OFW remittances continue rising

Increasing cash remittances

The question I want to ask is this: Are Filipino workers’ remittances that keep rising at records high yearly a boon or bane for the country?

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently reported that the $1.84 billion in remittances sent to the Philippines in September 2012 was the highest on record, representing a 5.9-per cent growth from the $1.74 billion reported in the same month last year.

Countries that served as the biggest sources of remittances in the first nine months were the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

These are just names of well known countries and, perhaps, more worker-friendly ones, which we know about and which, thankfully, most of our overseas workers have found jobs. But, what about those whose fate has brought them to godforsaken places and loathsome employers just so they could land a job and the family left behind could continue living decent lives?

What I am simply asking here is this: Is it fair that while government crows yearly about exceedingly high remittances coming from our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and which, in fact, is what is propping up the country’s economy, that government also continues to be corrupt and it is for this sole reason that investors, both local and foreign, have antipathy towards our own country and would rather go elsewhere where it is business friendly.

Would one not rather see that after all these years of making the OFW remittances the bulwark of the nation’s economic strength, that government would start repaying their sacrifices by paving for their comeback because jobs are awaiting them now?

Would one not rather see that these ‘modern day heroes’ be reunited again, and for good, with their families and live their lives normally?

There are, reportedly, at least 10 million OFWs and the demand for skilled Filipino manpower continues. A country like ours could not ask for a better compliment than this, but in the long run the ‘family fabric’ suffers. It gets worse when you start seeing on prime news TV about OFWs coming home in coffins for one reason or another, OFWs arriving on wheelchairs, either maltreated or abused or has gone insane.

One can only feel pity for anybody who may have helped contribute to the economic gain of the country while enduring years of mental anguish and personal burden, but becomes inutile the day she comes back home.

Does it make life any better?

When can we start making our fields greener again for better pasture by the country’s workforce?

It’s about time the leaders of this country should realize that while the OFW’s remittances are the main source of what is keeping this country afloat, it is their foremost obligation also to not only keep it afloat, but, somehow, to ensure that they pick it up from there and do a better job of steering this country to a secure, stable and uncorrupted place for growth to flourish further.

Government should help OFWs in distress instantly

It bothers me no end every time I read about oversea Filipino workers (OFW) who are in distress, yet help is being held hostage by our own government.

Recently an organization of migrant workers in the Middle East said that on a daily basis, they receive an average of three to five cases of distressed OFWs from various countries in the region.

What is appalling is that Filipino labor and welfare officers in the Middle East appear to be sleeping on the numerous cases of distress OFWs.

“Complaints from distressed OFWs and their plea for assistance just fall on deaf ears of Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials in the Eastern region despite numerous calls and emails for their appropriate action,” the group said.

I get distressed myself when I read about lowly Filipinos continuously leaving and trying their luck in foreign lands, uncertain about their fate, yet trusting in God that their sacrifice will pay off someday when they could have their own lot where they could build their own house and have all their children go to school.

But, there is totally nothing that I can do. I am just one of the over 90 million Filipinos belonging to a government that has shown nothing but ineptitude all these times in making these nation move forward, in lifting the people from the morass of poverty and deprivation, in providing jobs to the citizenry and in making sure that we, as a nation and people, are respected.

Yet, it mortifies me to think that instead of government using its tools and resources to strengthen the financial and economic condition of this country, the task now is left in the hands of the OFWs to ensure that the economy of this nation won’t collapse.

I am obviously referring to the remittances by our OFW workers.

Their remittances are what made them the country’s modern day heroes.

I am embarrassed at how government is taking for granted the OFW’s patriotic fervor.

I am confounded at the way government is despicably repaying the OFW’s heroism.

Unless and until government can offer the millions of striving, common “tao” working abroad a decent job here, government should assist the distressed OFWs the instant the receive the complaint and treat them with the dignity they deserve.

Government should help OFWs in distress instantly

It bothers me no end every time I read about oversea Filipino workers (OFW) who are in distress, yet help is being held hostage by our own government.

Recently an organization of migrant workers in the Middle East said that on a daily basis, they receive an average of three to five cases of distressed OFWs from various countries in the region.

What is appalling is that Filipino labor and welfare officers in the Middle East appear to be sleeping on the numerous cases of distress OFWs.

“Complaints from distressed OFWs and their plea for assistance just fall on deaf ears of Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials in the Eastern region despite numerous calls and emails for their appropriate action,” the group said.

I get distressed myself when I read about lowly Filipinos continuously leaving and trying their luck in foreign lands, uncertain about their fate, yet trusting in God that their sacrifice will pay off someday when they could have their own lot where they could build their own house and have all their children go to school.

But, there is totally nothing that I can do. I am just one of the over 90 million Filipinos belonging to a government that has shown nothing but ineptitude all these times in making these nation move forward, in lifting the people from the morass of poverty and deprivation, in providing jobs to the citizenry and in making sure that we, as a nation and people, are respected.

Yet, it mortifies me to think that instead of government using its tools and resources to strengthen the financial and economic condition of this country, the task now is left in the hands of the OFWs to ensure that the economy of this nation won’t collapse.

I am obviously referring to the remittances by our OFW workers.

Their remittances are what made them the country’s modern day heroes.

I am embarrassed at how government is taking for granted the OFWs’ patriotic fervor.

I am confounded at the way government is despicably repaying the OFWs heroism.

Unless and until government can offer the millions of striving, common “tao” working abroad a decent job here, government should assist the distressed OFWs the instant the receive the complaint and treat them with the dignity they deserve.