I would like to thank the incoming UPMG President, Mr. Frederick M. Alegre, for asking me to keynote tonight’s event. And the United Print Media Group for the opportunity to revisit an issue so close to all our hearts.
Even before I became Vice President, I had long admired the heroism of our Global Filipinos. So when President Aquino asked me to become his principal adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Concerns, in addition to my many other Cabinet duties, I accepted it with alacrity as an opportunity to try to respond to, and match their achievements and their sacrifices.
Our overseas population is over 10 million strong and grows by a million or so each year. This number is larger than all of Austria, and almost equal to the population of Belgium. But wherever our brothers may be, they proudly wave our flag.
From the avenues of New York and Los Angeles, the emerging cosmopolitan oases of the Middle East, the industrial veins of North Africa, and the Asian financial centers of Singapore and Hong Kong, our Offshore Nation unfailingly earns honor for our country. The dedication of Global Filipinos to their vocations is without peer and more than their world-acclaimed ethos of professionalism, they bring soul and smiles to any workplace they grace.
Back home, their patriotism and love run strong. In 2010, their remittances totaled $ 18.8 billion. Despite fears of downturns early last year, our nation’s economic managers now expect the 2011 figures to exceed the government’s $ 20.1 billion target. Even the World Bank confirms this unabated momentum. A report released last December during the 5th Global Forum on Migration and Development in Geneva revealed that 2011 remittances are envisioned to reach $ 23 billion.
The progress this money has ushered in is unimpeachable. We have seen it in the evolving landscape of our countryside. We have heard it in the inspiring accounts of local businesses gaining both ground and lift from the investments of our offshore brethren.
Doubtless, various publications within your industry have found strength from advertising and marketing campaigns that court OFWs to patronize car loans, housing developments and fast moving consumer goods. Firms that cater to the needs of OFW families continue to increase each year, and in many areas, OFW remittances continue to fuel consumer spending. And while we continue to invite foreign investments to our shores, our OFWs are the first to invest in the Philippines.
At times though, our appetite for news is satisfied more by what shocks than by what ennobles and edifies. Lamentably, we can be quick to decry the shortcomings of a few and slow to honor the virtues of the many. The misfortune of the exceptions tempts us to judge unjustly and even condemn the whole.
Certainly, some stories from the year past give us just cause for concern. Incidents of abuse suffered by Filipinos filled mainstream and online channels alike. The cruelty inflicted on Filipino domestic workers in the palaces of the old Libyan regime read like a piece of fiction macabre. The only story to eclipse this chilling tale was perhaps that of the four Filipinos who were sentenced to death in China for getting sucked into the narcotics trade. Their executions reminded us painfully of how hard and how certain the law is.
Against this stream of ill tidings, the public may tend to believe that all of our nationals overseas endure similar plights. I assure you that these cases do not form the norm. An overwhelming majority of the 10 million or so Filipinos abroad are professionals who enjoy the utmost respect of their employers and host countries, and the isolated cases of abuse usually afflict unskilled workers such as domestic workers.
With more of our people seeking jobs overseas, the government seeks to increase the protection of outbound Filipinos through skills enhancement and proper pre-deployment processing. Working in concert with private sector groups, we are actively reducing the number of unskilled worker deployments. Simultaneously, we have intensified our port watch operations in order to spot likely victims of human trafficking and recruitment, and rescue them before they can exit the country.
The sterling efforts of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), of which I am Chairman Emeritus, are matched by the proactive participation and vigilance of various NGOs such as the Visayan Forum Foundation. With public and private sector partners working cohesively, over 53,000 Filipinos were stopped at various ports and spared from dim futures and dire conditions.
As we continue to refine policies such as offloading procedures in order to protect our countrymen from genuine threats, our agencies vigorously pursue cases against traffickers wherever such activities are unearthed. Consequently, our 2011 conviction rate was leagues ahead of what past administrations produced.
All of this successfully secured the country’s removal from the US State Department’s Tier 2 Watchlist in its 2011 Global Trafficking in Persons (GTIP) Report, and earned the praise of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As we prepare our accomplishment report for this year’s GTIP we are confident that if the synergy among the stakeholders holds up, we should be able to upgrade our status.
The value of the information campaign staged by our partners in the non-government and private sectors cannot be understated. Much of our people’s increased awareness of the perils of trafficking and illegal recruitment was made possible by these efforts. This triumph proves the continued power of print media and calls all of us to fully optimize its reach.
In the protection of our nationals, the media are not just as an instrument of propaganda. They are a genuine means for all parties to engage in dialogue and interact so that policies can be formulated wisely and programs effectively implemented. With all the technologies at your disposal, you have created a wide arena for such dialogue to take place and this has increased the responsiveness of government. We owe the UPMG our deepest thanks for your staunch belief and partnership in this enterprise.
In particular, we would like to commend our friends in the Philippine Daily Inquirer for creating a dedicated OFW section in its Sunday edition. Called Global Pinoy, it regularly features exemplary OFWs and the achievements of overseas Filipino communities abroad. Many more among you untiringly devote precious space in your broadsheets and periodicals to columns that give advice to OFWs seeking assistance. Announcements and updates from agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justice are likewise printed pro bono and even bulletins from the embassies of foreign governments are published if these issuances affect our Global Filipinos.
I also understand that cyberspace carries your pages to the worldwide Filipino audience. Several print media companies especially the dailies, maintain online editions. Just as your hard copies keep the country current on the state of our Offshore Nation, Filipinos abroad are able to track developments in the Philippines and in other OFW destination countries through your Web presence.
Your reports lend a voice to those whose cries often fail to rise above the din. Your commentary and editorials can sway the undecided and move the indifferent. In the debates that rage in the minds of individuals or the halls of Congress, your words can paint what the eyes cannot see. Just as Michelango’s chisel merely unearthed the angel that lurked within the stone, I pray that your writing bring to light the nobility and beauty of our modern heroes. If you continue to wield your power with the same sense of duty that our overseas citizens apply to their professions, I assure you that we can achieve what others have dismissed as impossible.
Tonight, I ask that we take the cause we champion to a higher plane. As we continue to report injustices against our citizens, wherever these may take place, let us also present examples of excellence in service so that others may be inspired to endure and prevail. Whenever we publish stories of errant Filipinos abroad, let us also highlight the many that lived within the law and found success because of it. For every trafficker or syndicate that makes the headlines, may we always find space for the quiet heroes in government, the NGOs and the private sector who work selflessly to protect our nationals here and abroad.
As the new officers of the UPMG take oath, I am confident that they will lead your industry in insuring that we remain quick to condemn the deplorable, but quicker in honoring the heroic.
Maraming salamat po. Mabuhay kayong lahat.