Note: A forwarded message
When I was small, the Philippine peso was P2.00 to the US dollar.
The president was Diosdado Macapagal. Life was simple. Life was easy.
My father was a farmer. My mother kept a small sari-sari store where our neighbors bought sang-perang asin, sang-perang bagoong, sang-perang suka, sang-perang toyo at pahinging isang butil na bawang.
Our backyard had kamatis, kalabasa, talong, ampalaya, upo, batao, and okra.
Our silong had chicken. We had a pig, dog & cat. And of course, we lived on the farm.
During rainy season, my father caught frogs at night which my mother made into betute (stuffed frog), or just plain fried. During the day, he caught hito and dalag from his rice paddies, which he would usually inihaw.
During dry season, we relied on the chickens, vegetables, bangus, tuyo, and tinapa. Every now and then, there was pork and beef from the town market.
Life was so peaceful , so quiet, no electricity, no TV. Just the radio for Tia Dely, Roman Rapido, Jonny de leon Tawag ng Tanghalan and Tang-tarang-tang. And who can forget Leila Benitez on Darigold Jamboree?
On weekends, I played with my neighbours (who were all my cousins). Tumbang-preso, taguan, piko, luksong lubid, patintero, at iba pa. I don't know about you, but I miss those days.
These days, we face the TV, Internet, e-mail, newspaper, magazine,grocery catalog, or drive around. The peso is a staggering and incredible P44.00 to the US dollar.
Most people can't have fun anymore. Life has become a battle.
We live to work.
Work to live.
Life is not easy. It was in Saudi Arabia in 1983. It was lonely, difficult, & scary. It didn't matter if you were a man or a woman. You were a target for rape. The salary was cheap & the vacation far between. If the boss didn't want you to go on holiday, you can't.
They had your passport. Oh, and the agency charged you almost 4 months of your salary (which, if you had to borrow on a "20% per month arrangement" meant your first year's pay was all gone before you even earned it).
The Philippines used to be one of the most important countries in Asia .
Before & during my college days, many students from neighboring Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and China went to the Philippines to get their diplomas. Like Thailand, they went to study agriculture in UP Los Banos and earned their bachelors in the Philippines and now we import rice from them. It's the opposite now.
The Philippines used to be the exporter of any agriculture product but now it's different. We import because not much land (farms) they can cultivate due to private sectors who focused on developing houses, buildings, supermarkets, mall and others.
What happened now?
Whats the government doing?
Checking their own pocket, their own personal interest and pork barrels.
Wow!
Until 1972,like President Macapagal, President Marcos was one of the most admired presidents of the world.
The Peso had kept its value of P7.00 to the US dollar until I finished college . Today, the Philippines is famous as the "housemaid" capital of the world.
It ranks very high as the "cheapest labor" capital of the world, too. We have maids in Hong Kong, laborers in Saudi Arabia, dancers in Japan, migrants and TNTs in Australia and the US, and all sorts of other "tricky" jobs in other parts of the globe.
Quo Vadis, Pinoy? Is that a wonder or a worry? Are you proud to be a Filipino, or does it even matter anymore?
When you see the Filipino flag and hear the Pambansang Awit, do you feel a sense of pride or a sense of defeat & uncertainty?
If only things could change for the better...... . Hang on for this is a job for Superman. Or whom do you call? Ghostbusters.
I want to help the maids in Hong Kong ...
I want to help the laborers in Saudi Arabia ...
I want to help the dancers in Japan ...
I want to help the TNTs in America and Australia ...
I want to save the people of the Philippines ..
But I cannot do it alone. I need your help and everyone else's.
If you say you love the Philippines, prove it. And if you don't agree with me, say something anyway.
It's time for a change of leadership!
Indifference is a crime on its own .
Juan de la Cruz
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Overseas Filipinos, Retirees Still Top Buyers of RP Residences
Demand in the residential market remains strong, says CBRE official
Overseas Filipinos and retirees remain the most active buyers of residential property in the Philippines, boosting market demand, a top official of an international real estate services company said.
The bulk of overseas Filipino workers and retirees from around the world residing in the Philippines or considering residence here who invest in the property market target mid-end residential development projects, Mike Mabutol, Director for Investment Properties and Capital Markets at CB Richard Ellis Philippines told delegates to the recent Asia Pacific Marketing Power and Sales Effectiveness property and marketing conference in Macau, China.
Overseas Filipino workers have long been a lucrative market for residential properties because of their desire to provide a better life for their families. According to Mabutol, OFWs prioritize investing their hard-earned income in residential properties.
Retirees have also ramped up property spending, mostly from life savings and retirement benefits. Mabutol said.
“This trend started four to five years ago and now we see these retired buyers becoming more active in the market,” said Mabutol, despite property woes in other parts of the world, in particular the U.S.
To address increasing demand by OFWs and retirees, real estate developers are developing affordable housing developments and condominium projects, with investments ranging from PhP 1 Million to PhP 2.5 Million, according to a CBRE Philippines report. In the period 2008 to 2013, 28 residential condominiums are expected to rise in Makati City, providing more than 18,000 units. In Fort Bonifacio, 33 residential condominiums are expected to be completed between 2008 and 2013, which will provide more than 11,500 units.
High-end residential condominiums are also in demand. As a result of increased demand, prices for high-end residential condominiums in Makati City have risen from Php 90,000 per square meter in 2006 to Php 100,000 to Php 130,000 per square meter this year. Low interest rates and flexible financing terms have helped boost the residential property sector. According to Trent Frankum, CBRE Philippines General Manager, mortgage rates are hovering in a range of 8.5% to 12%.
Another bright prospect for the Philippine residential market is the development and market positioning of retirement villages for expatriate “empty nesters.” Studies show that retirees from the US, Europe and other countries in Asia, such as China, South Korea and Japan are flocking to tropical countries like the Philippines for their retirement. The retirement market is a potential multi-billion-dollar industry, and the Philippines has stepped up efforts to entice foreign and local investments in such projects, Mabutol said.
The Philippine Retirement Authority, a government owned and controlled corporation, and the Philippine Retirement Institute encourage local and foreign investors to support retirement community projects. Road shows in Korea, Japan, and the United States, have promoted Philippine retirement villages, offering tax incentives for pioneering projects in the country.
Overseas Filipinos and retirees remain the most active buyers of residential property in the Philippines, boosting market demand, a top official of an international real estate services company said.
The bulk of overseas Filipino workers and retirees from around the world residing in the Philippines or considering residence here who invest in the property market target mid-end residential development projects, Mike Mabutol, Director for Investment Properties and Capital Markets at CB Richard Ellis Philippines told delegates to the recent Asia Pacific Marketing Power and Sales Effectiveness property and marketing conference in Macau, China.
Overseas Filipino workers have long been a lucrative market for residential properties because of their desire to provide a better life for their families. According to Mabutol, OFWs prioritize investing their hard-earned income in residential properties.
Retirees have also ramped up property spending, mostly from life savings and retirement benefits. Mabutol said.
“This trend started four to five years ago and now we see these retired buyers becoming more active in the market,” said Mabutol, despite property woes in other parts of the world, in particular the U.S.
To address increasing demand by OFWs and retirees, real estate developers are developing affordable housing developments and condominium projects, with investments ranging from PhP 1 Million to PhP 2.5 Million, according to a CBRE Philippines report. In the period 2008 to 2013, 28 residential condominiums are expected to rise in Makati City, providing more than 18,000 units. In Fort Bonifacio, 33 residential condominiums are expected to be completed between 2008 and 2013, which will provide more than 11,500 units.
High-end residential condominiums are also in demand. As a result of increased demand, prices for high-end residential condominiums in Makati City have risen from Php 90,000 per square meter in 2006 to Php 100,000 to Php 130,000 per square meter this year. Low interest rates and flexible financing terms have helped boost the residential property sector. According to Trent Frankum, CBRE Philippines General Manager, mortgage rates are hovering in a range of 8.5% to 12%.
Another bright prospect for the Philippine residential market is the development and market positioning of retirement villages for expatriate “empty nesters.” Studies show that retirees from the US, Europe and other countries in Asia, such as China, South Korea and Japan are flocking to tropical countries like the Philippines for their retirement. The retirement market is a potential multi-billion-dollar industry, and the Philippines has stepped up efforts to entice foreign and local investments in such projects, Mabutol said.
The Philippine Retirement Authority, a government owned and controlled corporation, and the Philippine Retirement Institute encourage local and foreign investors to support retirement community projects. Road shows in Korea, Japan, and the United States, have promoted Philippine retirement villages, offering tax incentives for pioneering projects in the country.
Monday, July 21, 2008
GFN's Statement on RP Govt's Pop Policy
Press statement
Global Filipino Nation, an international association of global Filipinos, their families and onshore Filipinos advocating good governance, has cautioned national officials from labeling divergent views on population policy and control as “narrow-minded, parochial and stupid”.
GFN asserts that worldwide economic history and empirical evidence do not support the policy premise that population control measures effectively bring down birth rates, thus advancing poverty alleviation goals.
Evidence shows that population growth rates decline, not a result of deliberate population policy, but due to economic growth, education and the rise of women’s rights.
At the lowest stage of economic development, population growth rates tend to be high. Children, including sons and daughters of age and married, serve a social insurance function: working in the fields, contributing to family income, fulfilling household tasks, helping finance the schooling of siblings and providing for the old age of parents.
As societies grow economically, incomes rise and formal forms of social insurance develop -- resulting in the reduced value of children as an informal form of social insurance. Awareness and expectations of social mobility spread, inducing the youth to postpone the age of marriage and couples to reduce the number of children. Movements promoting women’s rights and gender equality have contributed to a decrease in the number of children.
Worldwide population control measures adopted have not been effective. They have been introduced generally when population growth rates have been on the decline in many countries, including China. Even the Philippines is undergoing a perceptible population growth decline, with the rate dropping from the 3%+ levels of the 60s to the current level of 1.95% as estimated by the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board. Growth rate data would be more meaningful if net migration figures are revealed.
Birth rates in highly-developed countries have decreased to bare replacement levels. Many Western nations, such as the U.S. and Canada, grow only due to immigration. Some European countries are facing an absolute decline in population. Japan would experience a declining population as the post-World War II generation dies off. More and more observers are becoming fearful of too many elderly people rather than too many babies. Ironically, the still relatively robust birth rate of the Philippines has served as a national social safety net, given population migration cum remittances.
Policy makers should exercise caution lest they succumb to the geopolitical goals of developed countries and the perceived post-Cold War era concerns about immigration pressures, national security and environmental degradation. Policy makers, especially politicians, should also resist the temptation of formulating judgments on what is good for families and making major decisions in the lives of the people.
GFN urges policy makers to focus on pro-growth policies, including dismantling the special interest obstacles to growth, rather than apply resources to misguided population policy.
This statement focuses on population policy in the context of poverty alleviation goals of the country. The main contention is the fact that population control measures are not effective in bringing down birth rates. The statement abstains from contentious debates relating to women’s rights, health issues, pro-life vs. pro-choice polemic, the religious stance, environmental impact, eugenics and nativism. Those important debates, which should be reserved for separate fora, do not directly relate to poverty alleviation.
Global Filipino Nation, an international association of global Filipinos, their families and onshore Filipinos advocating good governance, has cautioned national officials from labeling divergent views on population policy and control as “narrow-minded, parochial and stupid”.
GFN asserts that worldwide economic history and empirical evidence do not support the policy premise that population control measures effectively bring down birth rates, thus advancing poverty alleviation goals.
Evidence shows that population growth rates decline, not a result of deliberate population policy, but due to economic growth, education and the rise of women’s rights.
At the lowest stage of economic development, population growth rates tend to be high. Children, including sons and daughters of age and married, serve a social insurance function: working in the fields, contributing to family income, fulfilling household tasks, helping finance the schooling of siblings and providing for the old age of parents.
As societies grow economically, incomes rise and formal forms of social insurance develop -- resulting in the reduced value of children as an informal form of social insurance. Awareness and expectations of social mobility spread, inducing the youth to postpone the age of marriage and couples to reduce the number of children. Movements promoting women’s rights and gender equality have contributed to a decrease in the number of children.
Worldwide population control measures adopted have not been effective. They have been introduced generally when population growth rates have been on the decline in many countries, including China. Even the Philippines is undergoing a perceptible population growth decline, with the rate dropping from the 3%+ levels of the 60s to the current level of 1.95% as estimated by the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board. Growth rate data would be more meaningful if net migration figures are revealed.
Birth rates in highly-developed countries have decreased to bare replacement levels. Many Western nations, such as the U.S. and Canada, grow only due to immigration. Some European countries are facing an absolute decline in population. Japan would experience a declining population as the post-World War II generation dies off. More and more observers are becoming fearful of too many elderly people rather than too many babies. Ironically, the still relatively robust birth rate of the Philippines has served as a national social safety net, given population migration cum remittances.
Policy makers should exercise caution lest they succumb to the geopolitical goals of developed countries and the perceived post-Cold War era concerns about immigration pressures, national security and environmental degradation. Policy makers, especially politicians, should also resist the temptation of formulating judgments on what is good for families and making major decisions in the lives of the people.
GFN urges policy makers to focus on pro-growth policies, including dismantling the special interest obstacles to growth, rather than apply resources to misguided population policy.
This statement focuses on population policy in the context of poverty alleviation goals of the country. The main contention is the fact that population control measures are not effective in bringing down birth rates. The statement abstains from contentious debates relating to women’s rights, health issues, pro-life vs. pro-choice polemic, the religious stance, environmental impact, eugenics and nativism. Those important debates, which should be reserved for separate fora, do not directly relate to poverty alleviation.
Ambitious Zero-illegal Recruitment Bid Faces Many Hurdles in La Union
By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano
MANDALUYONG CITY–A BID to stomp out illegal recruitment in La Union province within a year got off on a slow start, with the nonprofit group leading this ambitious project bracing itself for “booby traps” along the way.
Marge Madiguid of Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc. said there was no formal launch yet for its “zero illegal recruitment campaign,” planned to start this June.
The campaign won for Kanlungan a P0.92-million grant in May from the World Bank-sponsored contest called “Panibagong Paraan”.Madiguid told the OFW Journalism Consortium that while there’s no formal launch for the project, they have met and discussed the campaign with local government and nongovernment groups and agencies.
She’s hoping that all committees they plan to organize for the campaign would be formed before July.But the slow start is the least of Kanlungan’s problems as Madiguid said a lot of hurdles await the project.
The biggest hurdle, she said, is the alleged links between recruiters and executives of the local government, which is one of Kanlungan’s partner in the project.La Union, some 235 kilometers north of Manila, hit the headlines in 2006 when former Agoo assistant provincial prosecutor Catalino Pepi was reportedly sentenced to life imprisonment for illegally recruiting factory workers bound for South Korea.
The conviction decision of the Regional Trial Court in Agoo read that Pepi connived with a Manila recruitment agency, and even used his office, to collect placement fees ranging between P40,000 to P150,000 from each applicant.Another news report cited the arrest of provincial board member Pablo Olarte after three people filed a case against the former mayor of Agoo, La Union, for not being sent overseas.
A 2006 POEA release cited Olarte as proprietor of Sabloak Philippines, a consultancy firm offering paid services for jobseekers wanting to meet immigration requirements for Canada.Madiguid, however, defended Olarte, describing the government officials as a “victim, too.”
She added that Olarte, the former mayor of Agoo, is a pro bono lawyer for three illegally-recruited provincemates.
That explains his attachment to recruitment regulations, Madiguid said.Olarte apparently lobbied for the provincial ordinance requiring recruiters to apply for license from the provincial government before practicing their trade.
Still, she thinks the project will “test his sincerity”.
La Union has the largest number of recorded illegal recruitment cases for the Ilocos region, according to government data.Kanlungan Centre, a 20-year-old counseling center for domestic workers, has provided service to more than 300 IR cases in La Union over an 11-year period.
This meant on the average, the Quezon City-headquartered group’s satellite office in La Union, handled 27 cases a year.Deployment data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in 2006 showed that La Union was the birthplace of some 9,677 land-based and 1,717 sea-based temporary contract workers.On the other hand, 1988-2005 data of registered emigrants from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas revealed some 15,343 permanent residents abroad came from La Union.
According to Madiguid, some 30 recruitment agencies are active in the province.POEA’s directory of licensed agencies shows that La Union has a homegrown recruitment agency, Beldevere Manpower, and nine Metro Manila-headquartered licensed recruitment agencies that have branch offices in the province.
Ten of these are in San Fernando City: 2000 Miles Placement Agency; Active Works Inc.; Aim High International Placement Corp. (two branches); Greenworld Placement Services; Humania International Inc.; Interworld Placement Center; and, St. Georges Recruitment International (two branches).Another recruitment agency, AD’s Overseas Placement Agency, has a branch office in the municipality of Bauang.
Beldevere Manpower (www.beldeveremanpower.net), for its part, even has extension offices in Manila and in London, United Kingdom.The La Union provincial government website showed that Beldevere and three Metro Manila-based recruiters placed job orders in 12 countries through the provincial government’s Public Employment Services Office.
PESO hosts job fairs for local and overseas jobs.In a State of the Province Address, Governor Pablo Ortega reported that in 2006, the PESOs tapped 250 firms, recruitment agencies, and government offices for local and overseas jobs. Out of 3,589 applicants for local and overseas placement, some 1,713 were employed, Ortega reported.
However, the website of the Labor department’s Bureau of Local Employment noted that a dozen of the 21 PESOs in La Union are “non-operational”.Four of the nine areas of Kanlungan-La Union’s project sites, namely Bagulin, Naguilian, Santol, and Sudipen, have non-operational PESOs.“They do not screen the companies involved in their job fairs,” said Madiguid.She cited an IR case that Kanlungan handled wherein the potential OFW learned about an overseas job opening through the PESO.
This article is free, but to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this, please write or email the OFW Journalism Consortium
MANDALUYONG CITY–A BID to stomp out illegal recruitment in La Union province within a year got off on a slow start, with the nonprofit group leading this ambitious project bracing itself for “booby traps” along the way.
Marge Madiguid of Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc. said there was no formal launch yet for its “zero illegal recruitment campaign,” planned to start this June.
The campaign won for Kanlungan a P0.92-million grant in May from the World Bank-sponsored contest called “Panibagong Paraan”.Madiguid told the OFW Journalism Consortium that while there’s no formal launch for the project, they have met and discussed the campaign with local government and nongovernment groups and agencies.
She’s hoping that all committees they plan to organize for the campaign would be formed before July.But the slow start is the least of Kanlungan’s problems as Madiguid said a lot of hurdles await the project.
The biggest hurdle, she said, is the alleged links between recruiters and executives of the local government, which is one of Kanlungan’s partner in the project.La Union, some 235 kilometers north of Manila, hit the headlines in 2006 when former Agoo assistant provincial prosecutor Catalino Pepi was reportedly sentenced to life imprisonment for illegally recruiting factory workers bound for South Korea.
The conviction decision of the Regional Trial Court in Agoo read that Pepi connived with a Manila recruitment agency, and even used his office, to collect placement fees ranging between P40,000 to P150,000 from each applicant.Another news report cited the arrest of provincial board member Pablo Olarte after three people filed a case against the former mayor of Agoo, La Union, for not being sent overseas.
A 2006 POEA release cited Olarte as proprietor of Sabloak Philippines, a consultancy firm offering paid services for jobseekers wanting to meet immigration requirements for Canada.Madiguid, however, defended Olarte, describing the government officials as a “victim, too.”
She added that Olarte, the former mayor of Agoo, is a pro bono lawyer for three illegally-recruited provincemates.
That explains his attachment to recruitment regulations, Madiguid said.Olarte apparently lobbied for the provincial ordinance requiring recruiters to apply for license from the provincial government before practicing their trade.
Still, she thinks the project will “test his sincerity”.
La Union has the largest number of recorded illegal recruitment cases for the Ilocos region, according to government data.Kanlungan Centre, a 20-year-old counseling center for domestic workers, has provided service to more than 300 IR cases in La Union over an 11-year period.
This meant on the average, the Quezon City-headquartered group’s satellite office in La Union, handled 27 cases a year.Deployment data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in 2006 showed that La Union was the birthplace of some 9,677 land-based and 1,717 sea-based temporary contract workers.On the other hand, 1988-2005 data of registered emigrants from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas revealed some 15,343 permanent residents abroad came from La Union.
According to Madiguid, some 30 recruitment agencies are active in the province.POEA’s directory of licensed agencies shows that La Union has a homegrown recruitment agency, Beldevere Manpower, and nine Metro Manila-headquartered licensed recruitment agencies that have branch offices in the province.
Ten of these are in San Fernando City: 2000 Miles Placement Agency; Active Works Inc.; Aim High International Placement Corp. (two branches); Greenworld Placement Services; Humania International Inc.; Interworld Placement Center; and, St. Georges Recruitment International (two branches).Another recruitment agency, AD’s Overseas Placement Agency, has a branch office in the municipality of Bauang.
Beldevere Manpower (www.beldeveremanpower.net), for its part, even has extension offices in Manila and in London, United Kingdom.The La Union provincial government website showed that Beldevere and three Metro Manila-based recruiters placed job orders in 12 countries through the provincial government’s Public Employment Services Office.
PESO hosts job fairs for local and overseas jobs.In a State of the Province Address, Governor Pablo Ortega reported that in 2006, the PESOs tapped 250 firms, recruitment agencies, and government offices for local and overseas jobs. Out of 3,589 applicants for local and overseas placement, some 1,713 were employed, Ortega reported.
However, the website of the Labor department’s Bureau of Local Employment noted that a dozen of the 21 PESOs in La Union are “non-operational”.Four of the nine areas of Kanlungan-La Union’s project sites, namely Bagulin, Naguilian, Santol, and Sudipen, have non-operational PESOs.“They do not screen the companies involved in their job fairs,” said Madiguid.She cited an IR case that Kanlungan handled wherein the potential OFW learned about an overseas job opening through the PESO.
This article is free, but to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this, please write or email the OFW Journalism Consortium
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
GFN reflections on managing unity amidst diversity
These observations, prepared by Victor S. Barrios, Global Filipino Nation Convenor, are drawn from interfacing over the years with different global Filipino leaders and organizations all over the world. GFN acknowledges the contributions of many global Filipinos to the insights in this note. GFN is an association of global Filipinos, their onshore families and onshore Filipinos with a global mindset – all committed to good governance.
We are on the road to “Building the Global Filipino Nation”.
We have locked our sights on the final destination, conscious that the road is long, winding and traversed by freeloaders, obstructionists, opportunists and predators.
We have learnt lessons in consensus-building, which, if internalized and applied, would strengthen mobilization efforts to empower global Filipinos politically or otherwise.
We share constructive lessons, not intended to be “Sermons on the Mount”, but designed to energize the mobilization process:
1. It is productive of relationships if one faithfully, sincerely and transparently heeds Rotary’s Four-Way Test:
· Is it the TRUTH?
· Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
· Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
· Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
2. Define and elicit acceptance of the stakeholder consultative process, which, when applied consistently, would lead to broad consensus.
3. Focus on issues of substance rather than trivialities and tittle-tattle that rattle the rational mind.
4. Encourage healthy discussions and bring out the substantive brilliance in everyone, without anyone’s self-esteem being wounded and sacrificing the truth.
5. Avoid argumentum ad hominem, the lowest form of logic and intellectual wit, including, in particular, pejorative attributions and name-calling.
6. At all times, respect the rights, prerogatives, sensitivities, and, importantly, the dignity of every person.
7. The test of leadership is to be “situational”, with the ability to listen, reformulate proposals that address legitimate issues and win over elements who obstruct the common good.
8. Where there is a diversity of opinion, there should be an effort to preserve unity and evolve a win-win mix for all; but where a vote needs to be taken, all should fully embrace the collective decision.
9. When a person cannot agree with another, they should, with civility, agree to disagree and revisit the issues in a future date – while keeping an open mind about changing one’s position.
10. In the heat of an argument, when all genteel efforts have failed, one can with certainty disarm a perceived adversary with the words: “God bless you” -- with grace prevailing over justice.
11. At the end of the day, after the dust has cleared, we should ask ourselves: “What have we contributed to our goal? Have we moved forward in ‘Building the Global Filipino Nation’”?
We are on the road to “Building the Global Filipino Nation”.
We have locked our sights on the final destination, conscious that the road is long, winding and traversed by freeloaders, obstructionists, opportunists and predators.
We have learnt lessons in consensus-building, which, if internalized and applied, would strengthen mobilization efforts to empower global Filipinos politically or otherwise.
We share constructive lessons, not intended to be “Sermons on the Mount”, but designed to energize the mobilization process:
1. It is productive of relationships if one faithfully, sincerely and transparently heeds Rotary’s Four-Way Test:
· Is it the TRUTH?
· Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
· Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
· Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
2. Define and elicit acceptance of the stakeholder consultative process, which, when applied consistently, would lead to broad consensus.
3. Focus on issues of substance rather than trivialities and tittle-tattle that rattle the rational mind.
4. Encourage healthy discussions and bring out the substantive brilliance in everyone, without anyone’s self-esteem being wounded and sacrificing the truth.
5. Avoid argumentum ad hominem, the lowest form of logic and intellectual wit, including, in particular, pejorative attributions and name-calling.
6. At all times, respect the rights, prerogatives, sensitivities, and, importantly, the dignity of every person.
7. The test of leadership is to be “situational”, with the ability to listen, reformulate proposals that address legitimate issues and win over elements who obstruct the common good.
8. Where there is a diversity of opinion, there should be an effort to preserve unity and evolve a win-win mix for all; but where a vote needs to be taken, all should fully embrace the collective decision.
9. When a person cannot agree with another, they should, with civility, agree to disagree and revisit the issues in a future date – while keeping an open mind about changing one’s position.
10. In the heat of an argument, when all genteel efforts have failed, one can with certainty disarm a perceived adversary with the words: “God bless you” -- with grace prevailing over justice.
11. At the end of the day, after the dust has cleared, we should ask ourselves: “What have we contributed to our goal? Have we moved forward in ‘Building the Global Filipino Nation’”?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Group Banks on Social Enterprise for Peace to Sprout in Lanao del Norte
By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano
MANILA–It would take nearly a thousand kilometers, millions of pesos, and a year for peace to be sown in Lanao del Norte.That is the hope of Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, a socio-civic group banking on a project to spur “social enterprises” in Kolambogan municipality.Social enterprise is an old concept yet to seep into the fabric of violence-riddled Philippine society.
According to the West Oxfordshire District Council of England, a social enterprise is a “local community acting together to provide services needed by the local population, particularly where the service cannot be provided through the market economy”. Simply put, social enterprises are geared more to plow profits back to the community through a business run nearly by the community.
That is what Unlad Kabayan’s project is aiming for in the municipality of Kolambogan in Lanao del Norte, some 790 kilometers south of the Philippines’s capital. The project called “New Lives for Old: Peace, Growth, and Good Governance through Social Enterprises” was one of 33 chosen during this year’s World Bank-sponsored Panibagong Paraan contest.
Unlad Kabayan won a grant of P1 million for the project that involves working with government officials and a cooperative in the municipality.Bernice Roldan explains Unlad Kabayan would have to work with Kolambogan Mayor Bertrand Lumaque and the Lanao Comrades Multipurpose Cooperative so that three pilot enterprises in the farming and coastal municipality start off within a year.
Roldan said Lumaque committed nearly P2.2 million while Unlad Kabayan promised to set aside P0.9 million for the project.With the grant via the World Bank contest, these enterprises would be started with P3.079 million ($69,977.30 at US$1=P44), merely ten percent of what the municipality received as internal revenue allotment in 2006.
Roldan told the OFW Journalism Consortium that Unlad Kabayan will start up an integrated bio-resource farming enterprise, a coco-coir processing facility, and setting up of recycled container gardens at some residents’ backyards.
The first two enterprises are among the enterprises that Unlad Kabayan had set up in other provinces, such as Bohol, Bukidnon, Surigao del Norte, and Davao Oriental, as well as in Davao City.
The container gardening business, meanwhile, was a request by local residents, Roldan said.
Unlad's Roldan, without citing actual figures, said “many residents went overseas” citing the peace and order situation, aside from lack of gainful income, as reasons for leaving Kolambogan.Kolambogan is one of 22 municipalities in this province tagged as the gateway to the four cities of the Mindanao island group.
According to its Website, Kolambogan was a small barrio inhabited by native Maranaos and Christians before American migrant settlers began harvesting timber.Currently, the fourth class municipality of the second-class province of Lanao del Norte has vast agricultural lands which are mainly planted to coconut.
The Website, however, cited that nearly 14,000 residents are poor and some 3,683 households “are not gainfully employed”.
The municipality’s 24,180 total people form five percent of the total population of Lanao del Norte at 473,062, according to recent government census.According to its latest report, a total of 17,269 OFWs were recorded by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in 2006 as coming from Lanao del Norte.
Government data that year also showed Lanao del Norte, located in central Mindanao, has 7,103 temporary contract workers (5,621 land-based and 1,482 sea-based).
Some 3,282 of registered overseas permanent residents from 1988 to 2005 also cited the province as their home town. While some residents have joined the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, even some OFW families have their own domestic problems that escalated into a public safety issue, such as the shooting incident between a returned seafarer and his wife, Roldan added.
“The disturbed peace and order coupled with labor disputes in Kolambogan’s biggest industrial firm was a major setback in its population growth,” its Website said.
News reports cited a dozen people were kidnapped by bandits mid-June this year, overshadowed only by the kidnapping in Sulu of television journalist Ces Drilon and two cameramen.
More than the money and the dream enterprises to be set up, Roldan said the project proponents will confront peace and order issues, as well as visible poverty, in Kolambogan.
Recently, a shuttered timber company displaced more than 2,000 workers while typhoons of recent years hit half of the population’s farmlands. Kolambogan farmers earn P1,500 monthly while fisherfolk earn less, at least P1,200 monthly.Kolambogan’s IRA reached some P25.636 million in 2003 to a high of P30.237 million in 2006.
The website said “limited resources” plague the municipality.
For full story, visit our Website, or subscribe to the OFWJC's newspacket.
MANILA–It would take nearly a thousand kilometers, millions of pesos, and a year for peace to be sown in Lanao del Norte.That is the hope of Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, a socio-civic group banking on a project to spur “social enterprises” in Kolambogan municipality.Social enterprise is an old concept yet to seep into the fabric of violence-riddled Philippine society.
According to the West Oxfordshire District Council of England, a social enterprise is a “local community acting together to provide services needed by the local population, particularly where the service cannot be provided through the market economy”. Simply put, social enterprises are geared more to plow profits back to the community through a business run nearly by the community.
That is what Unlad Kabayan’s project is aiming for in the municipality of Kolambogan in Lanao del Norte, some 790 kilometers south of the Philippines’s capital. The project called “New Lives for Old: Peace, Growth, and Good Governance through Social Enterprises” was one of 33 chosen during this year’s World Bank-sponsored Panibagong Paraan contest.
Unlad Kabayan won a grant of P1 million for the project that involves working with government officials and a cooperative in the municipality.Bernice Roldan explains Unlad Kabayan would have to work with Kolambogan Mayor Bertrand Lumaque and the Lanao Comrades Multipurpose Cooperative so that three pilot enterprises in the farming and coastal municipality start off within a year.
Roldan said Lumaque committed nearly P2.2 million while Unlad Kabayan promised to set aside P0.9 million for the project.With the grant via the World Bank contest, these enterprises would be started with P3.079 million ($69,977.30 at US$1=P44), merely ten percent of what the municipality received as internal revenue allotment in 2006.
Roldan told the OFW Journalism Consortium that Unlad Kabayan will start up an integrated bio-resource farming enterprise, a coco-coir processing facility, and setting up of recycled container gardens at some residents’ backyards.
The first two enterprises are among the enterprises that Unlad Kabayan had set up in other provinces, such as Bohol, Bukidnon, Surigao del Norte, and Davao Oriental, as well as in Davao City.
The container gardening business, meanwhile, was a request by local residents, Roldan said.
Unlad's Roldan, without citing actual figures, said “many residents went overseas” citing the peace and order situation, aside from lack of gainful income, as reasons for leaving Kolambogan.Kolambogan is one of 22 municipalities in this province tagged as the gateway to the four cities of the Mindanao island group.
According to its Website, Kolambogan was a small barrio inhabited by native Maranaos and Christians before American migrant settlers began harvesting timber.Currently, the fourth class municipality of the second-class province of Lanao del Norte has vast agricultural lands which are mainly planted to coconut.
The Website, however, cited that nearly 14,000 residents are poor and some 3,683 households “are not gainfully employed”.
The municipality’s 24,180 total people form five percent of the total population of Lanao del Norte at 473,062, according to recent government census.According to its latest report, a total of 17,269 OFWs were recorded by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in 2006 as coming from Lanao del Norte.
Government data that year also showed Lanao del Norte, located in central Mindanao, has 7,103 temporary contract workers (5,621 land-based and 1,482 sea-based).
Some 3,282 of registered overseas permanent residents from 1988 to 2005 also cited the province as their home town. While some residents have joined the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, even some OFW families have their own domestic problems that escalated into a public safety issue, such as the shooting incident between a returned seafarer and his wife, Roldan added.
“The disturbed peace and order coupled with labor disputes in Kolambogan’s biggest industrial firm was a major setback in its population growth,” its Website said.
News reports cited a dozen people were kidnapped by bandits mid-June this year, overshadowed only by the kidnapping in Sulu of television journalist Ces Drilon and two cameramen.
More than the money and the dream enterprises to be set up, Roldan said the project proponents will confront peace and order issues, as well as visible poverty, in Kolambogan.
Recently, a shuttered timber company displaced more than 2,000 workers while typhoons of recent years hit half of the population’s farmlands. Kolambogan farmers earn P1,500 monthly while fisherfolk earn less, at least P1,200 monthly.Kolambogan’s IRA reached some P25.636 million in 2003 to a high of P30.237 million in 2006.
The website said “limited resources” plague the municipality.
For full story, visit our Website, or subscribe to the OFWJC's newspacket.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Pinoys Top Foreigners in 16 Countries
By Madelaine Joy A. Garcia
MANILA–Filipinos are slowly conquering various countries through sheer numbers.
A recently-released report by the World Bank identified Filipinos as among the top 10 foreigners in 16 big and small countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America.
The WB’s Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008 cited Filipinos lead the number of foreigners in Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Oman, Palau, Saudi Arabia, the Solomon Islands, and the US.
Five of these countries are members of the bloc Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The World Bank report bared data on the estimated number of migrants –or what it calls “immigrants”– based on the 2005 United Nations Population Division report.
The tiny island of Palau, some 800 kilometers east of the Philippines, hosts the most number of Filipinos among 3,036 foreigners. This diving haven is home to some 20,000 people.
Data from the state-run Commission on Filipinos Overseas show there are 4,495 Filipinos in Palau. Twenty-one of them are considered permanent residents while some 4,434 are temporary migrant workers. CFO estimates the rest are undocumented.
Manila to Koror, Palau’s capital, is 90 minutes apart. It takes half that time if flying to or from the southern Philippine province of Davao.
Meanwhile, Filipinos are the second biggest foreigner group in Malaysia, Brunei, and the United States, according to the World Bank report and CFO estimates.
The US, the Philippines’s top source country of remittances, has some 38.4 million foreigners, says the WB.
Filipinos are behind US neighbor Mexico as the biggest foreigner group, as CFO estimates that there are now 3.4 million Filipinos in that continent.
The WB report showed that of Malaysia’s 1.6 million foreigners, over a hundred thousand are Filipinos (100,233). The CFO June 2007 data confirms this.
Brunei, for its part, has some 124,193 foreigners; CFO estimates some 22,939 are Filipinos.
Filipinos form the third-biggest number of foreigners in Korea (50,165 of a total 551,193 foreigners) and the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean, have a thousand Filipinos as the third biggest foreigner group out of its estimated number of 1,667 foreigners: 2.7 percent of its total 65,000 people.
Solomon Islands has some 3,279 foreigners out of some 489,000 people. CFO estimates there are 758 Filipinos there.
Filipinos are also the fourth-biggest group in Italy, which has roughly 2.5 million foreigners. Some 119,083 Filipinos are estimated to be in Italy, says CFO.
Saudi Arabia, the workplace of an estimated 1,016,820 Filipinos according to CFO data, shows that Filipinos are the fifth biggest immigrant group. The Muslim nation of some 24 million has some 6.36 million immigrants.
Filipinos form also the fifth-largest immigrant group in Japan; the country having some 2.05 million foreigners, according to the World Bank report. There are an estimated 313,291 Filipinos in Japan, CFO data reveals.
Cyprus is estimated to have some 116,137 immigrants and Filipinos are ranked sixth. CFO data show that there are 12,406 Filipinos in Cyprus.
Filipinos are also the sixth-biggest in Oman, which has some 627,571. CFO estimates there are some 33,000 Filipinos.
Filipinos are the seventh-biggest foreigner group in Canada (total of 6,105,722 foreigners) and Iceland (23,097 foreigners). In these countries, CFO estimates there are 789,943 and 1,400 Filipinos in Canada and Iceland, respectively.
The eighth-biggest group of foreigners in Australia’s 4.1 million and Cambodia’s 303,871 immigrant population are Filipinos, which are estimated to number to 232,447 and 1,572, respectively.
To read the full story, subscribe to the OFW Journalism Consortium, or email us.
MANILA–Filipinos are slowly conquering various countries through sheer numbers.
A recently-released report by the World Bank identified Filipinos as among the top 10 foreigners in 16 big and small countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America.
The WB’s Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008 cited Filipinos lead the number of foreigners in Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Oman, Palau, Saudi Arabia, the Solomon Islands, and the US.
Five of these countries are members of the bloc Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The World Bank report bared data on the estimated number of migrants –or what it calls “immigrants”– based on the 2005 United Nations Population Division report.
The tiny island of Palau, some 800 kilometers east of the Philippines, hosts the most number of Filipinos among 3,036 foreigners. This diving haven is home to some 20,000 people.
Data from the state-run Commission on Filipinos Overseas show there are 4,495 Filipinos in Palau. Twenty-one of them are considered permanent residents while some 4,434 are temporary migrant workers. CFO estimates the rest are undocumented.
Manila to Koror, Palau’s capital, is 90 minutes apart. It takes half that time if flying to or from the southern Philippine province of Davao.
Meanwhile, Filipinos are the second biggest foreigner group in Malaysia, Brunei, and the United States, according to the World Bank report and CFO estimates.
The US, the Philippines’s top source country of remittances, has some 38.4 million foreigners, says the WB.
Filipinos are behind US neighbor Mexico as the biggest foreigner group, as CFO estimates that there are now 3.4 million Filipinos in that continent.
The WB report showed that of Malaysia’s 1.6 million foreigners, over a hundred thousand are Filipinos (100,233). The CFO June 2007 data confirms this.
Brunei, for its part, has some 124,193 foreigners; CFO estimates some 22,939 are Filipinos.
Filipinos form the third-biggest number of foreigners in Korea (50,165 of a total 551,193 foreigners) and the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean, have a thousand Filipinos as the third biggest foreigner group out of its estimated number of 1,667 foreigners: 2.7 percent of its total 65,000 people.
Solomon Islands has some 3,279 foreigners out of some 489,000 people. CFO estimates there are 758 Filipinos there.
Filipinos are also the fourth-biggest group in Italy, which has roughly 2.5 million foreigners. Some 119,083 Filipinos are estimated to be in Italy, says CFO.
Saudi Arabia, the workplace of an estimated 1,016,820 Filipinos according to CFO data, shows that Filipinos are the fifth biggest immigrant group. The Muslim nation of some 24 million has some 6.36 million immigrants.
Filipinos form also the fifth-largest immigrant group in Japan; the country having some 2.05 million foreigners, according to the World Bank report. There are an estimated 313,291 Filipinos in Japan, CFO data reveals.
Cyprus is estimated to have some 116,137 immigrants and Filipinos are ranked sixth. CFO data show that there are 12,406 Filipinos in Cyprus.
Filipinos are also the sixth-biggest in Oman, which has some 627,571. CFO estimates there are some 33,000 Filipinos.
Filipinos are the seventh-biggest foreigner group in Canada (total of 6,105,722 foreigners) and Iceland (23,097 foreigners). In these countries, CFO estimates there are 789,943 and 1,400 Filipinos in Canada and Iceland, respectively.
The eighth-biggest group of foreigners in Australia’s 4.1 million and Cambodia’s 303,871 immigrant population are Filipinos, which are estimated to number to 232,447 and 1,572, respectively.
To read the full story, subscribe to the OFW Journalism Consortium, or email us.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Migrants Slam Treatment of OFWs as Commodities
A group of international migrant workers groups has asked the government to address not only the issues of increased remittances but also the responsibility of the country to uphold the rights of overseas Filipino workers wherever they may be found.
They confirmed that a meeting of migrant workers NGOs will convene in Manila on July 11 and 12 to launch the People's Global Action, which will group together hundreds of migrant workers' organizations that will campaign for the protection of their rights in the Philippines and in all other countries capitalizing on the OFW market.
The Global Call to Action is also organizing a parallel meeting in Manila to coincide with the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development, which the Philippines is hosting in October, to oppose perspectives being promoted by governments that "perpetuate migrants' exploitation, reinforce gender oppression, undermine human rights and surrender State responsibility for development."
The Philippine Working Group on GFMD and the Migrants' Rights International said in past meetings, governments focused on maximizing the development benefits of migration while reducing discussions on the human rights of migrants, the causes of massive migration like failed economic development programs and widespread poverty in many countries.
This time, according to the migrant workers' alliance, a broader framework would be set in place with a parallel forum that will call on governments and other parties involved to renounce the treatment of migrant workers as commodities.
The meeting of government officials in Manila should now veer away from the themes promoted by banks, remittance companies and corporate giants, which centered on treating migrants as sources of revenues and as financiers of social development programs.
"These are all consistent with the neo-liberal agenda of making the people bear the burden of development, reducing government responsibility and accountability and ensuring more profits for the companies," the organizers said.
"We oppose the perspectives of making the GFMD an extension of neo-liberal globalization so that it becomes an instrument of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to promote corporate globalization, this time capitalizing on migrant workers," they said.
Organizers emphasized the Manila forum should be an opportunity for hundreds of delegates from all over the world to discuss the impact of migrant workers who remit more than $300 billion annually to their home countries.
They confirmed that a meeting of migrant workers NGOs will convene in Manila on July 11 and 12 to launch the People's Global Action, which will group together hundreds of migrant workers' organizations that will campaign for the protection of their rights in the Philippines and in all other countries capitalizing on the OFW market.
The Global Call to Action is also organizing a parallel meeting in Manila to coincide with the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development, which the Philippines is hosting in October, to oppose perspectives being promoted by governments that "perpetuate migrants' exploitation, reinforce gender oppression, undermine human rights and surrender State responsibility for development."
The Philippine Working Group on GFMD and the Migrants' Rights International said in past meetings, governments focused on maximizing the development benefits of migration while reducing discussions on the human rights of migrants, the causes of massive migration like failed economic development programs and widespread poverty in many countries.
This time, according to the migrant workers' alliance, a broader framework would be set in place with a parallel forum that will call on governments and other parties involved to renounce the treatment of migrant workers as commodities.
The meeting of government officials in Manila should now veer away from the themes promoted by banks, remittance companies and corporate giants, which centered on treating migrants as sources of revenues and as financiers of social development programs.
"These are all consistent with the neo-liberal agenda of making the people bear the burden of development, reducing government responsibility and accountability and ensuring more profits for the companies," the organizers said.
"We oppose the perspectives of making the GFMD an extension of neo-liberal globalization so that it becomes an instrument of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to promote corporate globalization, this time capitalizing on migrant workers," they said.
Organizers emphasized the Manila forum should be an opportunity for hundreds of delegates from all over the world to discuss the impact of migrant workers who remit more than $300 billion annually to their home countries.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
RP Gov’t Hikes Funding for OFW-related Agencies
By Ruben Jeffrey A. Asuncion
QUEZON CITY–TWO government agencies expected to help overseas Filipino workers received increases in funding for this year, budget records showed.
The 2008 General Appropriations Act bared that assistance projects for OFWs by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs got the increments the agencies proposed in last year’s budget hearings.
The labor department got a P33.3-million increase in allocated funds for its “Social Protection Program,” where the budget item “Workers Protection and Welfare Service to Overseas Filipino Workers” falls under.
The program was given P383.3 million this year, up nearly ten percent from its P350 million budget last year.
In addition, the labor department’s “Emergency Repatriation Program,” an item absent from its budget last year, was given P50 million. Another P50 million was allocated for the one-year-old National Reintegration Center for OFWs.
The center was formed during then-Labor Secretary Arturo Brion’s watch. It is expected to provide economic and psycho-social reintegration services to returning OFWs and to OFW families.
Another attached agency, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration also received increases in its budget. The POEA’s “Workers Welfare Assistance and Overseas Placement Services” line item received a budget of P39.5 million. This was nearly two-percent higher than its P38.8-million allocation last year.
A similar increase has also been made in the POEA’s line item “Adjudication Services” with P28.5 million for this year, compared with P27.6 million for last year.
But while these Manila-centric units got majority of the labor department’s total P6.3-billion pie, DOLE’s offices in the regions got a measly share for “workers’ amelioration and welfare services”.
In addition, these regions, where most prospective and former OFWs and OFW families live, saw budget for these services reduced by nearly P3 million to P36.6 million from the P38.2-million budget allocation last year.
In contrast, the labor department’s allocation for personal services (PS) continued to see year-on-year increases as against, for one, maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
For the item “Workers Protection and Welfare Service to Overseas Filipino Workers,” for example, around P207.6 million for personal services was allocated for this year.
This amount is nearly double than the P168.2 million allotted for maintenance and operating costs for this year.
Last year, the program received P202.7 million for PS while its MOOE was allocated only P145.3 million.
Over all, the labor department’s budget this year increased by 28.24 percent to P6.271 billion from nearly P5 billion in 2007. POEA’s budget, which is part of the total budget, also increased to P238.9 million this year, from P231.6 million in 2007.
POEA’s budget is merely 20 percent of the total collection of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, if OWWA was able to collect the $25 from 3,000 OFWs leaving every day.
Since it is a government-owned and controlled corporation, the OWWA is excluded from the annual GAA and relies mainly on the membership fees being paid by departing OFWs, and not from taxpayers’ money. The US$25 contributions are for the provision of welfare and economic services to OFWs.
Assuming the a million OFWs left last year, OWWA’s coffer would be around a billion pesos at an average exchange rate of US$1=P42. That amount would just be 17 percent of the labor department’s budget.
OWWA’s Board of Trustees provides the annual budgets, which must be requested to them.
In 2006, says a Commission on Audit report, OWWA spent some PhP910.715 million while earning P2.062 billion.
Another agency tasked with the welfare of overseas Filipinos is the Department of Foreign Affairs, which also received an increased budget.
The DFA’s provision on the “Implementation of RA 8042” was increased by 170 percent to P236.7 million this year from only P87.7 million in 2007.
Being funded under this category are the Legal Assistance Fund for the litigation cases of OFWs and the Assistance-to-Nationals Fund. The latter is the department’s funds for the repatriation of OFWs.
To read the full story, subscribe to the OFW Journalism Consortium, or email us.
QUEZON CITY–TWO government agencies expected to help overseas Filipino workers received increases in funding for this year, budget records showed.
The 2008 General Appropriations Act bared that assistance projects for OFWs by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs got the increments the agencies proposed in last year’s budget hearings.
The labor department got a P33.3-million increase in allocated funds for its “Social Protection Program,” where the budget item “Workers Protection and Welfare Service to Overseas Filipino Workers” falls under.
The program was given P383.3 million this year, up nearly ten percent from its P350 million budget last year.
In addition, the labor department’s “Emergency Repatriation Program,” an item absent from its budget last year, was given P50 million. Another P50 million was allocated for the one-year-old National Reintegration Center for OFWs.
The center was formed during then-Labor Secretary Arturo Brion’s watch. It is expected to provide economic and psycho-social reintegration services to returning OFWs and to OFW families.
Another attached agency, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration also received increases in its budget. The POEA’s “Workers Welfare Assistance and Overseas Placement Services” line item received a budget of P39.5 million. This was nearly two-percent higher than its P38.8-million allocation last year.
A similar increase has also been made in the POEA’s line item “Adjudication Services” with P28.5 million for this year, compared with P27.6 million for last year.
But while these Manila-centric units got majority of the labor department’s total P6.3-billion pie, DOLE’s offices in the regions got a measly share for “workers’ amelioration and welfare services”.
In addition, these regions, where most prospective and former OFWs and OFW families live, saw budget for these services reduced by nearly P3 million to P36.6 million from the P38.2-million budget allocation last year.
In contrast, the labor department’s allocation for personal services (PS) continued to see year-on-year increases as against, for one, maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
For the item “Workers Protection and Welfare Service to Overseas Filipino Workers,” for example, around P207.6 million for personal services was allocated for this year.
This amount is nearly double than the P168.2 million allotted for maintenance and operating costs for this year.
Last year, the program received P202.7 million for PS while its MOOE was allocated only P145.3 million.
Over all, the labor department’s budget this year increased by 28.24 percent to P6.271 billion from nearly P5 billion in 2007. POEA’s budget, which is part of the total budget, also increased to P238.9 million this year, from P231.6 million in 2007.
POEA’s budget is merely 20 percent of the total collection of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, if OWWA was able to collect the $25 from 3,000 OFWs leaving every day.
Since it is a government-owned and controlled corporation, the OWWA is excluded from the annual GAA and relies mainly on the membership fees being paid by departing OFWs, and not from taxpayers’ money. The US$25 contributions are for the provision of welfare and economic services to OFWs.
Assuming the a million OFWs left last year, OWWA’s coffer would be around a billion pesos at an average exchange rate of US$1=P42. That amount would just be 17 percent of the labor department’s budget.
OWWA’s Board of Trustees provides the annual budgets, which must be requested to them.
In 2006, says a Commission on Audit report, OWWA spent some PhP910.715 million while earning P2.062 billion.
Another agency tasked with the welfare of overseas Filipinos is the Department of Foreign Affairs, which also received an increased budget.
The DFA’s provision on the “Implementation of RA 8042” was increased by 170 percent to P236.7 million this year from only P87.7 million in 2007.
Being funded under this category are the Legal Assistance Fund for the litigation cases of OFWs and the Assistance-to-Nationals Fund. The latter is the department’s funds for the repatriation of OFWs.
To read the full story, subscribe to the OFW Journalism Consortium, or email us.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Study Says High School Drop-outs Not Children of OFWs
By Luis Carlo S. Liberato
MANILA–DISTANCE not only makes the heart grow fonder; it has also kept most children of women overseas Filipino workers from dropping out of school.Thus cites economist Alvin Ang of the University of Santo Tomas in his recently released study titled “Determining the Social Costs of
Overseas Filipino Workers’ Remittances: A Check through Education Indicators”.
Amid the tide of a nationwide rise of drop-outs and the slump of kids’ school participation and cohort survival, Ang rides against the commonly-held belief that distant parenting strategy doesn’t work.He asserts a contrarian belief that this strategy keeps OFW children in high school.
The results for children of OFWs are even more encouraging, says Ang of the UST Social Research Center, if women are the ones abroad.Women’s migration pushes children to stay in school, Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium.Using mathematical formulas in Economics called “regressions,” Ang’s study showed that international migration positively affects education indicators such as drop-outs, school participation, and cohort survival.
The effect is also regardless of gender, his computations revealed. Drop out rates lessen in number, while school participation and cohort survival rates rise. It’s just that in all three indicators, women get more positive results, Ang said.
Ang admitted getting surprised with the results, knowing first-hand the social costs associated with parental absence: he was away from his family for a long time in Japan on a study grant.Contrast also Ang’s findings with data from the Department of Education: secondary education drop-out rates nationwide rose as of school year 2005-2006.Drop-out rates for both elementary and secondary levels, according to the government education agency, went up by above seven percent and nearly 13% in school year 2005-2006, from 6.98% and 7.99%, respectively, in school year 2004-2005.
High cost of education coupled by lingering poverty has been cited by pundits as reasons for these increases.Ang’s study cited the reasons for those who didn’t drop out.
In Ang’s study, which was presented at the Sixth National Social Science Congress last May, overseas migration of parents increases cohort survival rates and school participation rates.His data on cohort survival and school participation looked at children belonging to the 10-14 and 15-19 years-old age groups, across Philippine regions, as well as the number of male and female OFWs coming from the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos. As for drop out rates, the age bracket of his data covers 13 to 16 years old.He chose these age brackets because a recent paper by another economist, Rosemarie Edillon of the Asia-Pacific Policy Center, wrote that high school children of OFWs “are worst off in terms of time and money.
”This was where Ang hurled what he called “interesting conjectures.”
“The absence of the female migrant is a strong incentive to remain in school…[indicating] that OFW children are studying hard despite the absence of mothers (and) thereby dispelling that they are worst off.”He added that “absent mothers increase the chance of children completing (high school).
”But if the mother is here in the Philippines, all the more that “children want her attention,” says Ang.He posited that children adjust to a situation of parental absence while children with no OFW parents prefer the “traditional family set-up” where both parents are present.
Still, money is part of the story: Ang’s data were on the number of OFWs, not on remittances.While his study doesn’t mean discouraging results for male OFWs who also bankroll children’s education, Ang noted women OFWs make the difference. “The absence of mothers is already the worst case scenario for a (Filipino) family tradition where the father is the breadwinner, so children really must study hard.”Of course, he says “it is but proper (for the children) to study hard, returning the sacrifice and finishing (school) on time.”
For full story, subscribe to OFW Journalism Consortium or email us.
MANILA–DISTANCE not only makes the heart grow fonder; it has also kept most children of women overseas Filipino workers from dropping out of school.Thus cites economist Alvin Ang of the University of Santo Tomas in his recently released study titled “Determining the Social Costs of
Overseas Filipino Workers’ Remittances: A Check through Education Indicators”.
Amid the tide of a nationwide rise of drop-outs and the slump of kids’ school participation and cohort survival, Ang rides against the commonly-held belief that distant parenting strategy doesn’t work.He asserts a contrarian belief that this strategy keeps OFW children in high school.
The results for children of OFWs are even more encouraging, says Ang of the UST Social Research Center, if women are the ones abroad.Women’s migration pushes children to stay in school, Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium.Using mathematical formulas in Economics called “regressions,” Ang’s study showed that international migration positively affects education indicators such as drop-outs, school participation, and cohort survival.
The effect is also regardless of gender, his computations revealed. Drop out rates lessen in number, while school participation and cohort survival rates rise. It’s just that in all three indicators, women get more positive results, Ang said.
Ang admitted getting surprised with the results, knowing first-hand the social costs associated with parental absence: he was away from his family for a long time in Japan on a study grant.Contrast also Ang’s findings with data from the Department of Education: secondary education drop-out rates nationwide rose as of school year 2005-2006.Drop-out rates for both elementary and secondary levels, according to the government education agency, went up by above seven percent and nearly 13% in school year 2005-2006, from 6.98% and 7.99%, respectively, in school year 2004-2005.
High cost of education coupled by lingering poverty has been cited by pundits as reasons for these increases.Ang’s study cited the reasons for those who didn’t drop out.
In Ang’s study, which was presented at the Sixth National Social Science Congress last May, overseas migration of parents increases cohort survival rates and school participation rates.His data on cohort survival and school participation looked at children belonging to the 10-14 and 15-19 years-old age groups, across Philippine regions, as well as the number of male and female OFWs coming from the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos. As for drop out rates, the age bracket of his data covers 13 to 16 years old.He chose these age brackets because a recent paper by another economist, Rosemarie Edillon of the Asia-Pacific Policy Center, wrote that high school children of OFWs “are worst off in terms of time and money.
”This was where Ang hurled what he called “interesting conjectures.”
“The absence of the female migrant is a strong incentive to remain in school…[indicating] that OFW children are studying hard despite the absence of mothers (and) thereby dispelling that they are worst off.”He added that “absent mothers increase the chance of children completing (high school).
”But if the mother is here in the Philippines, all the more that “children want her attention,” says Ang.He posited that children adjust to a situation of parental absence while children with no OFW parents prefer the “traditional family set-up” where both parents are present.
Still, money is part of the story: Ang’s data were on the number of OFWs, not on remittances.While his study doesn’t mean discouraging results for male OFWs who also bankroll children’s education, Ang noted women OFWs make the difference. “The absence of mothers is already the worst case scenario for a (Filipino) family tradition where the father is the breadwinner, so children really must study hard.”Of course, he says “it is but proper (for the children) to study hard, returning the sacrifice and finishing (school) on time.”
For full story, subscribe to OFW Journalism Consortium or email us.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
OPAP Membership Directory now off the press
Press Release
Overseas Placement Association of the Philippines President Eduardo T. Mahiya announced on July 1 the release of the 2008 edition of the OPAP Membership Directory.
The 80-page volume, last published in 2004, is a comprehensive guide to the history, programs and services, and membership of the OPAP, one of the country's largest associations of licensed overseas recruitment agencies. The OPAP was organized in 1977 with Emilio C. Bonoan of Foreign Manpower Services Inc. as its first president. Since its founding, the OPAP has evolved as a leader in the Philippine overseas recruitment sector, always standing at the frontlines in fighting for fair and better policies for licensed overseas employment providers.
"The OPAP Membership Directory is a definitive guide to the country's overseas recruitment sector, the partner of government that contributes a great deal to employment generation," said Mahiya.
Mahiya added that the directory could be of great use and value to job seekers, policy makers, and overseas employers who would like to recruit Filipino workers.
Apart from the directory, the OPAP also publishes regularly the OPAP Gazette, its official newsletter, which is now on the third year of its continuous publication.
Monday, June 30, 2008
An OFW Morgue Tale
This is an urgent breaking news from Brisbane Australia.
Today, I and my family attended a Barrio Fiesta Annual celebration held in Yeronga Football Club, Brisbane Queensland.
I was shocked to learn that an OFW died of stroke and has been at the hospital morgue for three weeks.
I spoke to one of the officials of the barrio fiesta affair but I wasn't given any information about the OFW, but I managed to speak to one of the OFW who has worked with him.
The dead OFW's name is ROLANDO CORTEZ from BATANGGAS CITY.
He came to Australia under Visa 457- as welder with 3 yrs contract and was initially hired byTRANSAFE in oct 2005. He did not finished his contract with this employer.
He was hired by another company, as in-house welder, in April 2007. I'm sorry, I didn't find out the name of the new employer.
He has stroke one Tuesday, four weeks ago and was admitted to Prince Alenxandra Hospital, Brisbane. It was announced that, his body maybe transported back to Philippines sometime nextweek, no sure date yet.
Donations were being colected here for his body to be sent to phils.
my concern is, why it is taking so long for his remains to be claimed from the morgue.
- may insurance ba ito as OFW?
- alam ba ng phil embassy ito dito? may sub-office dito sa brisbane, pero 3 days-holiday dito ngayon. i can't make any contact with it.
-alam na kaya ng pamilya ni Mr. Cortez na siya ay matagal nang patay at naka-hold pa ang labi sa hospital morgue?
please followup his details sa DFA and POEA.
OFW week pala ngayon diyan. Sana, mabigyan si ROLANDO CORTEZ lalo na ang mga pamilya niya ng nararapat na kalinga at suporta.
nag-uulat,
Manuel G. Rodel
+61 410631512
Kuraby,Brisbane
Queensland Australia
Today, I and my family attended a Barrio Fiesta Annual celebration held in Yeronga Football Club, Brisbane Queensland.
I was shocked to learn that an OFW died of stroke and has been at the hospital morgue for three weeks.
I spoke to one of the officials of the barrio fiesta affair but I wasn't given any information about the OFW, but I managed to speak to one of the OFW who has worked with him.
The dead OFW's name is ROLANDO CORTEZ from BATANGGAS CITY.
He came to Australia under Visa 457- as welder with 3 yrs contract and was initially hired byTRANSAFE in oct 2005. He did not finished his contract with this employer.
He was hired by another company, as in-house welder, in April 2007. I'm sorry, I didn't find out the name of the new employer.
He has stroke one Tuesday, four weeks ago and was admitted to Prince Alenxandra Hospital, Brisbane. It was announced that, his body maybe transported back to Philippines sometime nextweek, no sure date yet.
Donations were being colected here for his body to be sent to phils.
my concern is, why it is taking so long for his remains to be claimed from the morgue.
- may insurance ba ito as OFW?
- alam ba ng phil embassy ito dito? may sub-office dito sa brisbane, pero 3 days-holiday dito ngayon. i can't make any contact with it.
-alam na kaya ng pamilya ni Mr. Cortez na siya ay matagal nang patay at naka-hold pa ang labi sa hospital morgue?
please followup his details sa DFA and POEA.
OFW week pala ngayon diyan. Sana, mabigyan si ROLANDO CORTEZ lalo na ang mga pamilya niya ng nararapat na kalinga at suporta.
nag-uulat,
Manuel G. Rodel
+61 410631512
Kuraby,Brisbane
Queensland Australia
Liham mula kay Victor Martin
Mabuhay!
Isa po akong ofw na ksalukuyan ngayong nasa bansang Korea. Ako po ay 33-taong gulang mula sa lalawigan ng Nueva Vizcaya.
Ako po ay dinalaw ng aking kaibigan sa hospital nitong Linggo matapos mamalagi sa loob ng isang buwan dahil sa aksidente habang nagtratrabaho. Sa kanyang pagdalaw ay my dala siyang magazine at iniwan nya pra may mapaglibangan akong basahin at dito ko nakita ang artikulo na may petsang october 31, 2007 tungkol sa Philippine Dairy Industry.
Ako po ay agad na nagkagusto sa nasabing programa o negosyo sa kabila ng lahat na wala akong sapat na kaalaman tungkol dito.ngayon pong nakalabas ako sa hospital ay agad kong naiisip na sulatan kayo.
Kung bigyan po nyo ng pagkakataon nais ko po sanang malaman ang kasagutan sa ilan kong mga katanungan.
-paano po ang mag invest sa dairy industry
-magkano ang initial investment ng isang katulad ko
-ano po ang mga hakbang na dapat sundin
-gaano po katagal bago my babalik sayo mula sa iyong investment
-may seguridad po ba ang investor na di malugi ang kanyang puhunan
-kailangan ko po bang dumalaw mismo sa inyong tanggapan para mag invest
-kung hindi paano po ang MOA- paano po lalago ang investment (baka po pwede mgbigay kayo ng computation)
-kung may mga impormasyon na sa palagay nyo ay kailangan ko pang malaman paki paliwanag na rin po.marami pong salamat at sana mapabilang akong isa sa matagumpay nyong programa.
God Bless you all.
Victor Martin
(Liham sa pamamagitan ng e-mail)
Isa po akong ofw na ksalukuyan ngayong nasa bansang Korea. Ako po ay 33-taong gulang mula sa lalawigan ng Nueva Vizcaya.
Ako po ay dinalaw ng aking kaibigan sa hospital nitong Linggo matapos mamalagi sa loob ng isang buwan dahil sa aksidente habang nagtratrabaho. Sa kanyang pagdalaw ay my dala siyang magazine at iniwan nya pra may mapaglibangan akong basahin at dito ko nakita ang artikulo na may petsang october 31, 2007 tungkol sa Philippine Dairy Industry.
Ako po ay agad na nagkagusto sa nasabing programa o negosyo sa kabila ng lahat na wala akong sapat na kaalaman tungkol dito.ngayon pong nakalabas ako sa hospital ay agad kong naiisip na sulatan kayo.
Kung bigyan po nyo ng pagkakataon nais ko po sanang malaman ang kasagutan sa ilan kong mga katanungan.
-paano po ang mag invest sa dairy industry
-magkano ang initial investment ng isang katulad ko
-ano po ang mga hakbang na dapat sundin
-gaano po katagal bago my babalik sayo mula sa iyong investment
-may seguridad po ba ang investor na di malugi ang kanyang puhunan
-kailangan ko po bang dumalaw mismo sa inyong tanggapan para mag invest
-kung hindi paano po ang MOA- paano po lalago ang investment (baka po pwede mgbigay kayo ng computation)
-kung may mga impormasyon na sa palagay nyo ay kailangan ko pang malaman paki paliwanag na rin po.marami pong salamat at sana mapabilang akong isa sa matagumpay nyong programa.
God Bless you all.
Victor Martin
(Liham sa pamamagitan ng e-mail)
A world without Filipino
This article has been out for quite a while. But I'd post it anyway for those who have not seen it.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
A forwarded letter to the editor
Dear Editors,
It is a clear example of opportunism and intimidation by the
Not only is an aircraft carrier group in our territory overkill, it is also a mockery of the anti-nuclear weapons provisions of the Constitution, the presence of which the
An aircraft carrier group is a mobile military base that can project military might over a big area in the ocean. Its presence in our country reflect the need for the
It can be likened to a loaded gun pointed at the government and to us as a people. Its message: take our "aid" whether you want it or need it. Their mere presence intimidates and gives coercive power for the US to gain concessions from the host country and allows it to interfere, in most cases with impunity, in internal affairs
That the US calls the Philippines its "second front in the war against terror" and that it has periodic and overlapping joint exercises with it is not an accident, it does this to strengthen its position in this country for the purpose of being in the position to grab and control the resources of Southeast Asia .
We do need international aid at this time but we do not need the opportunistic military projection by the forces of the
We close our doors on a gun-toting thug who wants to enter our homes, even if he is saying that he wants to help you. In this case, it is in these times of national tragedy that we should exercise national sovreignty in asking for international help. We should not allow the emergency to be used as a pretext for other countries to push their own agenda.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Giovanni Tapang
National Chairperson
AGHAM
gtapang@gmail.com
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Mail Contribution
Filipino Migrants Workers' Day Friendship Games Held in Riyadh
By Desert Dox
Riyadh--It is not the Staples Center in Los Angeles nor the Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.
The Eastern Province quintet of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office Cuties which was backed by the United Filipino Basketball Federation’s new breed of basketball stars romped over the much hyped Riyadh selection 85-80 during the celebration of the 13th Filipino Migrant Workers Day at the Philippine Embassy, Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh on June 06, 2008.
The Filipino community in the Eastern Province was represented by a bunch of basketeers; albeit underrated but oozing with talents, big hearts and a will to win. They call themselves POLO-ERO Cuties - prototypes of their energetic and endearing Labor Attache, the Honorable David Des Dicang; who heads the delegation with the full support of UFBF’s Adviser, Mr. Jun Ayag.
The scores were clearly in favor of the visiting Cuties quintet as they were ahead by 8 points in the first half with Riyadh rallying to get 15 points after the first quarter. The furious comeback of the host team came in the third canto when it tied for 62 all. At the onset of the final quarter; it was a nip and tuck affair. Neither team allowed themselves to lodge in the basket. With 71-70 score in less than 3 minutes remaining, Riyadh five was a point ahead until Cuties’ triggerman Rolly Bisda fired a long 3-point shot with a foul to boot from Angeles. From then on, the Cuties safely protected and never looked back that ultimately bagged the coveted championship trophy.
“It was a sweet victory” enthused by their head coach, Leo Gines who was slapped with an uncalled technical foul few minutes after the 1st quarter had started. “The match unraveled the emergence of future superstars in the mold of basketball legends” he continued. Superb playmaking was seen in the personas of Neil Aclan and Coco Gonzalez. Towering 23 year-old center, Jengkins Bucao was a monster rebounder battling himself with the likes of Riyadh’s veteran players Yasay and Santander. Jun Derama was a power forward, a reminiscent of the fabled Crispa’s Villamin and Toyota’s Abe King. Sweet shooters Michael Bombita and Zaldy Patanao were unstoppable. The whole bench had contributed immensely to the game as showcased by the remainder of the quintet; Jerry Mallilin, Al Pineda, Jeffrey Bajar, Angel Singian and Glen Abrantes. The hard nosed defense employed by the Cuties at the remaining minutes of the game certainly preserved the win. The 6’4” Bucao was specifically instructed to overplay Santander, the inbounder on the ensuing play which made life more difficult for their offense. Gonzales was later adjudged as the Best Player of the game.
The big win would not have been historic without Cuties’ full backing from its organizers, team managers, coaching staff and EP supporters headed by Rodee Cariaso, Rene Manlulu, Francis Gascon, Aries Directo, Dexter Ramirez and Arman del Mundo. These are the same wonderful people running the UFBF, the name to reckon with in the basketball league in this part of Saudi Arabia. The team’s muses were the beauteous Ms. Apple King and Ms. Monica Sitchon who were escorted by their wonderful parents (Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy King - 2005 Bagong Bayani Awardeee and restaurateur couple Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Sitchon) all the way to Riyadh.
Yes, the dream match was not held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles nor at the Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden--the sites of the ongoing NBA Finals--the thrilling, down the wire sporting event was played with a bang at the Philippine Embassy grounds in Riyadh that will remain as a benchmark for sports organizers in future regional sporting events.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A year of inactivity
I know, I know. This blog has been inactive for a while (actually, its been a year) . Well, I've been busy, but I will make it up for you. I will post some of the best stories that we had during the past year and some of the mails that we receive on a regular basis.
I will also try to make this site a little more different than ours, www.ofwjournalism.net, which all of you out there can check
V
I will also try to make this site a little more different than ours, www.ofwjournalism.net, which all of you out there can check
V
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
School kindles OFW kids’ knack for life
by RUBY ANNE R. PASCUA
www.ofwjournalism.net
Skills such as cooking and using the computer are taught in the Palihan (workshop) program of the Erda Tech Foundation, which allows out-of-school children who have parents working overseas a means to express their creativity.
OFWJC / Ruby Anne R. Pascua
MANILA – IN THIS school, students are allowed to stare across the window to daydream during classes.
That’s how some students like Cathyrine Tamayo and Ginesa Patalinhog get their motivation to stay out of the streets and stay in this school called Erda Tech.
For Tamayo and Patalinhog, both 17 years old, their dreams bring them to the places where their fathers are: thousands of miles overseas.
But instead of feeling sorry because of the separation and over the poverty that pushed their fathers to leave for work abroad, the two are allowed to express their dreams through creative means.
Tamayo loves to paint, using watercolor as medium. Patalinhog does, too. She is also a member of the school’s dance club while both are part of a group of young artists.
Erda administrator Wilhelmina Martinez said the school’s program called Palihan (workshop, in English) has been effective through such method of tapping into the students’ creativity because “we are also cultivating in them their personality and work attitude.”
“We found out that if we give adequate skills preparation to these children, mold them to have the right work attitude and have them all geared up to work hand-in-hand with other people, they will really be ready for employment,” Martinez added.
In a country where the number of high school dropouts and out-of-school youth are increasing in numbers, Erda Tech offers a fresh take in training young people like Tamayo and Patalinhog to traverse the social costs of the country’s overseas labor export program.
A study by F. K. Coronel and F. Unterreiner for the United Nations Children Fund cited that because “migration involves the separation of one or both parents from their children …therefore [it] goes against the best interest of the children.”
The paper titled “Towards a greater impact of remittances on children’s rights realization,” estimates that there are “about 3.75 million (Filipino) children left behind by their fathers.”
“These yield a total of 5.25 million children left behind by migrant mothers and fathers,” the paper, released last May, said.
www.ofwjournalism.net
Skills such as cooking and using the computer are taught in the Palihan (workshop) program of the Erda Tech Foundation, which allows out-of-school children who have parents working overseas a means to express their creativity.
OFWJC / Ruby Anne R. Pascua
MANILA – IN THIS school, students are allowed to stare across the window to daydream during classes.
That’s how some students like Cathyrine Tamayo and Ginesa Patalinhog get their motivation to stay out of the streets and stay in this school called Erda Tech.
For Tamayo and Patalinhog, both 17 years old, their dreams bring them to the places where their fathers are: thousands of miles overseas.
But instead of feeling sorry because of the separation and over the poverty that pushed their fathers to leave for work abroad, the two are allowed to express their dreams through creative means.
Tamayo loves to paint, using watercolor as medium. Patalinhog does, too. She is also a member of the school’s dance club while both are part of a group of young artists.
Erda administrator Wilhelmina Martinez said the school’s program called Palihan (workshop, in English) has been effective through such method of tapping into the students’ creativity because “we are also cultivating in them their personality and work attitude.”
“We found out that if we give adequate skills preparation to these children, mold them to have the right work attitude and have them all geared up to work hand-in-hand with other people, they will really be ready for employment,” Martinez added.
In a country where the number of high school dropouts and out-of-school youth are increasing in numbers, Erda Tech offers a fresh take in training young people like Tamayo and Patalinhog to traverse the social costs of the country’s overseas labor export program.
A study by F. K. Coronel and F. Unterreiner for the United Nations Children Fund cited that because “migration involves the separation of one or both parents from their children …therefore [it] goes against the best interest of the children.”
The paper titled “Towards a greater impact of remittances on children’s rights realization,” estimates that there are “about 3.75 million (Filipino) children left behind by their fathers.”
“These yield a total of 5.25 million children left behind by migrant mothers and fathers,” the paper, released last May, said.
For full story, visit the OFWJC's Website.
A Reader's Comments
I would like to share with your readers my experience here at the Maltese Consulate to the Philippines.
Having come here from the Philippines as a business woman with capital and projects to manufacture handicrafts in Malta, I went to the consulate in the hope that they would help me in my endeavors. Very soon I noticed and learned that they were charging Filipinos a fee for a single signature, endorsement, or visa extension. Now I have absolute proof that the consulate's intervention was not needed for the issue or extension of a visa to stay in Malta since this was at the discretion of the immigration department in Malta following a request by the Philippine Consulate in Manila.
Besides this, one of my clients, a Maltese, wanted to visit my factory in the Philippines and after he enquired at the consulate, he was told that a visa was required and charged him over 30 liri for it, when in fact none was needed. When I brought this up with the consulate here, they just laughed.
It seems that the consulate wants to control anything which Filipinos residing in Malta are doing so that they can charge fees for their imposed intervention.
Because I spoke up and made it amply clear that I did not think it was fair for my compatriots to be treated in this manner, I was shouted at, verbally thrown out of the office and told in very crude language that he could do what he liked and that no one could touch him. I filmed the whole meeting on my DigiCam.
A few inquiries over the Internet, however, revealed that the Consul to the Philippines in Malta's term had expired on the 3rd of February 2007.
On the local newspaper, there was a call for all Filipinos in Malta to attend the Celebration of the Anniversary of Independence Day in the Philippines which was held last Sunday in Valletta.
I printed all the relative documentation which proved that the consulate was an “EX” and went to the venue in the hope of informing all the bona fide Filipinos there that they were no longer obliged to contribute to the Consul's coffers given that he was no longer their representative. Moreover, I insisted that he had no right to rally Filipinos to celebrate their Independence Day in Malta when in fact he was not any more connected to the consulate. I also objected to his flying my country's flag outside his office.
Once again, I was told to please leave, that my presence there was not welcome.
I would like all the press here to get their nose onto this in the hope that if any injustices have been suffered by Filpinos in Malta, some form of compensation or remedial action will be forthcoming.
Susana E.Higayon,
President
SuhiroMalta Limited
Having come here from the Philippines as a business woman with capital and projects to manufacture handicrafts in Malta, I went to the consulate in the hope that they would help me in my endeavors. Very soon I noticed and learned that they were charging Filipinos a fee for a single signature, endorsement, or visa extension. Now I have absolute proof that the consulate's intervention was not needed for the issue or extension of a visa to stay in Malta since this was at the discretion of the immigration department in Malta following a request by the Philippine Consulate in Manila.
Besides this, one of my clients, a Maltese, wanted to visit my factory in the Philippines and after he enquired at the consulate, he was told that a visa was required and charged him over 30 liri for it, when in fact none was needed. When I brought this up with the consulate here, they just laughed.
It seems that the consulate wants to control anything which Filipinos residing in Malta are doing so that they can charge fees for their imposed intervention.
Because I spoke up and made it amply clear that I did not think it was fair for my compatriots to be treated in this manner, I was shouted at, verbally thrown out of the office and told in very crude language that he could do what he liked and that no one could touch him. I filmed the whole meeting on my DigiCam.
A few inquiries over the Internet, however, revealed that the Consul to the Philippines in Malta's term had expired on the 3rd of February 2007.
On the local newspaper, there was a call for all Filipinos in Malta to attend the Celebration of the Anniversary of Independence Day in the Philippines which was held last Sunday in Valletta.
I printed all the relative documentation which proved that the consulate was an “EX” and went to the venue in the hope of informing all the bona fide Filipinos there that they were no longer obliged to contribute to the Consul's coffers given that he was no longer their representative. Moreover, I insisted that he had no right to rally Filipinos to celebrate their Independence Day in Malta when in fact he was not any more connected to the consulate. I also objected to his flying my country's flag outside his office.
Once again, I was told to please leave, that my presence there was not welcome.
I would like all the press here to get their nose onto this in the hope that if any injustices have been suffered by Filpinos in Malta, some form of compensation or remedial action will be forthcoming.
Susana E.Higayon,
President
SuhiroMalta Limited
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Remittances Help Foil Asia Crisis Repeat, World Bank Study Says
BY ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
MANILA—ACROSS the East Asia region sweeps the wind of prosperity and cash remittances as well as knowledge capital by migrant workers has helped economies become more robust a decade after a devastating crisis.
Aside from the Philippines, the World Bank cited remittances from workers overseas also helped other countries like Vietnam and Mongolia to beef up cash reserves. Hence, remittances could soften and may even foil a repeat of the 1997 Asian crisis –if ever there would be one in the near future.
“A decade after the financial crisis that devastated East Asia in 1997-98, the region is far wealthier, has fewer poor people and a larger global role than ever before. Led by continued strong growth in China, Emerging East Asia now has an aggregate output of over $5 trillion, double the dollar value just before the crisis,” said the WB report titled “Ten Years after the Crisis”.
The report noted that the economies affected by the crisis: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea, and Thailand, posted real per capita incomes “significantly” exceeding pre-crisis levels.
The WB noted that the first three economies achieved real per capita income growth of 3-3.5 percent, “with per-capita growth in Korea and Thailand averaging 4-4.5 percent” in the four years ending 2006.
The cause, in particular with the Philippines, is consumption or the purchase of consumers by what the country’s factories produce, retailers sell, and businesses import-for-sale from abroad.
“Consumers in the Philippines also increased real expenditures by 5-6 percent, supported in part by a 20-percent rise in remittances from abroad,” the WB said.
Compared with Thailand's 3.2-percent consumer-demand growth last year, the Philippines posted a 5.5-percent growth from just 4.9 percent in 2005. Both countries are regarded as developing economies compared to the four newly industrialized economies of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, China.
The bank noted that remittances, coupled with the strong performance of the Philippines’s electronics exports, “far outweighed the impact of higher imported oil prices on the current account”.
The country’s current account –available cash for loans, payment of debts, for investments, and others flowing in the system- jumped to a US$5-billion surplus last year from US$2 billion in 2005.
The percentage increase (to US$12.8 billion in 2006) in remittances, the WB added, underscores the vital role played by money from Filipinos working abroad.
“Through these flows [remittances and transfers for the balance of payments], which together account for over 13 percent of GDP [gross domestic product], large trade deficits have been transformed into current account surpluses, which in 2006 grew to over four percent of GDP,” the bank said.
A trade deficit would mean the Philippines buys more products from other countries than what it sells or exports.
Remittances may be one of the reasons why the Philippines, along with Korea and Malaysia, quickly “regained their pre-crisis level of per-capita income by 1999, while this took longer, till 2003, in Indonesia and Thailand,” according to the WB report.
To get full story, post your comment and leave your email address. You may also visit the OFWJC Website for updates.
MANILA—ACROSS the East Asia region sweeps the wind of prosperity and cash remittances as well as knowledge capital by migrant workers has helped economies become more robust a decade after a devastating crisis.
Aside from the Philippines, the World Bank cited remittances from workers overseas also helped other countries like Vietnam and Mongolia to beef up cash reserves. Hence, remittances could soften and may even foil a repeat of the 1997 Asian crisis –if ever there would be one in the near future.
“A decade after the financial crisis that devastated East Asia in 1997-98, the region is far wealthier, has fewer poor people and a larger global role than ever before. Led by continued strong growth in China, Emerging East Asia now has an aggregate output of over $5 trillion, double the dollar value just before the crisis,” said the WB report titled “Ten Years after the Crisis”.
The report noted that the economies affected by the crisis: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea, and Thailand, posted real per capita incomes “significantly” exceeding pre-crisis levels.
The WB noted that the first three economies achieved real per capita income growth of 3-3.5 percent, “with per-capita growth in Korea and Thailand averaging 4-4.5 percent” in the four years ending 2006.
The cause, in particular with the Philippines, is consumption or the purchase of consumers by what the country’s factories produce, retailers sell, and businesses import-for-sale from abroad.
“Consumers in the Philippines also increased real expenditures by 5-6 percent, supported in part by a 20-percent rise in remittances from abroad,” the WB said.
Compared with Thailand's 3.2-percent consumer-demand growth last year, the Philippines posted a 5.5-percent growth from just 4.9 percent in 2005. Both countries are regarded as developing economies compared to the four newly industrialized economies of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, China.
The bank noted that remittances, coupled with the strong performance of the Philippines’s electronics exports, “far outweighed the impact of higher imported oil prices on the current account”.
The country’s current account –available cash for loans, payment of debts, for investments, and others flowing in the system- jumped to a US$5-billion surplus last year from US$2 billion in 2005.
The percentage increase (to US$12.8 billion in 2006) in remittances, the WB added, underscores the vital role played by money from Filipinos working abroad.
“Through these flows [remittances and transfers for the balance of payments], which together account for over 13 percent of GDP [gross domestic product], large trade deficits have been transformed into current account surpluses, which in 2006 grew to over four percent of GDP,” the bank said.
A trade deficit would mean the Philippines buys more products from other countries than what it sells or exports.
Remittances may be one of the reasons why the Philippines, along with Korea and Malaysia, quickly “regained their pre-crisis level of per-capita income by 1999, while this took longer, till 2003, in Indonesia and Thailand,” according to the WB report.
To get full story, post your comment and leave your email address. You may also visit the OFWJC Website for updates.
IMF Team Affirms Weak Links Between OFW Money, Investment
BY JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
MANILA—A TEAM from the International Monetary Fund observed that remittances from an estimated eight million Filipinos abroad have not led to increased investments.
Ever since the country’s investment ratio has steadily declined since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, increasing remittances “has not increased investment,” IMF’s Ayako Fujita and Srikant Seshadri wrote in a policy analysis paper of selected Philippine economic issues done by a six-person IMF team.
IMF’s Country Report 07/131 (released last March) analyzed selected economic issues such as reforms in the value added tax law, an analysis of the economic contributions of the services sector, and credit growth and bank balance sheets in the Philippines.
Both Fujita and Seshadri were part of a six-person team that consulted Philippine economic planning and finance officials last January as part of the lender’s periodic consultations with countries.The weak links between remittances and investment is such even if middle-to-high income migrant families, whose main source of income is remittances from dependents abroad, are rising, says the IMF team.
The team cited data from the triennial Family Income and Expenditures Survey of the National Statistics Office, the same data that Milan Brahmbhatt and Dan Biller based their analyses for a report on East Asia for the World Bank.
Citing 1991 to 2003 data from the triennial FIES, the number of the two lowest-income migrant families receiving remittances declined from 60 percent in 1991 to 18 percent in 2003.Likewise, the top two income brackets among migrant families that count income abroad as their main source of income rose from 40 percent in 1991 to 82 percent 12 years after.
“Given that some 80 percent of (Filipino migrant) families that receive income from abroad as their main source are now middle and high-income families, it is much more likely now than in 1991 that the uses for this income go beyond consumption and subsistence, and are put toward saving and investment,” the IMF team’s paper wrote.
But the situation surrounding remittances and investments suggests that the lack of a relationship between investment and remittances “could indeed be transitory, and that going forward, one may see a pick up in investment in physical capital.”
The weak links between remittances and investment, however, also occurs in many remittance-receiving countries. “Country specific factors could determine whether a rise in external flows leads to greater consumption, including housing-related spending on the one hand, or greater investment in fixed capital on the other,”
In the case of the Philippines, the IMF team members observed that financial intermediation is a primary issue. “(Philippine banks are) still repairing their balance sheets, and are risk averse in the current environment,” IMF observed. But even if there were financial intermediation, the IMF team thinks that remittances as a percentage of gross domestic product should have increased by three percentage points, and this situation “might have a more pronounced effect on Philippine investment, which continues to decline.
BPI joins fray to capture remittance from Pinoys in Europe
BY WILLIAM ALZONA
MAKATI CITY--BEFORE sliding to third position in the Philippine banking industry, Ayala family-led Bank of the Philippine Islands set its eyes on the profitable remittance market that Philippine National Bank previously dominated.
But with its shareholder hobbled by regulations in the United States, where bulk of remittances from some eight million overseas Filipinos go through, BPI settled for the United Kingdom.
This was what BPI president Aurelio R. Montinola III told stockholders during their annual meeting last March.“Why London, when you can target the United States where there are more overseas Filipino workers?” a shareholder echoed what would be expected questions from the banking industry.
“Certainly, we would like to have a branch in the US, but regulatory agencies would not allow us because of our partner, DBS, is not fully engaged in bank operations,” Montinola replied. Singapore's DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, owns 20 percent of BPI. The rest of the shares are owned by Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp., which also has assets and investments in real estate and water utility.
At the BPI stockholders’ meeting, executives revealed that the move to put up a branch in London, one of the world's financial centers, has been on the pipeline ever since the bank made inroads in the European remittance market.
According to its plans, BPI will shell out £20 million (or about P1.9 billion) to have a full service branch in London to beef up its remittance center currently based in Italy. Montinola said in March BPI expects to establish a UK-registered corporation in about six months, although the Financial Services Authority of London has already given BPI its British license to operate a bank last April 26.
“We are in the stage of finalizing our systems now. We are in one location and we need a second location [for technical purposes]. We expect that we would be in the pre-operation stage by about September or October this year and then, for next year, a full operation," he told reporters after the stockholders’ meeting.
“The whole point is to grow from remittance transactions to overseas banking relationships,” he added.
To get full story, post your comment and leave your email address. You may also visit OFWJC Website for updates.
MAKATI CITY--BEFORE sliding to third position in the Philippine banking industry, Ayala family-led Bank of the Philippine Islands set its eyes on the profitable remittance market that Philippine National Bank previously dominated.
But with its shareholder hobbled by regulations in the United States, where bulk of remittances from some eight million overseas Filipinos go through, BPI settled for the United Kingdom.
This was what BPI president Aurelio R. Montinola III told stockholders during their annual meeting last March.“Why London, when you can target the United States where there are more overseas Filipino workers?” a shareholder echoed what would be expected questions from the banking industry.
“Certainly, we would like to have a branch in the US, but regulatory agencies would not allow us because of our partner, DBS, is not fully engaged in bank operations,” Montinola replied. Singapore's DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, owns 20 percent of BPI. The rest of the shares are owned by Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp., which also has assets and investments in real estate and water utility.
At the BPI stockholders’ meeting, executives revealed that the move to put up a branch in London, one of the world's financial centers, has been on the pipeline ever since the bank made inroads in the European remittance market.
According to its plans, BPI will shell out £20 million (or about P1.9 billion) to have a full service branch in London to beef up its remittance center currently based in Italy. Montinola said in March BPI expects to establish a UK-registered corporation in about six months, although the Financial Services Authority of London has already given BPI its British license to operate a bank last April 26.
“We are in the stage of finalizing our systems now. We are in one location and we need a second location [for technical purposes]. We expect that we would be in the pre-operation stage by about September or October this year and then, for next year, a full operation," he told reporters after the stockholders’ meeting.
“The whole point is to grow from remittance transactions to overseas banking relationships,” he added.
To get full story, post your comment and leave your email address. You may also visit OFWJC Website for updates.
Peso’s gain is OFW’s bane
BY LEO J. SANTIAGO JR. and JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS
MANILA—IN A remittance slip, there was an additional US$50 that Cesar Dimasupil’s daughter Arlene sent from London. But he remained stoic.
“That [money] would just even things out,” Dimasupil says of the dilemma that most families of overseas Filipino workers are facing under a stronger peso and a record-low inflation rate.
Dimasupil, like most Filipinos brought up in a male-as-strong society, says he doesn’t know if he should celebrate for getting the added money from something he said he shouldn’t have asked from his daughter in the first place.
“But what can I do? They say the strong peso could lead to lower prices. That hasn’t happened in the past months,” Dimasupil said.
The Dimasupil family shares the conundrum of a Philippine economy that a recent World Bank report said has been growing, in part because of the cash sent by nearly eight million Filipinos temporarily or permanently working or living abroad.In a report released by the WB last month, it noted that the stronger peso helped inflation rates to fall to 4.3 percent by end-2006 and to 2.6 percent by February this year.
Food and oil prices remained “relatively” stable, the WB said. Pummeled in recent years by political shocks to the economy and macro-economic anxieties, the peso appreciated by nearly eight percent against the US dollar in 2006, and strengthened further in early this year.It’s a cause celebre for most businesses, especially importers who can pay less from products they’re bringing in from abroad.
But for an economy that the WB said is relying on consumption, the celebration isn’t felt yet by OFW families here whose remittance receipt is boosting consumption.According to economist Fernando Aldaba, herein lies the risks of an economy relying much on remittances since many OFWs could also hedge on a possible uptick of the dollar.
To get full story, post your comment and leave your email address. You may also visit the OFWJC Website for updates.
Monday, May 07, 2007
The Poor Giver: Charity Group Founder’s Woes Hobble OFW Philanthropy
By JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
CALOOCAN CITY—ON A side street of a biscuit factory here the smell of spoiled food, re-used cooking oil, murky wastewater, and sweat of a hundred laborers mixes with the fluttering haze of Maria Luisa Tayco’s dreams of migrant giving.
It is here where Tayco, recipient of the Singaporean community’s Golden Samaritan award, faces up to the reality of life after 14 years of working near Raffles’ Center and seven years of charity work on Bayanihan Centre in Pasir Panjang Road.
It is here where Tayco, who was hailed by a television show on New Year’s Eve as one of the best people the Philippines has, decided to sell her kidney.
“It’s for my son,” the 47-year-old Tayco said.
These four words echo the notion that migrant giving —hailed by advocates as OFW philanthropy— is as easy as securing a fulfilling job in a developing country like the Philippines.
The fate of Tayco, founder of the Singapore-based charity group Pinokyos Welfare Inc., would reveal that the belief that temporary migrant workers can give back to the country (aside from their remittances) looks good in paper.
Her friends and former supporters could only scratch their heads in disbelief.
“Logic alone cannot fathom why she remains helping others other than herself,” said one of her friends. She owes him P5,000.
“It isn’t healthy to help others if you have your own urgent needs, Luisa,” another friend told her. Tayco owes her P2,500.
She owes this reporter P5,000.
Tayco, who once shipped books and school supplies from Singapore to the Philippines worth P2 million, couldn’t pay those loans now amounting to P27,000 (roughly US$500).
Still, she remains focused on continuing her Pinokyos work: the food business she put up fronting the Rebisco Biscuit Corp.’s factory here was named after her group.
Likewise, a plastic piggy bank gobbles coins steadily than the Pinokyos Canteen’s cash box.
“This is for Pinokyos,” Tayco said, her hand softly landing on the coin bank’s back, temporarily forgetting that for failing to pay water and power supplies to the canteen were cut off.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
CALOOCAN CITY—ON A side street of a biscuit factory here the smell of spoiled food, re-used cooking oil, murky wastewater, and sweat of a hundred laborers mixes with the fluttering haze of Maria Luisa Tayco’s dreams of migrant giving.
It is here where Tayco, recipient of the Singaporean community’s Golden Samaritan award, faces up to the reality of life after 14 years of working near Raffles’ Center and seven years of charity work on Bayanihan Centre in Pasir Panjang Road.
It is here where Tayco, who was hailed by a television show on New Year’s Eve as one of the best people the Philippines has, decided to sell her kidney.
“It’s for my son,” the 47-year-old Tayco said.
These four words echo the notion that migrant giving —hailed by advocates as OFW philanthropy— is as easy as securing a fulfilling job in a developing country like the Philippines.
The fate of Tayco, founder of the Singapore-based charity group Pinokyos Welfare Inc., would reveal that the belief that temporary migrant workers can give back to the country (aside from their remittances) looks good in paper.
Her friends and former supporters could only scratch their heads in disbelief.
“Logic alone cannot fathom why she remains helping others other than herself,” said one of her friends. She owes him P5,000.
“It isn’t healthy to help others if you have your own urgent needs, Luisa,” another friend told her. Tayco owes her P2,500.
She owes this reporter P5,000.
Tayco, who once shipped books and school supplies from Singapore to the Philippines worth P2 million, couldn’t pay those loans now amounting to P27,000 (roughly US$500).
Still, she remains focused on continuing her Pinokyos work: the food business she put up fronting the Rebisco Biscuit Corp.’s factory here was named after her group.
Likewise, a plastic piggy bank gobbles coins steadily than the Pinokyos Canteen’s cash box.
“This is for Pinokyos,” Tayco said, her hand softly landing on the coin bank’s back, temporarily forgetting that for failing to pay water and power supplies to the canteen were cut off.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
Gov’t Says Open to Redeploy Pinoys Not Ready to Return
BY KRISTY ANNE C. TOPACIO-MANALAYSAY
MANILA—SUCCESSFULLY building a business after working abroad, Alberto Limbo Perez still couldn’t be pinned down in his own country. Luckily for him, a recently-built government center can give him that chance.
“Who would reject the opportunity of working abroad?” the 47-year-old Perez said in Tagalog. “Earnings from abroad are a big help to meet our needs. It’s a waste to let the opportunity pass.”
This comes from a man whose seven-year-old work abroad is being poured on a house with swimming pool at a cost of P4 million, almost half of what the Philippine government spent on a building to mold Filipinos like him to either stay home for good or go back to migrant work.
The building in Intramuros, Manila, was funded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration with a P7-million purse (US$140,000 at US$1=P48) according to Labor Attache to Japan Reydeluz Conferido.
Conferido said the National Reintegration Center for Overseas Filipino Workers would allow temporary migrant Filipino workers with plans to return permanently here to adjust first by allowing them go back to overseas work.
According to Conferido, the Center could help these Filipino workers find jobs anywhere in the world while preparing for that time he or she could eventually return.
“The past program was intended for OFWs who have decided to stay here for good,” the country’s labor attaché to Japan said during the launch of the center early March.
It’s this past program, begun at the start of the new millennium and formally launched three years ago, that the new project builds on, Conferido added.
“The personal reintegration has been further enriched to zero in on the abilities of the OFWs and help them match the environment in the Philippines a lot better, taking advantage of their particular expertise and skills and match them to existing opportunities in the Philippines,” Conferido said.“If the OFW is not ready yet to return to the Philippine for good, the same personal reintegration program is going to help them still look for appropriate opportunities abroad,” he added.
For full story, visit the OFWJC Website
MANILA—SUCCESSFULLY building a business after working abroad, Alberto Limbo Perez still couldn’t be pinned down in his own country. Luckily for him, a recently-built government center can give him that chance.
“Who would reject the opportunity of working abroad?” the 47-year-old Perez said in Tagalog. “Earnings from abroad are a big help to meet our needs. It’s a waste to let the opportunity pass.”
This comes from a man whose seven-year-old work abroad is being poured on a house with swimming pool at a cost of P4 million, almost half of what the Philippine government spent on a building to mold Filipinos like him to either stay home for good or go back to migrant work.
The building in Intramuros, Manila, was funded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration with a P7-million purse (US$140,000 at US$1=P48) according to Labor Attache to Japan Reydeluz Conferido.
Conferido said the National Reintegration Center for Overseas Filipino Workers would allow temporary migrant Filipino workers with plans to return permanently here to adjust first by allowing them go back to overseas work.
According to Conferido, the Center could help these Filipino workers find jobs anywhere in the world while preparing for that time he or she could eventually return.
“The past program was intended for OFWs who have decided to stay here for good,” the country’s labor attaché to Japan said during the launch of the center early March.
It’s this past program, begun at the start of the new millennium and formally launched three years ago, that the new project builds on, Conferido added.
“The personal reintegration has been further enriched to zero in on the abilities of the OFWs and help them match the environment in the Philippines a lot better, taking advantage of their particular expertise and skills and match them to existing opportunities in the Philippines,” Conferido said.“If the OFW is not ready yet to return to the Philippine for good, the same personal reintegration program is going to help them still look for appropriate opportunities abroad,” he added.
For full story, visit the OFWJC Website
Chamber of Commerce for OFWs Pushed
BY KRISTY ANNE C. TOPACIO-MANALAYSAY and JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
MANILA–PEOPLE who built their business from working abroad are moving to form a Chamber of Commerce to lure more overseas Filipino workers into becoming entrepreneurs.
“Instead of going to greedy local businessmen, fellow OFWs can go to themselves and make arrangements to supply some raw materials, or even provide discounts to some of their products to fellow OFW entrepreneurs,” businessman Miguel Bolos told the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Bolos spoke about the moves to form an organization after a meeting of former overseas Filipino workers-turned-entrepreneurs early March.
That meeting was attended by Filipinos who successfully built a business using what they earned and learned from working abroad.
There’s the garments export business couple Alberto and Liza Perez.
Alberto used to work as a steel fabricator in Saudi Arabia, Aruba and Malta before going into business with hundred thousand pesos (US$2,083.30 at current exchange rates) and 17 sewing machines as capital.
Before it was Perezes who went overseas; now it’s their Apryl and Aira’s Apparel brand, which they claim are bought by Wal-Mart in New York, United States.
There’s also former Saudi Arabia contract worker Eduardo Callera who owns Canor Express International Brokerage Inc., a customs brokerage firm.Before, the boxes of products Callera sent home to his family in the Philippines were the ones transported in trucks. Now, Callera’s business —his trucks— moves these boxes to both domestic and international senders.
Bolos believes that an OFW chamber of commerce will enable fellow migrant entrepreneurs to talk among themselves and be suppliers of needed raw materials for their products.
It just might work because, as he said: “We need it.”
No OFW chamber of commerce based in the Philippines exists, although Bolos said he, fellow returning OFW Francisco Aguilar and fellow migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have tried —and currently moves to— forming such an organization.
Filipino immigrants in the United States have formed county-level and a US-wide chamber of commerce. The biggest of these chambers is the Federation of Philippine-American Chambers of Commerce (FPACC), a network of some 46 chapter chambers of commerce that have over-5,000 member-enterprises run by Filipino-Americans.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
MANILA–PEOPLE who built their business from working abroad are moving to form a Chamber of Commerce to lure more overseas Filipino workers into becoming entrepreneurs.
“Instead of going to greedy local businessmen, fellow OFWs can go to themselves and make arrangements to supply some raw materials, or even provide discounts to some of their products to fellow OFW entrepreneurs,” businessman Miguel Bolos told the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Bolos spoke about the moves to form an organization after a meeting of former overseas Filipino workers-turned-entrepreneurs early March.
That meeting was attended by Filipinos who successfully built a business using what they earned and learned from working abroad.
There’s the garments export business couple Alberto and Liza Perez.
Alberto used to work as a steel fabricator in Saudi Arabia, Aruba and Malta before going into business with hundred thousand pesos (US$2,083.30 at current exchange rates) and 17 sewing machines as capital.
Before it was Perezes who went overseas; now it’s their Apryl and Aira’s Apparel brand, which they claim are bought by Wal-Mart in New York, United States.
There’s also former Saudi Arabia contract worker Eduardo Callera who owns Canor Express International Brokerage Inc., a customs brokerage firm.Before, the boxes of products Callera sent home to his family in the Philippines were the ones transported in trucks. Now, Callera’s business —his trucks— moves these boxes to both domestic and international senders.
Bolos believes that an OFW chamber of commerce will enable fellow migrant entrepreneurs to talk among themselves and be suppliers of needed raw materials for their products.
It just might work because, as he said: “We need it.”
No OFW chamber of commerce based in the Philippines exists, although Bolos said he, fellow returning OFW Francisco Aguilar and fellow migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have tried —and currently moves to— forming such an organization.
Filipino immigrants in the United States have formed county-level and a US-wide chamber of commerce. The biggest of these chambers is the Federation of Philippine-American Chambers of Commerce (FPACC), a network of some 46 chapter chambers of commerce that have over-5,000 member-enterprises run by Filipino-Americans.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
Asean Migration Pact Seen to Push Low-skilled Workers into Further Risk
BY JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
MAKATI CITY—LESS protected under an international convention, domestic helpers and low-skilled temporary migrant workers still couldn’t find solace within a pact among Asean countries, analysts pointed out recently.
Advocates say this omission by member-countries in a non-binding declaration on migrant workers’ protection by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could push millions of transient workers into accepting more dirty and demeaning jobs and weak bargaining positions.
What has prevailed in bilateral or multilateral arrangements on migrant workers is the movement of business and skilled people not on semi-skilled and unskilled workers, says Chia Siow Yue of the Singapore-headquartered East Asian Development Network (EADN).
Chia was recently in the country to speak on the “Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion on the Rights of Migrant Workers” that was forged in the country two months ago.
Her insights come as a second-thought on a pact that received high praises even from militant migrant advocates’ groups like the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA).
“It (Asean declaration) is good news for migrant workers,” MFA’s William Gois said in a separate forum.
Gois said the Philippines capitalized on its hosting of the Asean summit to move this non-binding declaration forward.
This is a big first step for “Asean governments to recognize the contributions of migrant workers,” he added.
Gois echoes analysts’ views that temporary migrant workers remain the source of many of the Asean member-countries’ economic strength in the past five years.
The Philippines, for one, has weathered one financial crisis after another because of billions of overseas Filipinos’s dollar remittances.
International Monetary Fund data on the balance of payments has cited the Philippines as Asean’s leading recipient of remittances from 380,080 temporary contract workers.
Data from 1998 to 2005 by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration bared that the Philippines has deployed some 196,900 temporary contract workers to Singapore, 54,914 to Malaysia, 96,748 to Brunei, 14,051 to Indonesia, 12,921 to Thailand, and 5,446 to Vietnam.
Still, Gois personally thinks the declaration “is only for a select group of workers, and eases out low-skilled migrant workers”.
“Unskilled labor is being hired as cheap labor in Asean’s competitive industries. Negotiators in trade talks seem blind to the plight of unskilled workers,” he added.
For full story, visit OFWJC Website
MAKATI CITY—LESS protected under an international convention, domestic helpers and low-skilled temporary migrant workers still couldn’t find solace within a pact among Asean countries, analysts pointed out recently.
Advocates say this omission by member-countries in a non-binding declaration on migrant workers’ protection by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could push millions of transient workers into accepting more dirty and demeaning jobs and weak bargaining positions.
What has prevailed in bilateral or multilateral arrangements on migrant workers is the movement of business and skilled people not on semi-skilled and unskilled workers, says Chia Siow Yue of the Singapore-headquartered East Asian Development Network (EADN).
Chia was recently in the country to speak on the “Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion on the Rights of Migrant Workers” that was forged in the country two months ago.
Her insights come as a second-thought on a pact that received high praises even from militant migrant advocates’ groups like the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA).
“It (Asean declaration) is good news for migrant workers,” MFA’s William Gois said in a separate forum.
Gois said the Philippines capitalized on its hosting of the Asean summit to move this non-binding declaration forward.
This is a big first step for “Asean governments to recognize the contributions of migrant workers,” he added.
Gois echoes analysts’ views that temporary migrant workers remain the source of many of the Asean member-countries’ economic strength in the past five years.
The Philippines, for one, has weathered one financial crisis after another because of billions of overseas Filipinos’s dollar remittances.
International Monetary Fund data on the balance of payments has cited the Philippines as Asean’s leading recipient of remittances from 380,080 temporary contract workers.
Data from 1998 to 2005 by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration bared that the Philippines has deployed some 196,900 temporary contract workers to Singapore, 54,914 to Malaysia, 96,748 to Brunei, 14,051 to Indonesia, 12,921 to Thailand, and 5,446 to Vietnam.
Still, Gois personally thinks the declaration “is only for a select group of workers, and eases out low-skilled migrant workers”.
“Unskilled labor is being hired as cheap labor in Asean’s competitive industries. Negotiators in trade talks seem blind to the plight of unskilled workers,” he added.
For full story, visit OFWJC Website
Steady Supply Stops Skill Spill, Social Savant Says
BY JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
MANILA—THEY are the armies of salvation; the nearly million entrants to the country’s labor force, which an economist said ensures the steady supply of skills for the economy.
“We simply have too much labor,” Doctor of Philosophy holder Alvin Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium (OFWJC) ®.
Ang last month presented his research in public that affirms the continuing export of labor doesn’t necessarily contribute to the phenomenon called “brain drain.”Advocates against the government’s structured processing of workers for foreign economies have warned the Philippines may find it difficult to reach economic progress because its highly-skilled people –doctors, engineers, scientists, teachers– are moving out.The University of Santo Tomas professor, however, even doubts the country will experience an economic slowdown due to this outflow.
Ang believes the Philippines “has adjusted to the workers’ overseas migration by replenishing them.”
“The government seems lucky,” Ang explains, “because abundant labor supply has given it time to ease fears of a permanent brain drain.”
He said that even if Filipino doctors and nurses leave, “there are many more left behind here.”“Not all Filipinos want to migrate anyway,” Ang said.He uses himself as an example: “If the Philippines’s brain drain problem were permanent, I myself would have not been here right now.”
Ang is going against past survey, especially by the Social Weather Stations, that points to the increasing number of Filipinos wanting to go abroad for work.Health industry leaders have warned in the past of the exodus of doctors and nurses, especially from government hospitals, seeking the high pay accorded to their colleagues in another country.
The local airline industry also warned of such exodus, especially of mechanics and engineers poached by headhunters of foreign airlines.
Another economist, Edita Tan of the University of the Philippines, said in a 2006 paper that even the rising numbers of Filipinos migrating for overseas work and permanent settlement “has not tightened the country’s [domestic] labor market.”
“(The Philippine) labor force increases faster than domestic and foreign labor employment,” Tan wrote in her article titled “Labor Migration and the Philippine Labor Market” for the International Migration Review.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
MANILA—THEY are the armies of salvation; the nearly million entrants to the country’s labor force, which an economist said ensures the steady supply of skills for the economy.
“We simply have too much labor,” Doctor of Philosophy holder Alvin Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium (OFWJC) ®.
Ang last month presented his research in public that affirms the continuing export of labor doesn’t necessarily contribute to the phenomenon called “brain drain.”Advocates against the government’s structured processing of workers for foreign economies have warned the Philippines may find it difficult to reach economic progress because its highly-skilled people –doctors, engineers, scientists, teachers– are moving out.The University of Santo Tomas professor, however, even doubts the country will experience an economic slowdown due to this outflow.
Ang believes the Philippines “has adjusted to the workers’ overseas migration by replenishing them.”
“The government seems lucky,” Ang explains, “because abundant labor supply has given it time to ease fears of a permanent brain drain.”
He said that even if Filipino doctors and nurses leave, “there are many more left behind here.”“Not all Filipinos want to migrate anyway,” Ang said.He uses himself as an example: “If the Philippines’s brain drain problem were permanent, I myself would have not been here right now.”
Ang is going against past survey, especially by the Social Weather Stations, that points to the increasing number of Filipinos wanting to go abroad for work.Health industry leaders have warned in the past of the exodus of doctors and nurses, especially from government hospitals, seeking the high pay accorded to their colleagues in another country.
The local airline industry also warned of such exodus, especially of mechanics and engineers poached by headhunters of foreign airlines.
Another economist, Edita Tan of the University of the Philippines, said in a 2006 paper that even the rising numbers of Filipinos migrating for overseas work and permanent settlement “has not tightened the country’s [domestic] labor market.”
“(The Philippine) labor force increases faster than domestic and foreign labor employment,” Tan wrote in her article titled “Labor Migration and the Philippine Labor Market” for the International Migration Review.
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
Firms Tap Singing-Frenzy OFWs for Biz Expansion
BYWILLIAM ALZONA and ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
MANILA—BOXER Manny Pacquiao’s endorsement of a portable music-video microphone shows the Filipinos’ penchant for singing and reflects the market is deep and wide.
But Butch Albarracin remains unimpressed. He says revenues from the domestic market are proving to be unreliable for his entertainment-focused business.
Albarracin, founder of the Center for Pop Music Philippines Inc., is setting his sights on eight million overseas Filipino workers who, despite temporarily or permanently living or working abroad, shares one dream: becoming the next big pop superstar.
Began in 1984, Center for Pop emerged as the country’s top music training school, aiming to develop a curriculum to incubate the next superstars in the entertainment industry. It has outlived other music training schools set up by other top musicians and composers in the country, after the Center, Alabarracin said, took the marketing part of the business seriously.
We balanced our focus on the music and selling the Center’s services, he added.
That strategy paid well for Albarracin, who was recognized last month by a local marketing group for his success in medium-scale entrepreneurship.
Today, the music school has 21 branches and extension classes in about 20 schools in Metro Manila.
But instead of moving towards the provinces, Albarracin said he’s more inclined to expand outside the country.
While he said he has received an offer from an investor in Daly City, California, Albarracin said he’s setting the stage for entry in Hong Kong.
“If we can go there and teach them how to sing, they can contribute to the growth of the [Filipino] community [there]. They can have a skill, and they won’t be shameful [of their jobs],” he added.
Sing-call
IT is also in Hong Kong that publicly-listed Filipino firm Intellectual Property Ventures Group (Ipvg) Corp. found not only the next singing sensation but a unique market for its prepaid calling card.Launched in July in Hong Kong, Ipvg partnered with HK-based IDT Corp. subsidiary IDT Telecom Inc. to search for a “Philippine Idol” version among an estimated 200,000 Filipinos in the former British colony.
The contest requires contestants to record their Filipino or English song entries—acapella, or with music accompaniment in the background—while using a pre-paid calling card sold by IDT Asia.Just recently, Ipvg announced from Manila the winner as Elvira Manacmul, 31, of Dinalupihan, Bataan, who bested four other finalists: 17-year-old Elija Clave of Malasqui, Pangasinan; Irene Aquino, 33, of Cagayan Valley; and, Julie Ann Jereza, 25, of San Narciso, Zambales. All were living in HK when they joined the contest.
“They outperformed over 800 other participants who phoned in… to record their songs for the contest,” IDT said.
The recorded songs were played weekly in the Philippines Tonight Show on Metro Plus AM 1044 radio which also encouraged listeners to vote for their pick.
The firm said over-400,000 votes were cast by listeners in the five month period that ended in the Grand Finals January 28, 2007.
The Ipvg statement said some 12,000 OFWs braved the chilly weather to view the creative side of the Filipino.Manacmul was selected during the live radio broadcast performance at Chatter Road in Central Hong Kong where a panel of judges pushed up her share of the estimated hundred thousand votes that poured for the contestants.Manacmul, a mother of two girls aged five- and seven-years old, would receive a recording contract with VIVA, a round-trip HK-Manila ticket, mobile phone, passes for two to Disneyland-HK, pre-paid call cards worth HK$500, and a “Magic Sing,” the portable music-video player-microphone endorsed by Pacquiao.
While Ipvg’s partnership with IDT Asia appears to be working, it is not envied by Albarracin.
“I am through with partnership. You end up fighting each other and one will go away with the money. That guy who will run away are usually those who are only after [the] money. Me, I cannot run because I’m a musician,” he said.
License to sing
ALBARRACIN, a voice coach, said to expand abroad, he must hurdle first the issue of whose license they will use: the singers’ or theirs.
Either way, he said, it could be a cause of headache.Using the singers’ license abroad could be risky since it meant partnering with other parties, while having our own license to operate in other countries meant tons of documentary requirements, Albarracin explained.
Still, he’s open to other arrangements.“There are so many arrangement that we can do. One is either I go there as a businessman, or I go there as a speaker,” Albarracin said, citing it’s easier to go the latter path.
“But I’m eyeing …a lasting relationship,” he added.
Albarracin’s plans and Ipvg’s tack come at a time when the Philippine music industry’s top revenue earners are few while others are still either catching the next flight to stardom or to other countries as solo or band entertainers.
But whether or not the plans of Albarracin and Ipvg –the firm is eyeing other countries– push through, they admit the OFW remains a good market.
“These are new markets. Sometimes people here (in the Philippines) have money, sometimes they have [none]. So we should have reserve sources of income,” Albarracin said pointing to OFWs.
Ipvg spokesperson Eric Paragas was quoted in a newspaper report as saying the success of the singing tilt has led the firm to consider “holding the contest again in Hong Kong and/or other countries.”
Indeed, both Albarracin and firms like Ipvg are singing the same tune: the country’s talents—and revenue sources—can be found outside its borders.
To read other articles, visit the OFWJC Website
MANILA—BOXER Manny Pacquiao’s endorsement of a portable music-video microphone shows the Filipinos’ penchant for singing and reflects the market is deep and wide.
But Butch Albarracin remains unimpressed. He says revenues from the domestic market are proving to be unreliable for his entertainment-focused business.
Albarracin, founder of the Center for Pop Music Philippines Inc., is setting his sights on eight million overseas Filipino workers who, despite temporarily or permanently living or working abroad, shares one dream: becoming the next big pop superstar.
Began in 1984, Center for Pop emerged as the country’s top music training school, aiming to develop a curriculum to incubate the next superstars in the entertainment industry. It has outlived other music training schools set up by other top musicians and composers in the country, after the Center, Alabarracin said, took the marketing part of the business seriously.
We balanced our focus on the music and selling the Center’s services, he added.
That strategy paid well for Albarracin, who was recognized last month by a local marketing group for his success in medium-scale entrepreneurship.
Today, the music school has 21 branches and extension classes in about 20 schools in Metro Manila.
But instead of moving towards the provinces, Albarracin said he’s more inclined to expand outside the country.
While he said he has received an offer from an investor in Daly City, California, Albarracin said he’s setting the stage for entry in Hong Kong.
“If we can go there and teach them how to sing, they can contribute to the growth of the [Filipino] community [there]. They can have a skill, and they won’t be shameful [of their jobs],” he added.
Sing-call
IT is also in Hong Kong that publicly-listed Filipino firm Intellectual Property Ventures Group (Ipvg) Corp. found not only the next singing sensation but a unique market for its prepaid calling card.Launched in July in Hong Kong, Ipvg partnered with HK-based IDT Corp. subsidiary IDT Telecom Inc. to search for a “Philippine Idol” version among an estimated 200,000 Filipinos in the former British colony.
The contest requires contestants to record their Filipino or English song entries—acapella, or with music accompaniment in the background—while using a pre-paid calling card sold by IDT Asia.Just recently, Ipvg announced from Manila the winner as Elvira Manacmul, 31, of Dinalupihan, Bataan, who bested four other finalists: 17-year-old Elija Clave of Malasqui, Pangasinan; Irene Aquino, 33, of Cagayan Valley; and, Julie Ann Jereza, 25, of San Narciso, Zambales. All were living in HK when they joined the contest.
“They outperformed over 800 other participants who phoned in… to record their songs for the contest,” IDT said.
The recorded songs were played weekly in the Philippines Tonight Show on Metro Plus AM 1044 radio which also encouraged listeners to vote for their pick.
The firm said over-400,000 votes were cast by listeners in the five month period that ended in the Grand Finals January 28, 2007.
The Ipvg statement said some 12,000 OFWs braved the chilly weather to view the creative side of the Filipino.Manacmul was selected during the live radio broadcast performance at Chatter Road in Central Hong Kong where a panel of judges pushed up her share of the estimated hundred thousand votes that poured for the contestants.Manacmul, a mother of two girls aged five- and seven-years old, would receive a recording contract with VIVA, a round-trip HK-Manila ticket, mobile phone, passes for two to Disneyland-HK, pre-paid call cards worth HK$500, and a “Magic Sing,” the portable music-video player-microphone endorsed by Pacquiao.
While Ipvg’s partnership with IDT Asia appears to be working, it is not envied by Albarracin.
“I am through with partnership. You end up fighting each other and one will go away with the money. That guy who will run away are usually those who are only after [the] money. Me, I cannot run because I’m a musician,” he said.
License to sing
ALBARRACIN, a voice coach, said to expand abroad, he must hurdle first the issue of whose license they will use: the singers’ or theirs.
Either way, he said, it could be a cause of headache.Using the singers’ license abroad could be risky since it meant partnering with other parties, while having our own license to operate in other countries meant tons of documentary requirements, Albarracin explained.
Still, he’s open to other arrangements.“There are so many arrangement that we can do. One is either I go there as a businessman, or I go there as a speaker,” Albarracin said, citing it’s easier to go the latter path.
“But I’m eyeing …a lasting relationship,” he added.
Albarracin’s plans and Ipvg’s tack come at a time when the Philippine music industry’s top revenue earners are few while others are still either catching the next flight to stardom or to other countries as solo or band entertainers.
But whether or not the plans of Albarracin and Ipvg –the firm is eyeing other countries– push through, they admit the OFW remains a good market.
“These are new markets. Sometimes people here (in the Philippines) have money, sometimes they have [none]. So we should have reserve sources of income,” Albarracin said pointing to OFWs.
Ipvg spokesperson Eric Paragas was quoted in a newspaper report as saying the success of the singing tilt has led the firm to consider “holding the contest again in Hong Kong and/or other countries.”
Indeed, both Albarracin and firms like Ipvg are singing the same tune: the country’s talents—and revenue sources—can be found outside its borders.
To read other articles, visit the OFWJC Website
Women OFWs Prop Up Spouses, Business
By MARLENE H. ELMENZO
TAGUIG CITY—WHEN two men here felt a great financial need, they turned to their wives, proving the resourcefulness of Filipino women even when they are indirectly involved in business.Take Leticia Marrero, for one, who worked as a domestic helper in Hong Kong to prevent her husband from selling a lot that he inherited from his parents.
The couple now owns and operates a resort in the Mountain Province, far north of here where they were awarded by a government-backed group for their inspiring business story.
There’s also Didi Dayag who went to Kuwait in 1986 and whose salary she received for working as a nurse there helped build more capital for her husband Eugenio’s cattle business also in the northern Philippine province of Cagayan.
What the two women had in common was having a focus on the reasons for working abroad and their subsequent decision to come back after having achieved their goals.
Dayag, for one, was able to buy eight hectares of rice land aside from supporting her husband’s ranch expansion.
The Dayags now own a fully mechanized plantation with three tractors, a stockroom, and a solar dryer. These allow the couple to manage fourteen hectares of rice farm, forty-three hectares of sugar cane and seventeen hectares of cassava.
They have also ventured into seed growing.
The couple’s business created jobs for around 68 families relying on seasonal farm work for income.
Marrero, on the other hand, was able to augment her husband’s work as postman, ensuring their children graduated college.
The grasping of a bachelor’s degree by her youngest, the last of four children, marked the end of Marrero’s stay in a foreign land.
With her savings worth less than a hundred thousand pesos, her family decided to develop their land into a garden resort with three swimming pools, picnic cottages, a lawn tennis court, a playground, and a convenience store.
It was the first of its kind in the province.
“Masaya ako dahil mayroon konting pinagkakakitaan,” Marrero said. “Pag wala na kami, merong maiiwan para sa mga anak ko na naumpisahan na namin mag-asawa.” (I’m happy we have a steady source of income, however small. At least, we could also leave something to our children when we pass away.)
To read full story, visit the OFWJC Website
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