Report by an Intern of DSWD

 

My one year internship program at ISSJ ended. The warm reception, acceptance and support I have received from the entire management and staff of ISSJ since I arrived last July 8, 2000 goes beyond the time I'm leaving. The changing of four seasons was experienced but the friendship and cooperation that was established will always remain.

There are increasing numbers of children born in Japan whose parents are both Filipinos, overstay and not legally married or Japanese and Filipino or Filipino and other nationalities and not legally married. The implication is that many children are classified as illegitimate and overstay. In some other cases, the children are not yet registered at the Philippine Embassy because their parents believe that registering them at the Embassy may mean repatriation to the Philippines. If the parents have no plan to go home yet, they keep their children in Japan and while working, they entrust them to other caretakers. Others look for possibility of sending their children back to the Philippines, which repatriation process takes place. However, in some cases also, we heard of parents who seek the help of a group/organization to immediately send children to the Philippines without any further investigation or documentation at ISSJ and DSWD. Accordingly the payment costs \300,000. As assessed, this is where the so-called child trafficking prevails. Thus, we immediately brought this up to the Philippine Embassy for thorough assessment of children going to the Philippines. It was also suggested that the name of the escort should be included in the travel document of the children.

In adoption cases, there are lots of local adoption concerns such as: finalizing the adoption in the Philippines even without home study report from ISSJ for the Japanese-Filipino or US-Filipino couple. In this regard, several questions were raised by other petitioners. This has been already raised to DSWD and ICAB so that we will be guided and informed about the proper procedure.

Fixed/arranged marriage and marriage for convenience are quite rampant here. The implication of this is the lack of foundation of love and understanding, thus entailed a low rate of survival. In this regard, there should be a thorough orientation for the Filipino women going to Japan to get married to Japanese or be united with their Japanese husband so that they will be aware of their roles, responsibilities. Filipino women should also know where to seek assistance once problems occurred.

It's a very good opportunity to be in Japan and work at ISSJ. The experiences I had are very enriching that adds to my profession as I go back to DSWD. I hope that this internship program will be continued and working agreement and relationship of ISSJ and DSWD be strengthened. I know that there are lots of problems of Filipino in Japan, particularly concerning children and women, and with this internship program DSWD is extending the necessary help and psycho-social intervention.

I will always cherish all the good times and memories with ISSJ. Thank you very much.

July 5, 2001
Submitted by: RHODORA R. BAJA, RSW
DSWD Social Worker