Presidential bets told: Show plans for OFWs

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is challenging presidential bets to bare a concrete platform of governance for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). In a statement published on the CBCP Website, Fr. Edwin Corros of the CBCP Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) said that most presidential bets “do not show enthusiasm" in protecting the rights of OFWs. “Apparently, nothing seems shimmering in the platform or program among most candidates," Corros said. He said that Filipinos abroad want to know the candidates’ plans on solving the lack of jobs in the country and ensuring their safe working conditions overseas. “We’ve been repeating the same thing from previous leaders. Up to the present, the challenge is still the same," he said. Reviewing the bills that have impacted the migrant sector, Corros said that “ECMI could not find something significant that candidates, especially coming from among former legislators, could claim genuine benefits to the OFWs and their families." “In fact for the future leaders, this has always been the challenge for them to create an economic[ally] sustainable environment in our country so that our people have an option whether to stay or just leave," Corros said. Of the nine presidential candidates, Olongapo City councilor JC de los Reyes, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas, evangelist Eddie Villanueva, and Senators Maria Ana Consuelo Madrigal and Manuel Villar have expounded in their platforms programs for OFWs. Senators Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Richard Gordon have stated a general vision for the overseas migrant sector, while former defense chief Gilberto Teodoro and former President Joseph Estrada have not bared any concrete plans. In 2009, OFWs brought in $17 billion, 10 times bigger than the expected foreign direct investment. Labor export, which began in the Marcos administration, steadily increased and reached its peak under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration. In 2008, President Arroyo issued Administrative Order No. 247, allowing the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) “to 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." The Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimated almost 8.2 million OFWs in 193 countries around the world as of 2008. - Nikka Corsino/LBG, GMANews.TV