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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
Families of overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs) show that they value the remittances sent home by
their kin by not spending them on vices and useless purchases, a
study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies says.
Aubrey Tabuga, the author of the
study, “How Do Filipino Families Use the OFW Remittances?” says
the money remitted by the OFWs to the country does not tend to
induce households to spend more on vices, such as smoking tobacco
and drinking alcohol.
Tabuga added that the families,
however, also allocate less for food, particularly the kind that
they have to buy outside.
Instead, she said, the families
receiving remittances set aside more of the money for basic goods
and for education, health care, and housing.
“Among households where the
remittances supplement total income, the remittances are mostly used
for food, household operations, utilities and education,” Tabuga
added.
She said other allocations are
reserved for fiestas, special occasions and savings.
An Asian Development Bank study
found that Filipino workers abroad regularly remitted an average of
$340 a month through bank channels in 2003.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas showed that money sent home by OFWs through banks reached
$13.1 billion from January to November 2007.
OFW deployment to more than 190
host destinations worldwide reached 1.01 million from January to
December 9, 2007, according to the Department of Labor and
Employment.
Tabuga urged the OFW families to
invest their money in productive enterprises that will cause bigger
impact on the local economy.
“If remittance income induces
people to consume more and produce or work less, it is preventing
its potential to spur local development and may even produce
dependency among migrant workers’ families, thereby disrupting
local production,” she explained.
Tabuga said expenditure patterns
and investment behavior of remittance-receiving families reflect the
general condition of the country, specifically its investment
climate.
“Since remittance-receiving
families have tendencies to work more on self-employment activities
and enter into enterprises, the government should enhance its role
in providing necessary support mechanisms such as sound credit
facilities and trainings on entrepreneurship for them to stay in
business and expand their enterprises,” she added.
The country’s remittance
receipts have been rising at phenomenal rates since 2002. From 2001
to 2006, remittances have been growing at an average rate of over 16
percent annually.
In 2006, it constituted about 11
percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the total
value of the goods and services produced by a country during a
specific period.
At the household level,
remittance income constituted, on the average, about 5.8 percent of
total family income in 2003.
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