October 23, 2018 Diwang Pilipino, Tatak Euro-Pinoy Conference Statement

Diwang Pilipino, Tatak Euro-Pinoy Conference Statement

“Diwang Pilipino, Tatak Euro-Pinoy”
A Conference on the Exploration of Filipino Values as Tools for Understanding and Supporting the Global Agenda to End Poverty and to Protect the Environment

ENFiD 2018 Paris Conference Statement

We, the delegates of the ENFiD 2018 Conference celebrate our strengthened organisation from a courage filled idea, to project implementations, and to welcoming new endeavours as we carry on with ENFiD’s next chapter. We realize how essential it is to incorporate our values in conveying our roles and how universally relevant ENFiD’s projects and activities are. After exploring and reflecting on our core values as tools for understanding and supporting the Global Agenda and the Paris Agreement and honouring the blending of Filipino Spirit and European values that enrich our lives, we, the 91 delegates from 16 countries at ENFiD 2018 Conference, Diwang Pilipino, Tatak Euro-Pinoy, make the following statements and recommendations:

From the Plenary discussion, we agree to engage to:

  • Promote ENFiD vigorously and project the Euro-Pinoy Character.
  • Prioritise which issues ENFiD should focus on and identify relevant projects, for example- trafficking, that will get funds from European agencies and other government and multilateral organisations.
  • Enter the political arena by encouraging fellow Filipinos to run for public office inEurope.
  • Celebrate our roots and ensure that the Euro-Pinoy youth know our culture andpractices.
  • Capitalise on our values such as bayanihan, pakikisama, malasakit, and pagigingmatatag when making our contribution to the SDGs.
  • Practice retrospection as a community and remember our past and make use ofthem in our current advocacies.
  • Educate ourselves with the solutions we may need when addressing challenges.
  • Transform our values; the so-called negative values can be used positively. And remember to go deeper in understanding the problems happening in the Philippines as these shape peoples’ values.
  • Focus on Filipino leadership in the coming ENFiD Conference.

THE WORKSHOPS

The plenary was followed by the following workshops on areas that ENFiD considers important.

SENFiD (Senior ENFiD):
The Euro-Filipinos who are of (nearing) retirement age are faced with questions such as when and where to retire and how to spend their retirement years. It was agreed in the workshop that it is important to identify and profile the contribution of Euro-Pinoy seniors.

 

One need identified is to acquire financial literacy. We recommend, that:

  • On the portability of health insurance: we need to examine the various policies in different countries and how to transfer these benefits in the Philippines.
  • On psychological care of seniors: streamline and give attention to this area.
  • On cooperation: introduce a barter system among retirees.
  • On reintegration in the Philippines: create a community for seniors through coordination with realtors and other private and government agencies.
Workshop on Pilosopiyang Pilipino: Filipino values in a foreign setting
The identified challenges are:

 

  • Thirsting of our children to experience and re-live their being Filipino/a/x.
  • Cultural identity crisis within the home setting.
  • How to live our daily lives/bring up children experiencing Filipino and European seasons and festivals.Therefore it was recommended to:
  • Strive to live a life focused on essential matters about Diwang Pilipino and Euro Pinoy starting from the womb through reading and re-telling of stories to our children;
  • To hold PinOlympics: Pinoy street games.
  • To have an ENFiD-wide compilation of Kwentong Bayan, Awitin, Sayaw, Musika, Alamat, Salawikain (A Panitikang Euro-Pinoy). And for ENFiD to allocate online space for resources provided by members.
YENFiD (Youth ENFiD)

 

  • Filipino youth is about the merging of European and Filipino values;
  • Important values: spirituality, resilience, responsible, youth activism;

Some Filipino youth feel exposed to questions of ‘Where are you really from?’
We recommend:

  • For ENFiD to strengthen YENFiD and empower youth to think critically
  • For YENFiD to: to Combat misogyny and rape
  • to Promote the practice organic farming and sustainability
  • Fight fake news.

LGBTQ-ENFiD
The Conference Delegates are supportive and accepting of the LGBTQ. The idea of belonging, conservatism, being in-between were discussed in this workshop. Questions regarding whether being an LGBTQ is a sin or illness have been raised and debated. It was concluded that ENFiD is ready for the LGBTQ agendaThe following are the recommendations:

  • Promote acceptance;
  • Address the question of how to reconcile morality and sexuality;
  • Promote sportsmanship and LGBTQ issues, similar to the PinOlympics.
Workshop on the re-integration and portability of social security benefits, we state that:

 

  • Identification of the ideal scenario: jobs, insurance, program for seniors, clean environment and good relations with the community or ugnayan.
  • Current resources are not sufficient to retire in the Philippines. The reasons identified are: migration status; age discrimination; crime management; available government funds and subsidy. The participants agree that it is time to enjoy life when Euro￾Pinoys go back (for good) to the Philippines.

The following solutions were recommended:

  • Find available funding with other partners in the Philippines or in the EU to have financial literacy for migrants and families back home and to access the right and necessary information;
  • Advocate for a policy that will allow Filipinos to invest in the Philippines. CFO will push for this law in the Philippines;
  • Make insurance portable;
  • Enforce anti-age discrimination in the Philippines;
  • Better job matching, capitalising the skills and knowledge of returning Filipinos;
  • National IDs for migrants, which can be good for opening bank accounts or other applications;
  • Use technology to find information like the MigApp;
  • Organize psycho-social health seminars for returnees.

The Delegates of the ENFiD 2018 Paris Conference agree and support these collective recommendations.

We thank ENFiD-France for hosting the ENFiD 2018 Conference and all the ENFiD supporters, officers, and members throughout Europe and Israel who made this conference possible. We are grateful for the support and knowledge of the speakers, Consul Hendrik Garcia and Rosa Cordillera-Castillo, who provided us invaluable insights. To our fellow ENFiD colleague, Dorie Reyes Poloczek, for the inspiring poem she wrote and recited for this conference. We also acknowledge the support of the Philippine government representatives, Ambassador

Theresa Lazaro, Ambassador Grace Princesa, and CFO Director Regina Galias, who took time to spend this day with us and for the Philippine government’s continued support to ENFiD.

We also extend our gratitude to Msgr. Don Vito Pavilando for the spiritual guidance he provided us. And finally, to IOM, thank you for your confidence in ENFiD, we hope that this project is the beginning of many more collaborations.

Signed in Paris, France on October 19, 2018

By the 91 Delegates of the 2018 ENFiD Paris Conference from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Vatican City State, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, The Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

ANNEX

Consolidated Past Conference Statements and Recommendations

(AGA). ENFiD, which started as a seed of hope by and for Euro-Pinoys, has now grown into a dynamic collective of impassioned kababayans. In the last five years we have become witnesses in establishing ENFiD as a platform for our social, cultural, political, and economic advocacies; as a learning institution providing knowledge and support to Filipinos in Europe; and as a leader in promoting concrete projects that are beneficial to our communities.

Through the strong vision and determination of our fellow Filipinos in Europe, we are privileged to celebrate today in Paris ENFiD’s 5th Conference and Annual General Assembly

At the first mini-conference in Madrid in 2014, the 40 Euro-Pinoys from 11 countries adopted the Five Year Strategy Plan aimed In the last five years we have become witnesses in establishing ENFiD as a platform for our social, cultural, political, and economic advocacies; as a learning institution providing knowledge and support to Filipinos in Europe; and as a leader in promoting concrete projects that are beneficial to our communities.

From this, the Two-year Action Plan (2YAP) emerged addressing the strengthening of ENFiD as an organisation and the mapping out of ENFiD’s advocacies and programs. As an organisation, ENFiD identified key aspects to focus on, namely: A strong Secretariat that oversees the management of the entire organisation, the drafting of the Constitution and By-Laws including the House Rules and Rights and Responsibilities of Country Representatives; Fund-raising and expansion of partnerships both at European and international levels and most especially with various Philippine government institutions. As for ENFiD’s program and advocacies, the 2YAP covered the following themes: Euro-Pinoy Youth; Sustainable Energy; Art and Culture; and Training and Education. In addition, ENFiD advocated for the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV), the West Philippine Sea (WPS), and the exposition of trafficking and recruitment irregularities in Malta.

From Malta in 2015, to Prague, Czech Republic in 2016, and Essen, Germany in 2017 ENFiD has gathered a list of valuable conference statements and recommendations that have guided the organisation towards the path of improving the services it provides to the Filipino community throughout Europe and extending support to our fellow countrymen in the Philippines. The recommendations consolidated in this annex has been grouped into four categories, namely: Learning and Development; Advocacy, Migration and Development, and ENFiD programs/projects. These recommendations are on-going and developing tasks of ENFiD promoted to its member countries for their local implementation and practice.

For Learning and Development, ENFiD identified the following recommendations:

  • Provide newly arrived Filipino migrants integration insight and leadership skills in cooperation with the Philippine Embassies.
  • Lead and initiate seminars covering financial literacy and social entrepreneurship.
Identify on-going related seminars and work with leaders and other learning providers on focused topics.
  • Establish partnership and sponsorship with the Philippine Embassies and local government for training support.
  • Prioritise the youth agenda, gender and development, and financial and social literacy.

As for Advocacy, these are the recommendations ENFiD has received:

  • Promote participation of Filipinos in politics at European, national, and local levels.

Participation is key in integration and ENFiD believes that the organisation can be a source of integration information through the website.

  • Gender mainstreaming in all ENFiD programs.
  • ENFiD should take the lead in making sure that the Filipinos are presented on a positive note by showing our contributions to the European societies and not as victims in diverse media platforms.
  • Urge the Philippine government to take the lead in assisting and ensuring the reintegration and portability of social security benefits for returning Filipino migrants.
  • Urge President Duterte to engage in integrated rehabilitation program for drug users; and to appoint career and non-career Ambassadors and officers who are responsive to the needs of Filipinos abroad and to consider opening more consulates and embassies.
  • Inform the Philippine government about the necessity of having attachés who will act on the concerns of overseas Filipinos.
  • To take a pro-active stance in the discussion about the formation of the Department of Migration and Development.
  • Explore the possibility of having direct electoral representatives of overseas Filipinos in Congress.
  • ENFiD to initiate review of the EU health care system and to make recommendations to the Philippine government.
  • To advocate with other overseas Filipino communities and urge the Philippine government to create online registration and online voting.
  • To function as a platform for coordinating advocacy work at the EU level.
  • Urge the Philippine government institutions to integrate social remittances in their policies and programs.

For Migration and Development, ENFiD has been tasked to:

  • Provide the CFO and Philippine Embassies insight regarding migration and development.
  • Create an ENFiD Committee on Migration and Development for economic promotions.
  • Provide an insight as to which types of investments Filipinos do in the Philippines.
  • Promote gender sensitivity.
  • Improve the Biogas Digester project to make it financially sustainable; systematically involve ENFiD member countries; and expand partnerships in the Philippines, for  example, with Atikha.

And for ENFiD Programs/Projects, the organisation has been tasked to:

  • Create leadership training and provide support for the Euro-Pinoy youth.
  • Map out the Filipino artists in Europe.
  • Collaborate with other ethnic groups.
  • Promote inter-country sports activities.
  • Launch SENFiD.
  • Forge partnerships with existing groups that are focused on creating collective efforts like Atikha/Ekolife.
  • Mainstream Arts and Culture.
  • Partner with socio-economic groups both locally and in the Philippines.