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Labor Secretary Marianito Roque is flushed
witoptimism that the country’s goal of one million jobs for
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be exceeded this year by 28
percent, based on the deployment figures from January to June.
Quoting statistics from the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Roque said
640,401 OFWs left for work abroad during the first half of the year,
representing a 33.5 percent growth over the deployment figure of
479,725 workers for the same period last year.
The labor chief noted that
the deployment figure grew despite the economic slump in many
labor-receiving countries. With the expected economic recovery next
year of most host countries, Roque predicts an even better job
outlook for our overseas workers in the years to come.
Worsening labor shortages
have hounded the rich and industrialized countries in the past few
years, driving a high demand for world-class Filipino workers. There
is an acute need for nurses, other medical workers, teachers and
other professionals in the US, Canada, Italy, Australia and in the
Middle East.
Even Asian countries,
notably South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, have been suffering from
shortages in different job categories, especially factory workers
and domestic helpers. New host countries in search of foreign
workers have emerged.
With the rising trend in
overseas employment, the government expects a rise in the dollar
remittances from OFWs. Based on the remittance figure of $5.4
billion from January to April, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
projects a total remittance of over $16 billion at yearend,
exceeding last year’s over $14 billion.
The BSP has been upbeat
over the remittance prospects as the deployment of workers continues
to rise owing to improved POEA marketing and deployment strategies.
This is matched by the government’s efforts to increase the bank
channels abroad for receiving workers’ remittances.
OFWs’ remittances have
helped sustain the national economy since the overseas employment
program was launched by then Labor Secretary Blas F. Ople in 1974.
They propped up the peso when it was sinking in value to its lowest
levels.
Ironically, these workers
are the victims of their own dollar remittances. Their inflow has
helped strengthen the peso but reduced the value of the dollar. In
2005, a dollar fetched from P55 to P56 in the exchange market. The
OFWs then were enjoying a high exchange rate for their dollar
earnings.
Today, with the exchange
rate of P45 to the dollar, they need more dollars so that their
families can buy the same things they could buy for P56 pesos two
years ago. With the increase in prices, our OFWs really have to send
much more dollars to their families.
One more problem confronting the
OFWs is the high cost of sending their dollar earnings to their
families. Based on the banks’ earnings of $1.3 billion from a
total remittance figure of $13 billion more than a year ago, the
money transfer fee is calculated to be more than 10 percent for
every remittance.
The sinking of the dollar
in the exchange market and the high remittance fees are the twin
problems of our overseas workers begging for government solution.
We are willing to give a
high mark to the government in the area of overseas wokers’
protection. It has proven to be sensitive to the plight of those in
distress. No less than President Arroyo has gone out of her way to
save from the gallows OFWs facing the death penalty in some foreign
countries.
The Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Philippine Overseas Labor
Offices (POLOs), on orders of Secretary Roque, have shown readiness
in responding to emergency situations affecting our OFWs.
The Department of Foreign
Affairs places the protection of overseas workers as one of its
highest priorities. Together with the labor department, it has
carried out a coordinated effort in the evacuation of OFWs from
war-torn and disaster-hit host countries.
But the government can and
should do more for the OFWs. For example, there should be a
workers’ hospital, a housing project and a workers’ bank. These
will be the true and enduring monuments to the OFWs we love to call
our “real modern heroes.”
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