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OFW problem poses major challenge for next president


They may have brought home the bacon – $17 billion in 2009 or over 10 times bigger than last year's expected foreign direct investment – but more than an economic force, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have evolved into a social phenomenon that the country’s next president needs to resolve decisively. The Filipino diaspora has fostered a “culture of migration," Professor Mary Lou Alcid of the University of the Philippines’ College of Social Work and Community Development said in a campus forum in early February. This has resulted in “transnational Filipino families" with the father in Saudi Arabia, the mother in Hongkong, the daughter in Taiwan, the brother in Dubai, and the youngest left in the Philippines, she added. In the May elections, migration experts believe that voters should pick a candidate who can resolve the problem of large-scale labor deployment abroad which results in the break-up of families, abuse of OFWs, the spread of infectious diseases, and other ills. However, less than three months before the polls, migrant groups say no candidate has come up with specific strategies to address these problems. “Migration is a new answer to a very old problem, which is unemployment," said Maria Angela Villalba, executive director of the non-government Unlad Kabayan Migrant Service Foundation.

What the presidential candidates say about OFWs
All but two of the presidential candidates have articulated their vision or platform regarding the government's labor export policy. Read what the presidential hopefuls have to say about OFWS here.
While some candidates have been helping abused OFWs get repatriated, none of them has come up with a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of Filipinos who are forced to work abroad as a matter of necessity, she said. “(Most of them) are just focused on migrants in distress…and not on the migration problem itself," says Villalba. With the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimating an average of $13.6 billion or a staggering P627 billion worth of remittances from OFWs every year, it is no wonder the government values human capital more than any other export. The Philippines places third in the world when it comes to the volume of overseas deployment, next only to China and India, the two most populous countries in the world. This makes Asia “the largest source of temporary contractual migrant workers worldwide," according to IOM. OFWs in 200 countries The migration phenomenon is common among developing countries that are making the transition from agrarian economies to industrialization, according to social scientists. Labor export either stops or becomes an optional decision when countries achieve economic development, like what happened in South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. While they were strengthening their economies through industrialization in the 1980s, these countries relied on labor export. However, this trend stopped when they achieved economic progress that ensured sustainable domestic jobs, according to the report The future of Labor Migration in Asia: Patterns, Issues, Policies by Ron Skeldon. Unfortunately, such a transition has not happened in the Philippines more than three decades after labor export was first introduced, supposedly as a temporary remedy to unemployment.
OFWs from the '70s to the '90s

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Back in the 1970s, labor migration was seen by the government not as a problem but a solution to rising unemployment and inadequate foreign exchange earnings to pay for increasing foreign debts. The solution was supposed to be temporary while the government was working toward building a solid domestic economy that could generate sustainable local jobs. However, the stopgap measure became a policy when the Marcos administration created laws during Martial Law that became the foundation for the government's overseas employment program. In 1974, President Ferdinand Marcos came out with Presidential Decree 442 or the Labor Code. Among its goals was “to ensure the careful selection of Filipino workers for the overseas labor market to protect the good name of the Philippines abroad." Three agencies were created to pursue this goal: (1) the National Seamen Board (NSB) that was tasked to “develop and maintain a comprehensive program for Filipino seamen employed overseas" (2) the Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB) that should “promote the overseas employment of Filipino workers through a comprehensive market and development program," and (3) the Bureau of Employment Services (BES) which is responsible for the regulation of “private sector participation in the recruitment of (local and overseas) workers." Continue Reading
“The transition is probably taking longer than expected," admitted Dante Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, in a speech at the Dalhousie University in Canada in 2008. Labor export reached its peak under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who further strengthened the government’s policy of sending workers abroad through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). “The POEA shall execute a paradigm shift by refocusing its functions from regulation to full-blast market development efforts, the exploration of frontier, fertile job markets for Filipino expatriate workers," declared Arroyo in Administrative Order No. 247 issued on December 4, 2008. The edict said her administration’s “target shall be to increase the countries currently hosting Filipino workers and break through the 200-country barrier." At that time, OFWs had reached 1,236,013 or 42 percent more than the deployment in 2001, when Arroyo assumed the presidency. Joblessness worsened during her term, with the highest unemployment rate of 11.8 per cent since 1992 recorded in 2004. As of November 2009, the POEA estimated that more than 1.28 million Filipino workers were deployed abroad that year. Overall, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas has reported that as of 2008, almost 8.2 million Filipinos were estimated to be working abroad in 193 countries and territories, which means that the Arroyo government has yet to achieve its target. Stakeholders in nation-building Their substantial spending power should have made OFWs an economic force to reckon with, but unfortunately their contribution has not seemed to make a dent in the efforts to reduce poverty in the Philippines. “Sige pwede kang magpadala ng tao. Pero paano natin gagamitin ang mga remittances?" (Yes, we can send people, but how will we use the remittances?) said UP’s Alcid. What is needed is not “jobless economic growth" but development that will allow Filipino workers to find jobs in the country, she added. “[Migrants should not be] objects of policies. The issue here is about turning them into stakeholders also in nation building, in crafting policies for national development," said Dr. Jorge Tigno of UP Diliman’s Political Science department. “Importanteng papel ang ginagawa nila, hindi lang iyong pagpapadala ng remittances." (They have an important role to play, not just sending remittances.) Villalba, whose organization promotes the provision of entrepreneurial opportunities for OFWs, emphasized the importance of a “savings consciousness" among the country’s overseas workers so they can have a more proactive role in nation-building. “Ang sabi namin, kung mayroon kayong impok, kahit paano iyong level of vulnerability ninyo ay nare-reduce," Villalba said. “Marami pa namang Pilipinong naiiwan dito ah, nabubuhay pa rin. Mayroong yaman ang Pilipinas. Iyong ating kinikita sa ibang bansa, kaya rin nating kitain dito." (We tell them, if you have savings, your level of vulnerability gets reduced. There are many Filipinos who remain here and survive anyway. The Philippines has its own wealth. What we earn in other countries, we can also earn here.)

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Other advocates believe a change in perspective on the part of national leaders is needed to allow OFWs to make the choice between continuing to work abroad or going home. “Industrialization through genuine agrarian reform is the key. But this will entail a change in the balance of power. The majority of the poor who mostly come from the rural areas will benefit from this kind of economic development," said Ellene Sana, executive director of the non-government organization Center for Migrant Advocacy. “But this also means that the elite controlling the country’s resources will no longer be as powerful and influential. The question is, will the next president be bold enough to tilt the economic balance of power?" she said. Without a Philippine president who has the political will to detour from the labor export policy path, research head Jose Enrique Africa of the think tank Ibon Foundation doubts that the next administration would be able to make overseas employment an option. “Domestic agriculture and industry have to be built to guarantee sustainable jobs. Severe socio-economic and political inequity should be addressed if the next leader really wants to solve the problem," he said. “If the next president will be able to do this, then being an OFW will no longer be a necessity but just an option. Filipinos will no longer work abroad to be able to provide basic necessities to their families," Africa concluded. – with reports from Andreo C. Calonzo/YA, GMANews.TV Illustration by Analyn Perez
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