taiwanese fishing boats and contract violations on wages so they decided not to re-board when the boats docked at Pago Pago. While waiting for their complaints to be solved, the Filipino fishermen were helped in various ways by their many kababayans in Pago Pago, among them Leila Stahlmann, Zosimo Alivia, Ardie Roque.
From American Samoa, the six Filipino fishermen, as passengers, boarded one of the Taiwanese boats which brought them to Hongkong where they took a flight to Manila. This was arranged by the Taiwanese company which also gave them funds computed on their earnings with deductions for expenses. The six fishermen arrived in the Philippines on the last week of November 2008 and have been reunited with their families.
There is an ongoing investigation by Philippine authorities concerning the recruitment process and the companies, such as Step-Up Marine Company in Singapore, and persons involved in the hiring of the six fishermen and their companions based on their complaints. Apparently, there has been a lot of serious misrepresentation made by syndicates to jobseekers recruited to work on fishing boats in Pacific waters. END
09 February 2009
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