It's true, RP is a nation of servants, groups say

MANILA, Philippines - There are almost nine million Filipinos abroad – half of whom are overseas Filipino workers (OFW), yet we deny that we are a “nation of servants." It was Hong Kong writer Chip Tsao who wrote in his March 27 column that the Philippines is “a nation of servants" who shouldn’t “flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter." Many migrant groups, including the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), Kanlungan Center Foundation, and Migrante International, have bashed Tsao for spouting this "racial slur." Nevertheless, the groups admit that the Philippines has indeed become a country of overseas domestics because of the government's labor export policy that should have never been a policy at all. Kanlungan resource and advocacy assistant Alladin Diega did say, however, that the Philippines being called such is not a new thing. “Tsao is not the first and will not be the last. [The] Philippines being a nation of servants is not a new thing," he told GMANews.TV on Thursday. He said Merriam-Webster has even previously defined a Filipina as domestic help. But both CMA and Kanlungan questioned why Filipinos are so keen on denying the fact that we do have large a number of Filipinos doing domestic work abroad. “We react because we have too many domestic workers abroad? But we do," CMA executive director Ellene Sana told GMANews.TV in an e-mail. This, Diega said, is what we get by letting the government deploy thousands of Filipinos everyday to other countries instead of focusing on creating jobs locally. Institutionalization of migration The phenomenon of migration in the Philippines can be traced back to the 1970s when there was a surge in the number of Filipinos leaving for abroad. Dante Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, said this was because then Labor Secretary Blas Ople thought of deploying Filipino workers to the Middle East to take advantage of the oil-boom and at the same time, temporarily solve the growing unemployment rate in the country. “To the credit of the government, the policy of sending Filipino workers abroad helped defuse what could have been a social volcano," said Ang. However, more than 30 years after migration was pegged to be a temporary stop-gap measure against unemployment, the deployment of Filipino workers still hasn’t slowed down. In an article titled “Understanding International Labor Migration in the East," published in the May-June 2007 Newsletter of the Philippine Institute for Development, Maruja Asis, director for Research and Publications of the Scalabrini Migration Center, identified the factors why Filipino migration has continued for almost four decades. One of the reasons for this, she said, is the “institutionalization of migration." The Philippine government has always been very upfront with its desire to deploy more Filipinos overseas – allowing them to lessen the number of unemployed workers while increasing the amount of dollar remittances that the country would be able to rake in. And while it is clearly stipulated in Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 that the government “does not promote overseas employment as a means to sustain economic growth and achieve national development," it is doing just that. As proof, government agencies like the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs have been set up to help OFWs with their concerns. This, Asis said, might have developed a culture of migration. “Working abroad has become an accepted fate to most Filipinos," she said. In fact, she said it is now unusual for a Filipino to not to aspire for a job abroad despite being faced with proof that overseas is not really a haven for the unemployed. Continuous deployment of Filipinos overseas President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has previously said that she wishes for a time when Filipinos wouldn’t need to go abroad for work. However, recent deployment figures indicate that the awaited time has not come yet. The POEA said that a total of 165,737 Filipinos left for work abroad in January 2009 as compared to 132,285 in January 2008 – indicating an increase of 25.3 percent. It also said that the 2009 deployment target is one million – 16.6 percent of which has already been achieved. It added that about 5,346 Filipinos are being sent to work abroad daily. POEA Administrator Jennifer Manalili said that these somehow “eased" the concern of the Philippine government about the possible decline in the demand for Filipino workers abroad amid the global financial crisis. She even said that 400,000 more job orders await Filipino workers overseas, not mentioning the job orders that the Philippine government seems to be “ironing out" with various countries. In line with this, Arroyo issued Administrative Order 247 on December 4, 2008. Under it, the POEA shall “execute a paradigm shift by refocusing its functions from regulation to full-blast markets development efforts, the exploration of frontier, fertile job markets for Filipino expatriate workers." The Technical Education Skills Development Authority was also tasked to “intensify its skills retraining and skills upgrading program" for the labor marketing efforts of the POEA. The need for change Militant groups like Migrante International, meanwhile, demanded that the government be held accountable for the problems that Filipinos might or already face abroad. “We are holding this government accountable for its labor export policy that has sold our brightest minds as cheap commodities to foreign employers," Migrante secretary-general Gina Esguerra told GMANews.TV. She said the Philippine government should not take “slap[s] on our national dignity" sitting down. “Arroyo’s continuing labor export policy and the sheer lack of jobs at home have made millions of Filipino migrants vulnerable and targets of violence and discrimination," said Esguerra. Kanlungan’s Alladin Diega said if the government takes action, Filipino workers would not have to “contend" with abusive foreign employers. “Any self-respecting government should be wary of its citizen[s] finding livelihood outside its territory," he said. What it should do, said Sana, is to create jobs in the Philippines that pay decent wages. “Full employment for all should be government’s business," she said. She added that this would ultimately make migration just a career option for Filipinos. “If only we have jobs available for them here, then they do not have to work overseas," she said.- GMANews.TV