The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

By: Kathleen Yu

Manpower resources are one of the Philippines’ greatest exports. Presently, over eleven percent of the population are employed as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and Filipino communities are found in almost every industrialized nation in the world. The OFW diaspora regularly injects dollars into the economy in the form of remittances from Filipino professionals working abroad sending money home to their families. This has assisted the Philippine government immensely, and kept the local economy afloat.

There are over 8 million registered Filipinos working abroad with the United States alone employing over 3 million Filipino migrants. Despite the global recession, Filipino professionals working in the US remitted over $17.3 billion in the last year alone, an estimated 5.6% increase from the 2008 figures. Saudi Arabia employs over 900,000 OFWs and the numbers are growing.

Overseas Filipino Workers are appropriately termed “modern day heroes” because of the sacrifices they make in leaving their families to work abroad. Most of them are blue collar workers, employed in jobs like caregiving, nursing and housekeeping.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is a government agency that monitors and assists OFWs working abroad. OFWs are required to register with the POEA, while in the process of applying for working visas and other permits to go abroad. The POEA is also tasked with registering and monitoring recruitment agencies in the Philippines to ensure that no OFWs are led into forced labor, and other forms of abuse.

According to corporate lawyer Amanda Carpo, legal counsel of Makati-based firm Kittelson and Carpo Consulting, “The number of overseas recruitment agencies setting up operations in the Philippines is growing at an exorbitant rate. This is primarily because OFWs are considered a global commodity. Higher salaries and superior living conditions have lured a large number of OFWs abroad, and more and more Filipinos are following in their footsteps. This bodes well for the Philippine economy, which can only stand to gain from an increase in OFW remittances.”

On the other hand, as the Philippines undergoes a change in government and the job market abroad gets continually more competitive the question arises as to whether or not Filipinos will continue to venture abroad, in search of greener pastures. With such a competitive overseas job market, OFWs may be returning home to the Philippines making for highly-skilled overseas trained employees. The Philippine government should be prepared to respond to these scenarios and to support the OFWs who have been and continue to be a positive force in the economy.

OFWs Israel

The Philippine government expects to ensure more protection for overseas Filipino workers in Israel following the appointment of a prominent lawyer as new honorary consul general there.

Boaz Waksman was sworn in to office as the Philippine Honorary Consul in Ashdod with consular jurisdiction over Southern Israel last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

“Mr. Waksman, a prominent and practicing lawyer, is engaged in the tourism industry for the past 30 years. He owns and operates Ophir Tours Limited, one of Israel’s leading tourism companies with at least 24 branches in all of Israel,” the DFA said.

Citing a report from the Philippine Embassy in Tel-Aviv, the DFA said Waksman’s assumption of office took place after the Israeli Foreign Ministry gave its consent to his appointment.

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Foreign employers hire Filipino workers not because they would take on any job for a cheap pay, but because of their unrivaled skills and good characteristics, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said Tuesday.

In a statement, he said overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have a number of traits that give them the edge over other nationalities.

Roque disputed a report which said that foreign employers favor OFWs “because of their willingness to do any kind of work even for the smallest pay.”

“Foreign employers prefer OFWs mainly because of their positive attributes such as their facility with the English language, their industry, flexibility, ability to learn easily, and their happy disposition,” Roque said in the statement.

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MANILA, Philippines - Millions of Filipinos working overseas sent home a record high $1.5 billion in June, up 3.3 percent from last year, allaying fears that remittances will dry up amid the global slowdown.
reported yesterday.

The June data brought total remittances for the first half of the year to $8.5 billion, up 2.9 percent from a year ago, the
The June figure raises hopes remittances for the full year could top the previous record of $16.4 billion set in 2008.

“The continued growth of remittance flows since January this year accompanied by emerging signs of improving global economic conditions have affirmed the positive outlook for steady remittances for 2009,” BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said yesterday.

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A Manila-based ring is trafficking Filipino workers to the Bahamas via Cuba, and has yet to be stopped despite having made at least four such trafficking attempts since 2008, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday.

The DFA said the information came from the Filipino Association in the Bahamas, which alerted the Philippine Embassy there of the ring’s operations.

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GARAPAN, Saipan – Adelyn Lubrico, an overseas Filipino worker in the US island of Saipan, was pregnant when she was fired from her job in 2006 as a quality control checker at a now defunct garment factory owned by the L&T Group of Companies in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Lubrico’s fellow OFWs working in garment factories under the same group of companies were forced to work and eat in segregated facilities, denied adequate housing and, after they complained, were all replaced by Chinese workers.

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MANILA, Philippines - Amid mounting complaints of would-be overseas Filipino workers losing their money for non-existent jobs, a non-government organization is proposing a rogues gallery for illegal recruiters.

The Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (Ideals) unveiled the proposed “Illegal Recruiter’s Facebook” on Tuesday during one of its roundtable discussions with sectors concerned with migrant workers in Quezon City.

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Nestor Figaroa had sold his tricycle’s sidecar to add to the money that they used to buy a return plane ticket for his wife who is still in Oman.

“Naghanap po kami ng pera. ‘Yong sidecar ko naibenta ko para lang maidagdag sa pambili ng plane ticket ng asawa ko dahil yun po ang sabi ng agency ng Oman,” Figaroa said.

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(Updated 2:30 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines - May Vecina, the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, has been fully pardoned by the ruler of Kuwait.

In a statement, Vice President Noli De Castro said Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah granted Vecina full pardon for her good behavior during her time at the Kuwaiti Central Jail.

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