Our country is one of the largest labor-sending countries in Asia. From the emigration of Filipinos to Hawaii and the West Coast in the early 20th Century, the opening of Middle Eastern labor markets in the 70s to the current swelling demand for Filipino professionals abroad, our countrymen have found homes and work in various places of the globe. Ten percent of our total population is currently overseas and their hands have helped shape all the nations that host them.
This diaspora is real and many of us are rightly concerned for the lives of our countrymen abroad. Many of our people continue to seek the Promised Land on foreign shores for lack of commensurate employment opportunities here at home. While the government remains committed to its pledge to make overseas employment a question of choice rather than a matter of fact, we are obligated to insure that whoever desires to work abroad enjoys adequate protection and responsive service from the concerned Philippine agencies and offices.
To this end, relevant programs have been strengthened and new ones created in response to feedback from our Global Filipinos themselves. In my capacity as the President’s Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ Concerns, I have had the privilege of hearing these requests directly from our offshore brethren across several continents. Secretary Baldoz and Administrator Dimzon will certainly describe many of these in greater detail but without preempting their discourse, I would like to contribute my own thoughts to our discussions today.
Most often, the front page stories surrounding Global Filipinos usually announce bad news or cases of abuse. I wish to assure you that such is not the plight of the majority of our overseas Filipinos. It is a particular demographic that is most prone to maltreatment. The unskilled and uneducated, usually seeking jobs as domestic workers, are those that carry the greatest risk. Skilled workers are far less susceptible to such fates and enjoy more in the way of wages, benefits and treatment in their areas of employment.
This clear correlation has helped refine pre-deployment processes and strategies. A pre-deployment program package consisting of comprehensive education programs for departing workers is administered by the Overseas Workers Welfare Association through accredited service providers from non-government organizations and industry associations.
A mandatory pre-departure orientation seminar begins the acclimatization of workers to their host nation’s cultural environment. These seminars are both country-specific and skills-specific and include modules such as language training, stress management, counseling and basic life skills, particularly for household service workers.
Aside from crucial skills that shall help them cope with their new surroundings, the program also tackles the ever important issues of their rights as workers and the benefits that they may avail of in order to help provide for their loved ones. These include education and scholarship programs for their dependents in short courses as well as baccalaureate degrees. Many have benefitted from this funding in the past year and I am sure my esteemed colleagues shall report on the most current figures.
Access to services from concerned agencies has also reached new heights. Round-the-clock service is provided by the OWWA through overseas and regional welfare offices, in addition to the Operations Center here in Manila. Using available information and communications technology, OFWs and families can readily access to OWWA’s services and communicate through electronic mail, telephone hotline, SMS text, or fax, free of toll charges. As well, 626 OFW Help Desks across all 17 regions of the country bring our programs and services closer to the OFWs and their families.
The political events and calamities of the past years have highlighted our commitment to protecting our nationals. Repatriation and evacuation efforts prompted by the Arab Spring and the Libyan crisis were aided not just by government departments and offices, but also by NGOs concerned with OFW welfare. And as I saw in my recent visit to South Korea, our embassy in Seoul, working in concert with more than 100 Filipino organizations, is ready for similar scenarios which we pray shall never unfold.
It is difficult to speak to the safety of our people without discussing our progress against some of the most pressing threats to their persons and welfare. I refer to the syndicated activities of human trafficking and illegal recruitment, which are sometimes joined by the perverse enterprise of narcotics.
Many may be aware that the efforts of the member agencies of the Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking have succeeded in upgrading the Philippines’ ranking in the annual Trafficking In Persons Report of the US State Department. Our achievements were given humbling recognition by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but we have not rested on these laurels.
Concretely, we are forming more alliances with Local Government Units and Private Sector Organizations in our Anti-Illegal Recruitment campaigns. More than 300 Memoranda of Understanding were entered into with various LGUs and we are recruiting more to support this timely cause through such instruments.
Our partnerships with private sector groups such as the Visayan Forum, Blas F. Ople Policy Center, among many others have borne great fruit. These have made it possible to cover more ports, especially in remote areas, and prevent thousands of trafficking victims from sailing towards dire straits and grim fates. Our national law enforcement agencies continue to render sterling and proactive service and they have pledged to make this country a tough environment for human traffickers to ply their trade. Their progress is steady and they are relentless in performing their duties.
Not all of our overseas countrymen will stay abroad forever. Personal choice or force majeure may prompt them to come home and in returning to the country, they must remain able to build a decent life for themselves and their children. They must have ample access to knowledge and opportunities for investment, housing, and employment.
The drive to strengthen sectors such as agriculture, services and industries seeks more than just the creation of jobs for Filipinos here at home. It creates fertile ground for returning OFWs to invest both their earnings and their professional experience to further bolster personal and national growth. This potential brain gain is a tremendous resource which if properly harnessed, can cause revolutions in both basic and high technology industries.
As well, the expansion of PAG-IBIG membership to include OFWs grants each of our offshore brothers a clear and secure chance to obtain the homes they desire. Based on direct requests from OFW beneficiaries, PAG-IBIG service desks have been set up around the country and housing fairs staged in concert with developers. These have been warmly received and the OFW membership of the Fund continues to grow under our watch.
Several other programs exist to help returning nationals engage in business and entrepreneurship. The 2-billion peso Reintegration Program, the National Reintegration Center for OFWs and the DOLE Livelihood Assistance Program are just some of the most prominent examples. These all deserve our strongest support and ardent patronage but there is still much room for innovation, which all stakeholders in this arena may be well equipped to launch, and which I hope this conference can proffer.
Against the lashings of the global financial crisis, the love and patriotism of our Global Filipinos have created a shield against forces which have brought First World countries to their knees. We are eternally grateful for their unwavering fidelity but we cannot view them strictly as economic agents or financial pillars.
In their quest to find a dignified existence, we must safeguard not just their right to work but more importantly, the totality of their rights. We have fought tirelessly to protect their right to humane working conditions and compensation. But more importantly, we continue to champion the rights of our people to live and practice their faith in their host nations, without risk of discrimination or persecution. Progress shall not be easily achieved in some territories but this should not deter us from actively pursuing this cause, just as nothing discouraged His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI from calling for more religious freedom in Cuba during his recent visit to Havana.
We must likewise exude genuine concern for the welfare of the families of our OFWs. More than their material needs, it is vital that these families are not stressed to their breaking points. The prolonged separation of parents from each other and their children is not a yoke that is easy to bear, yet millions of our people carry this immense burden in order to build brighter futures for their kin. In particular, children of OFWs are more exposed to temptations of fast lifestyles and drugs, buoyed by money sent by their parents, with no guardian or parental figure to guide them properly.
In our charge to help Global Filipinos meet with success, we must then provide timely support in both spirit and law so that what they seek to secure does not crumble and fall. Public and private organizations working together can aid in ensuring that OFWs and their dependents stay on an even keel. Values counseling and cooperative efforts with academic institutions and various religious groups should be intensified both here and abroad, so that marriages remain whole and children do not fall victim to vice or worse fates.
It remains my fondest hope that no father or mother will have to sail so far to find a decent job. But since all men are citizens of the same world, and each one longs to find that place where he can reach financial and professional fulfillment, there will always be segment of our population abroad or at sea upholding the flag and faith of our nation.
The overseas employment program, from pre-deployment to reintegration, shall then continue to have strategic importance for government. It will demand constant refinement, inclusive coverage and the support of all sectors in order to remain responsive and successful. It is therefore commendable that the Center for Research and Communication has brought us together in this noble quest and I look forward to the synergies and advocacies that you shall propose.
Maraming salamat po.
Mabuhay tayong lahat.