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OFW deployment widens rich-poor gap


MANILA, Philippines - Overseas Filipinos are now in 239 countries and territories and have sent more than $120 billion in remittances in the last three decades, but only the richest provinces have benefited and unemployment remains chronic, data show. Less than a tenth of all households in the Philippines are receiving remittances — more than half of them in Luzon — contributing to the widening gap between the rich and the poor (divide), according to a statistical publication on Philippine migration to be released next week. Rizal, Cavite, Pampanga, Laguna, and Cebu are the top recipients of remittances, and the amounts are far larger than money raised annually by provincial governments from taxes and other sources. Data from the Philippine Migration and Development Statistical Almanac show that despite the yearly deployment of Filipino workers, unemployment has not gone down below 2.2 million. The ratio of overseas workers to jobless Filipinos in fact reached an 11-year peak in 2007, at 51.5%, when temporary and permanent migrants totaled 1.16 million. That year, the unemployment rate stood at 7.4%, equivalent to 2.25 million workers. Men send more money home than women yearly on the average (P96,000 vs. P51,000 in 2007). But women are more likely to migrate permanently, and those who want to leave the Philippines for good flock to North America, particularly the United States. Temporary workers go the Middle East and other Asian destinations, the biggest being Saudi Arabia. Families receiving assistance from migrants abroad got P208.8 billion in 2000 (a total of 1.1 million households), P245.8 billion in 2003 (1.31 million households), and P348.5 billion in 2006 (1.6 million households), based on the government’s triennial Family Income and Expenditure Survey. The 2006 survey covered a total of 17.4 million families. Rizal topped all provinces with P19.3 billion in remittances in 2006, a huge increase from only P9.3 billion in 2000. Cavite households with migrant workers received P18.2 billion, followed by Pampanga (P16.6 billion), Laguna (P15.2 billion), and Cebu (P14.6 billion). Rounding out the top 10 are Iloilo, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Batangas, and Zambales. "The provinces benefiting from remittances are mostly in the periphery of Metro Manila," said economist Alvin P. Ang, head of the Social Research Center of the University of Santo Tomas, who processed the provincial data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey. "This validates what we already know, that only richer regions benefit from migration," he said in an interview. "That’s the irony of remittances. Only those who have money are able to leave the country." The statistical compendium, published by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues, used data from various government agencies such as the National Statistics Office, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Jeremaiah M. Opiniano, executive director of the institute, noted that remittances received by the same provinces were bigger than incomes of local government units (LGUs). Based on 2003 data, Rizal had the biggest "remittance-provincial LGU income gap" of P13 billion, followed by Cavite (P11.8 billion) and Laguna (P9.6 billion). Cebu province, which had the highest provincial LGU income in 2003 with P1.7 billion, had an P8.2 billion remittance-to-LGU provincial income gap. Meanwhile, 24 out of the Philippines’ 79 provinces had remittances that were less than the provincial government income, and many of them are among the poorest in the country. "If the government won’t change its overseas employment strategy, it should be spread to the regions," Mr. Ang said. Sought for comment, Labor Secretary Marianito D. Roque said the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was not a stopgap measure versus unemployment. "The government is not forcing anyone to leave the country for work. We are trying our best to provide for the 2.6 million who are unemployed but we are not telling them to leave the country. Being an OFW is an option," he told BusinessWorld. National Economic and Development Authority deputy director-general Augusto B. Santos said the agency’s own studies also point to the fact that the OFW phenomenon is concentrated in rich provinces. "OFWs coming from richer provinces [have better capacity] and have more skills because these provinces have better education and social services. These OFWs work as teachers and healthcare givers," he said. "I am not surprised that the remittances of certain provinces are greater than the income of the province because sending OFWs is a phenomenon. "It is natural that remittances exceed the income of provinces as it is 20-25% of GDP (gross domestic product)," he added. — Felipe F. Salvosa II, Louella D. Desiderio, Emand Emilia Narni J. David, BusinessWorld
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