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I received many beautiful birthday gifts last month
from my BFF (best friend forever), Georgina Camacho, who has very
snugly settled in Carson, California, USA, in her own home with an
exciting job as paralegal in a large and prestigious law firm,
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.
We took a cruise from Long Beach
to Catalina Island to Ensenada, Mexico, and back to Los Angeles. It
was the first time I ever sailed in a big ship. There were so many
Filipinos working with Carnival Paradise, mostly with the band,
technical, restaurants, casino and housekeeping departments. Gina so
generously tipped them every step of the way because we discovered
that the stewards and wait crew depend 100 percent on tips for
income. They do not receive any salary at all, not a single penny.
They even shoulder the cost of their air travel to and from the port
of embarkation.
Filipinos receive a monthly
average of $1,000 in gratuities. They work continuously for six to
nine months, and are sent home to rest for 3 months with an option
to go back.
The Filipino maids working
in Taipei receive the equivalent of $200-$300 in monthly wages. They
shoulder their own airfare, pay a placement fee to the recruitment
agency here and pay a monthly fee to the recruitment agency in
Taipei.
In Chapter 11 of his orange book,
The Philippine Economy: Do our leaders have a clue? author Rey
Angeles writes about the ramifications of sending Filipinos to work
overseas.
“When after a long journey
abroad they must come home in the end, the OFW has aged, has lost
touch with friends, associations and connections, and is now
clueless on how he must begin his new life and find work.
“The second point of view
belongs to the government and the media who are keenly sanguine
about the increasing volume of remittances sent in the economy by an
increasing number of OFWs leaving the country.
“Our skilled workers and
managers are leaving us in great numbers and, like the players of
the basketball team we trained so hard to man our court, are leaving
us to play for our competitors.
“It gladdens the heart that our
skilled people continue to find greater opportunities in foreign
lands. However, it saddens the heart that local industries can’t
give them work. It saddens the heart that their departure will
further impair the already devastated local industries. It is
saddening the government is looking only at dollar remittances and
has totally ignored the loss of skilled workers and managers in our
factories, offices and institutions. It is even more gravely
saddening that the government has no plans to how the OFWs can be
won back to return and work in our economy.
“Sending our best source of
competitive advantage to work for our competitors abroad will remain
the strongest proof of the mismanagement of the economy.”
In researching the facts and
figures for his book, Rey found out that the POEA does not have
stock estimates of overseas Filipinos for 2005 and 2006. Neither
does it give any rough estimate of the number of Filipinos abroad
under permanent, temporary and irregular status who are working or
who are employable.
Every Filipino, especially the
young and those with entrepreneurial interests, should read Rey’s
orange book to be able to argue intelligently about the economic
realities and indicators that should make a difference in our life,
individually and collectively as a nation. 
(moje@mydestiny.net;
www.learningandinnovation.com; www.paradigmsandparadoxes.ronjie.com.)
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