The mail-order bride industry is also a significant factor in this export of women. In many cases, living in a foreign country entails cultural alienation, discrimination and often, physical abuse. The choice to leave one s home is not one that is made freely. Filipinos are compelled to work in foreign countries for economic reasons, most of the time, for reasons of sheer survival. Overseas Filipinos invariably send their earnings to support families back home, who are crucially dependent on this income.
Financial remittances come at sometimes deadly costs.
Maricris Sioson 3 names that exemplify what can happen and what does happen to our women. Their fates also illustrate vividly how unwilling the Philippine Government is when it comes to defending its own citizens. The Government did nothing when Maricris Sioson was killed in Japan with a sword thrust through the vagina. Government inaction is hardly a surprise. This export of human beings is a key economic strategy of the Government.