The challenges of international labor mobility are increasing and are doing so as a matter of fact and policy. Overseas workers are in the category of temporary workers – they will still return to the Philippines after their contracts have expired. In conrast, emigrants are Filipinos who have left for good or now have permanent residency in their chosen destination.
The execution of drug mules, the recent political upheavals in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and more recently – Bahrain PLUS the ongoing environmental and nuclear catastrophy in Japan places the Philippine strategy of sending OFWs under greater scrutiny. Whether it’s a popular uprising in Cairo, a rebellion in Benghazi, a protest in Bahrain, a trip to China, a nursing home in Japan, a residence in Singapore or the US – the risk of the damage to life and limb is there. Being in the wrong place in the wrong time raises the probabilities of collateral damage.
I just hope that while Aquino and his yellow legions tweeted about how other countries were “following” the EDSA People Power example – that he has also started planning how to minimize the impact of these developments in multiple fronts – overseas and domestic.
Governments mitigate the damage by transporting their citizens out of the areas in question. The question of course is how soon, done in what way, the probabilities of violent hostilities – at what cost. According to the DFA, “there are more than 6,000 Filipino in Egypt, concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria. Of this figure, close to 3,000 are domestic helpers, at least a thousand are married to Egyptian nationals, 1, 674 are Filipino-Muslim scholars, and the rest are professionals.”. Filipinos were in a frenzy to leave Cairo in January, the Philippine government had lifted the travel ban to Egypt by February after the situation had normalized.
The Egypt-inspired anti-Gaddhafy forces initially started strong in Libya. However, Gaddafy was able to regroup his forces before the rebels reached a tipping point. Control of the tribal leaders also helped Gaddafy in the process of regaining control. There is a possibility that a small piece of Libyan territory will secede but this is still an evolving situation that is being played out as we speak. In the process, Filipino OFWs have been caught offguard – just as they were caught offguard in Egypt.
In the case of the drug mules, the Chinese ambassador has divulged that “”The final verdict and the penalty will be carried out sooner or later, and everything will be done in accordance with Chinese laws. When it will be done has to be announced by the Supreme Court of Justice in China,” the Ambassador said.
According to ABS-CBN reporters the Chinese Ambassador added that the execution of Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain was only deferred due to humanitarian considerations made known to Chinese authorities by Vice President Jejomar Binay. In a press conference in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said “we would still try to appeal. It’s sad, but that’s the decision already.” Lacierda said it was clear from the very beginning that China only deferred the execution. Also, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario admitted he himself is at a loss at to how the Filipinos could still be saved.
I read somewhere that it wasn’t just only about humanitarian reasons but it was also due to the fact that the EDSA celebrations were close and that it didn’t look too good to have an OFW executed while the EDSA ceremonies were in full swing because it can lead to a backlash reminiscent of Flor Contempacion, the OFW executed in Singapore. This poses serious questions about our character as a nation – and our national shallowness in full public display. One one end – we glorify a meaningless “revolution” and on the other end – we have an OFW who is about to be executed – someone whose life didn’t get any better after the “revolution”. In fact, they are but one of millions of Filipinos toiling overseas.
And if that’s not enough – it seems that we might wake up to the sight of OFWs from Japan who will glow in the night. While foreign governments start evacuating their citizens out of Japan, the Philippines will send DFA to check the situation on the ground. The Philippine government position is understandable because it wants to maximize the flow of OFW remittances and minimize the disruption of such flow that can stem from the recent catastrophe in Japan. To the credit of our nurses – they have opted to stay with their Japanese patients as a matter of committment to their profession’s oath. Sigh, if only Filipino voters would elect leaders of same dedication, professionalism and integrity.
Then there’s also the need to take care of OFWs during normal times. The stories of abused OFWs overseas are aplenty – it is a tragedy whose roots lie in our misguided economic policy of keeping job creators out of our economy and our cultural dysfunction of habitually voting for useless officials who can’t lift a finger to actually work.
All the activities needed to keep the remittances flowing have a cost – transporting, counseling, crisis-intervention, labor mediation, social costs – and the brain drain. The benefit of the OFW remittances to the economy are used as a backdrop to trumpet the latest forecasts about a positive outlook in the Philippine economy. How long can the Philippines keep on relying the OFW remittance bubble? And at what price?
For the most part the raison d ‘etre of working overseas boils down to one thing – jobs that pay an amount which allows people to support families and have more for other expenses. Of course, to the jobless – it’s better to have little than nothing. And there’s not enough jobs to go around. And the ones that are available don’t pay that much (which of course is a cost advantage to business locators from overseas).
How then can we get more jobs at home so that the OFW phenomenon can be reduced ? The silent culprit lies in our economic policy which restricts the entry of job generating investments. Yes, the dysfunctional Pinoys have much to do about getting their lives in shape. But it helps that when they do get it in shape – there are jobs and opportunities waiting for the taking. This enabling environment is not present today. So what happens then – is the classic – “If the mountain will not go to Muhammad, then Muhammad will go to the mountain”. The million dollar question to us then is this – why do we keep on sending our workers and professionals overseas when we can bring the jobs by removing the constitutional restrictions on doing business in the Philippines?
The answer is because we choose to. Maybe we did not choose out loud – but we choose based on the actions that we take everyday. Instead of pursuing constitutional reforms and addressing the systemic imbalances – we are contented to look at the faces of OFWs from around the world, in the noontime shows. By choosing to stay silent and disengaged in the national discourse – we have made a choice. But choices are simply that -choices. They can be made – and they can be unmade.
As we stare at the faces of the OFWs on the boob tube – from Benghazi, to Bahrain, to Cairo, to Japan – let us stare at ourselves in the mirror. We are as responsible as the government we have elected to lead. It doesn’t stop there. The recent disaster in Japan should be a wake up call to the Philippines to start planning, anticipating, and rehearsing for the next big kahuna. It should also serve as a basis for discussing constitutional reform because OFW remittances should be the revenue of last resort.
The bigger geopolitical players that the Philippines relies on as big nanny have their own interests to consider. Apparently the Filipinos only interest at this point is Aquino’s GF, Porsche, gaffes, condoms, SLEX rate hikes. As the Philippines clutches straws in a world that’s closing in – it can only wonder what in the world is going on. And therein lies – the greater disaster and tragedy that lies in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people.
Nice. The silent majority seems akin to the beliefs of the modern day muslim nation which they believe in peace with other people, yet they won’t speak out about their extremist brethren who are making it in the media. Japan at least was prepared for an earthquake, but instead was hit with a double jeopardy of disasters. Philippine government wasn’t even prepared for a contingency regarding the OFW hirings and many were only prepared for a ego-centric scenario; what if the OFWs, nurses, crewmen, etc. stopped working? What would happen to the world? Simply, that would be a double loss as Pinoy OFW’s take work as you have mentioned, to provide for family back home, and not necessarily for themselves and the industries they work in will hiccup for a good month or three.
The post reminds me of something Spider Jerusalem said in Transmetropolitan. The future will bring new technology, but societal issues such as poverty, economic parity and wayward governments will still exist. 25 years after and I’m not surprised if another 25, the rest of the world has people living in the sky while the Philippines still revel in analog teevees, dated broadband connections and trying to get some of their own to work up the sky cities and bring home money.
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It’s right that our goverment had given us a choice to leave this country to seek for greener pastures. However we’re not the only culture to do so. If every Filipino can learn to close their doors to their neighbors in the long run this country can learn to close it’s doors to other countries and work to develope itself from inside out. Unfortunately living in isolation had a bad image on our media which interpreted as mayabang, weird and even crazy. Most filipinos still carry that believe on their work which I found funny. What I’m trying to say is that we got our values twisted we and can’t run this country properly (I don’t even think we deserve a nation) with this kind of attitude.
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Jay Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
It’s right that our goverment had given us a choice to leave this country to seek for greener pastures
Its not much of a choice. I mean its either keep up with the crap you see back home or take a risk and go overseas for labor. Overseas work becomes a near automatic response because even skilled labor pays better there, compared to the same job description back home or there are more opportunities for even more technical work than back home (such as engineers). And no the Philippines don’t have a choice for closing their doors to other neighbors considering they never had anything much to offer to other foreign overseas workers, while the Filipinos eat up whatever open opportunities are overseas because the job market back home is crap, with the 60/40 provision being a big reason causing that.
We certainly can’t a run a country if we haven’t fought hard enough to earn it.
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Brownman Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 12:36 am
That’s a hard fact that we can’t close our doors to other countries and stand up for ourselves. We have 7,000+ islands I don’t see why can’t break out of our system and try to experiment for a new one in a isolated case. It’s gonna be hard and it’s gonna require a lot of energy but if we can adapt the “Big Brother” show in our country I don’t see the reason why can’t also adapt a different working system from other successful countries. I remember that our media use to educate Filipinos about the hazardous effects of cigarette smoking but unfortunately became only short handed because no one set a positive example. But now we have Marikina, lets support them so that they’ll be consistent, this is not about creating a smoking free country but rather to see “HOW” this country impose discipline and “HOW” it citizens to follow it.
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Sad. The common, idiotic and delusional “proud to be pinoy” crowd will say, “At least a Filipina nanny was invited by the future King of England’s wedding in April. Had she not been a ‘katulong’ abroad, a Filipino would not have been invited in a royal wedding.”
Next thing we know, ABS-CBN is producing a movie about that Pinay to give encouragement for future Filipinos to be asss-wipers in other countries.
Well, this vicious cycle will never end, unless the stupid majority finally revolts and says, “Take this cake and shove it!”
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GabbyD Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 12:58 am
“Next thing we know, ABS-CBN is producing a movie about that Pinay to give encouragement for future Filipinos to be asss-wipers in other countries.”
interesting. have u ever seen an abs-cbn movie that encourages OFWs? i find that its the opposite — theres lots of “poverty porn”, showing how hard it is to work abroad, be away from family, etc. i cannot think of any instance where the bad side of being a OFW is NOT shown.
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Jay Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Probably the MMK shows about the OFWs who were sentenced to death in international countries due to dealing with drug smuggling and the old humahawak sa patalim.
Besides, ABS-CBN knows what makes money. And being encouraging and noble about it doesn’t exactly net profits than ZOMG sensationalism!
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Dark Passenger Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 7:21 am
I saw that in the paper! About how Prince William’s nanny was a Filipina. As though we’re supposed to be proud of the fact. It’s embarrassing how Filipinos make it a national preoccupation to identify every single Pinoy in the world who is remotely connected to anyone famous. Hey, you know what? The cleaning lady working at the inn in the village next to the one Barack Obama lived in as a boy in Indonesia was a Pinay. Be proud!!!
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Call me morbid but I’ve been thinking for days if there would be a day that the world doesn’t need Pinoy OFWs and in an instance OFWs are required to go back and yet we have stubborn and corrupt politicians who will continue to insist that the foreign restrictions are “good for the economy”. Right now the Pinoys back home look like deers staring on to a headlights: and the common question for these continues exodus of OFW is if they will have a job waiting back home. Na-uh, and to top of that it’s already March, and we have thousands of college and university graduates to join the job hunt competition. Rule of basic economics: we have a large demand of jobs, but we have less supply of the available ones. Sad.
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Jay Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Which statistic wise is going to take an interesting hit in the PNoy admin unless he puts an asterisk on the high amount of unemployment due to the OFWs coming from terrible overseas job conditions in other countries.
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there is nothing wrong about deploying OFW’s and protecting them because we are not the only country sending people abroad as what the dude above mentioned. i think it’s more on self-discipline and proper knowledge/training that we should fix in the country before sending anyone abroad. i mean, come on, these people would represent us wether they maybe OFW or permanent residents or TNT or singer/boxer/sportswear endorser/politician (whether you like it or not. sadly).
most people we hear of these days who fly abroad are out-of-luck fools who just go out there and risk everything just to get, at least an inch, out of the lower class strata and after that they employ the “bahala na” philosophy as they have no plans after. you know who these type of people work. but if they had proper training and knowledge, they won’t even try doing this.
and no, not all OFW’s are bound to god damned servitude like some yaya or construction worker or nurse like what the rich guy above said and i take it offensively because my father has been an engineer working abroad for more than a decade now, although his story is pretty much of a “rag-to-riches” type (me and my sister go to College of Saint Benilde and tuitions there are expensive, it’s not even funny). i’m pretty sure some people out there could say they’ve had better lives working out of the country.
we won’t see any change, or even hope in change, because of the “chosen one” being in top right now so we should forget about abolishing foreign restrictions for the moment, since ‘big baldy’ does not seem to understand things. we should fix the people we send out of the country before actually sending them out. if they make some trouble, then they’re on their own. same with lovi poe’s lover. we should only protect them if there were inappropriate acts done towards them and not like this. it is embarrassing on so many levels.
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Sonyun Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:06 am
Please do not categorize nurses with yaya/nanny.
That is an insult to nurses everywhere. You do realize that there are Canadian, Japanese and American citizens (who are not Filipino) who choose to go into nursing in universities after high school.
In fact here in Canada, nursing is the most on-demand job as well as lawyers. The universities and colleges here have lots of students enrolled for nursing. Some people who graduated with bachelor degrees in Canada have returned to get nursing degrees…
In North America, nurses are paid high on average. A registered nurse can be paid up to $80,000 in Canada – more than any yaya/construction worker/maid will ever make.
So please be educated, nursing is not a slave job, at least in North America.
I do fear that OFWs, because they only hold Filipino citizenship, they are bound to contracts where they have to do whatever it says to stay in foreign countries.
Which is why I strongly suggest migration as a better option, at least you’ll be able to be qualified for citizenship. Please if you can, try to do migration and acquire citizenship, because settling in might be hard but a nurse with American/Canadian citizenship ensures work safety and freedom over contracts made to Filipino OFW’s…
A lot of Filipinos who hold Canadian/American citizenship are some of the bitchiest nurses around and will not tolerate any “slave-like” or “abusive” acts and can even sue. The hospitals can’t fire them if they are disciplining, telling patients to be polite and not act rude.
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Jay Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
@Aurum
the skill class of a nurse is HEAVIER than that of a caretaker. Long hours require stamina, concentration and fortitude. Is it thankless? By interpretation yes but hella noble considering you can never have a bias when it comes to maintenance of human life. And in developed countries, their specialization tracks make it even more rewarding depending on who your employers are. So its not as dead end compared to the more mundane, simpler jobs you compare it to.
Dude, the whole system needs major upgrades. In another post, some deluded slob was stating that neither Gordon nor Gibo, if elected would handle the OFW crisis correctly. I disagree considering both have been in the thick of disasters and have been called to have solutions for them, compared to PNut who is just trying to keep things the way they are as long as it doesn’t reach to critical mass. Fixing the system can help the whole ordeal of Pinoys being used as drug mules and educating them so they don’t take their bad habits tolerated back home to their work place. I don’t find anything wrong with deploying OFWs as well, as I believe the Philippines should participate in the whole global economy shpiel and there are certain industries which OFW pinoys have a great handle on. However, it is a bad idea to depend on it SOLEY and not use the hard earned remittances for something beneficial for everyone, or give OFWs more rights like easier absentee voting or what not. Because in the end, even if they make it out, they and their family are still slaves to the slovenly conservative Philippine government.
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Jay Reply:
March 18th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
what makes it thankless are the job conditions back home that make it so. Same long demanding hours and what benefits and pay do they get? Not that great. At least in North America, you can choose to live it up like a rockstar and work for a big ass HMO or stay to your roots if you like the place and work in a clinic in the middle of nowhere.
aurum Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 10:46 pm
to jackass: categorizing nurses with the yaya was out of line, i admit (and i also admit that most women i’ve dated are nurses and i like being mean on them. lol), but we are not talking about acquiring citizenship in another country here. that would be like saving yourself and run away like a coward. i don’t try migration, i do it. and in 4 different countries already.
please, if you can try, don’t talk to me like a toddler.
to jay: relying on remittances is one of the country’s strengths as well as its greatest weakness, but has going on for decades now with politicians prolonging the agony.
they may have evolved OFW protection and related stuff, but they fail to implement those policies to full potential. what people must know is protection does not mean getting them out of trouble even if they committed to it. OFW’s must be taught of those little things before letting them go out there. proper training/knowledge is all they need right now because improvement on the side of the authorities won’t be coming anytime soon with a wackjob-of-a-president running the county.
I do strongly oppose the idea of continuing this idea of OFW remittances as a way of generating income for the Philippines.
OFW’s are bound to contracts and are not safe at work and can easily by fired and deported. They are working in a foreign country, they hold Filipino-citizenship, the government can deport them anytime. I don’t even think OFW can join unions…
I strongly support giving more ease to foreign investors to make business in the Philippines and create more jobs to boost the economy. That rule where foreign companies can’t be 100% foreign owned, or something like requiring 60% Filipino ownership is ridiculous.
No smart business man would invest is something like that. Setting up business in the Philippines is almost like charity work.
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“Bahala Na Kayo sa Buhay Ninyo”…this is the attitude of our Political Leaders. They have their own Fat Bank Accounts, stashed in Banks abroad, stolen from the Philippine Treasury. So, Filipino OFW slaves, have to work abroad, suffer abuses and indignities, on the hands of their foreign masters. Just to Float the Economy of the Philippines.
The Philippine Government is the Biggest OFW slave trader in our times…this is , I believe the tragedy of our century…A government cannot provide decent jobs to its people…so its people must go to foreign countries to find menial/slave labor jobs..just to survive…
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
POEA is where they trade slaves. It is a stock exchange for slaves. POEA has plenty of stock slaves. Because Filipinos are bunch of boneheads, ding-dongs, ding-alings.
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Hyden Toro Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Hey, wanna have a good business? Put OFW Slave Auction Blocks, along the Ayala Avenue in Makati City….You can also put them infront of the Malacanang Palace…to prick the conscience of the insensitive President and his Yellow Horde Nazis…Advertise also, on the Oligarch Media, that you have OFW slaves to sell…allow potential buyers, to look inside your slaves’ mouths, to examine, if they are really healthy…
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Renato Pacifico Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
HA!HA!HA!HA! I’ll get the sexy gurlz. You get the hunks !!!! The rest can be outsourced as foxes to be hunted by Brits. Others sent to hollywood to be blown to bits to make their gore-movies realistic. The uglypayans get to wipe asses.
Renato Pacifico Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
“Bahala kayo sa buhay n’yo”
“Magdasal sa dios”
“Bahala na”
“ganito talaga ang buhay natin”
“mayaman sila, pero hindi naman nila madala ang kayamanan nila kung patay na sila”
“ang dios na ang bahala sa kanila dasal lang tayo”
“pagdasalan natin sila para mag-iba”
“mayaman sila, pero hindi natin alam ano ang problema nila”
“wala kang konsensya, pulis”
PLEASE ADD FATALISTIC QUOTE ….. Above quotes makes Filipinos survive !!! ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!
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Local jobs protect Filipinos !!! Give Filipinos dignified jobs is to protect Filipinos !!! Opening the markets gives Filipinos dignified well-paying jobs. Problem is the 60-for-oligarchs, 40-for-others Constitution, a constittional awards to oligarchs, makes Filipinos go abroad to be treated with dignity not as freakin’ slaves.
This oligarch-designer-constitution was crafted in the boardroom in Makati and in country club not in the house. HA!HA!HA!HA!
DONCHA LOVE FILIPINOS?
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Those who celebrate EDSA fake-accidental revolution celebrates 60-for-oligarchs,40-to-foreigners constitution. Idiot columnistas, idiot peryodistas, Filipinos must love 60-for-oligarchs,40-to-foreigners oligarch-crafted constitution an award to themselves, the oligarchs.
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cheap housemaids and ladyboys are the country’s main export.
othrrwise there is no point to the philippines.
maybe we should hope for an earthquake in manila to sort out the problems.
the government senate and congress certainly wont
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Dark Passenger Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 2:28 am
When the earthquake hits, I hope Congress and the Senate are the first to go.
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