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Recruiter questions BSP data on OFW remittances


The former president of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (PASEI) dares the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to tell the people the truth that the biggest share of dollar remittances does not come from the United States. PASEI is a group of private employment agencies that has 650 member-licensed agencies sending Filipino workers abroad. Lito Soriano, a former OFW who now owns a recruitment agency that sends workers to the Middle East, is contesting the BSP’s yearly data on remittances, showing that the biggest dollar sender to the country is the US . “The biggest dollar earners for the Philippines are the contract workers in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia and not the migrant workers in the US , Canada , Australia and other countries in Europe ," Soriano said. However, local banks deposit Middle East remittances in their New York accounts, and when it is time to get the dollars, the BSP simply logs the inflow as coming from NY banks, he said. This is why, he said, BSP’s latest report on remittances shows that of the more than $12 billion that came in 2006, $6 to $8 billion appears to be coming from the US . Philippine Overseas Employment Administrations (POEA) record shows that in 2006, only one percent or less of the total deployment of overseas contract workers went to the US . He said that there is a world of difference between a contract worker and an immigrant worker in terms of sending remittances. The former, mostly deployed in the Middle East , sends money to his family in the home country. The latter, because they are immigrants, lives with his family in the host country and does not send remittances. Immigrants sends dollars to relatives back home during special occasions such as Christmas, birthdays, weddings and so on. The US , Canada , Australia and other countries in Europe encourage immigrant workers and discourages contract workers as a matter of policy. –GMANews.TV

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