By Maria Theresa S. Samante  

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Director Maria Cleofe R. Natividad said that there are market openings in European countries for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The said opportunities are not only for domestic helpers and health workers but as well as in other fields.

“Although the policy of the government is not really to export our services, but since there are market openings in Europe, we want to take advantage of this in as much as it helps the Philippine economy,� Director Natividad said. The DFA director also said that their agency is trying to upgrade the export of the country’s services abroad especially for professionals. She also gave assurance that the OFWs will be given enough protection.

“We want to assure them that there will be adequate protection when they go there like adequate compensation and opportunity for them to go higher in the hierarchy of their respective careers,� she said. Natividad added that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo guarantees that OFWs will be given enough protection as well as opportunities during her visit in the European countries.

Europe is next to Saudi Arabia and United States as top source of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remittances.  There are about 500,000 Filipinos working in Europe.

By Kristy Anne Topacio-Manalaysay

IMUS, Cavite –Former seafarer Rolando Sarno is riding on a new wave: that of the daily realities of managing a business. Using a scoop from galvanized iron, Sarno pours rice into a plastic bag, his fingers deftly tying a knot to seal the top and keep the grains from falling. Another happy customer leaves his wholesale and retail business here which he put up after leaving a job tying sheep-shank and other types of knots on a ship in 1989.

“I had some money saved. It grew after five years so I had to choose between staying on a ship or running my own ship,” Sarno, now 53, said. “I decided to stay in the country and start our business.” The elderly Sarno is just one of the many overseas Filipino workers -called modern-day heroes because of their remittances- who now live lives they call “ordinary” in this province of heroes.

This province would be dashed into the center of commemoration rituals for the national heroes’ day next week, November 30, but most of its denizens wouldn’t be aware of the international day of migrants in the week before Christmas or on December 18. The Municipal Government even has no program “specifically intended for OFWs,” according to Mayor Homer Saquilayan, himself a former migrant worker.

But former OFWs like Valentine Veleña doesn’t care. “I’m not aware of [what] the [local] government [does]; I’m not that concerned [anyway],” Veleña, a seaman for two decades, said. “What I care about the most is myself and my family.” That, for him, is being “heroic”: performing a daily duty to his loved ones.

Thus reveals the heritage of this municipality in the southern province of Cavite that is traced to its people’s defeat of Spanish colonial army and the unfurling of the Philippine flag. The latter signaled the birth of this Republic whose eight million citizens a century later are in 190 other countries.

Moderns

Today, Filipinos like Veleña, who commandered a ship as captain before retiring six years ago, provide the bridge to that heritage amidst the boom propelled by money sent by their modern counterparts. The municipality hosts shopping centers, banks, an industrial zone, and other icons of commerce side by side the property sector’s rush to sell themed-houses and real estate projects.

“Things are different now, especially with the present situation in the Philippines,” Veleña said. “Before, we could live off even a small amount of money. Now, that’s not possible. Our standard of living is unbelievably higher, but I think OFWs like me have learned to adapt.”

The Veleñas live in a subdivision in Imus, where they had their three-door apartment constructed. They also own a grocery store, which Veleña said is for “something to get us through.” Like Veleña, Judy Constantino is also captain of a business born out of saving her husband’s income as a seaman since 1976. “He has been thinking of setting up a business for years now,” Constantino said adding that she agreed saying having a business instead of letting her husband continue working abroad has its advantages.

However, with today’s ballooning unemployment rate and stiff market competition, Constantino could not help but think of the risks involved, especially now that they are paying their daughter’s way through college. “If he continues with his job as a seaman, we would be assured financially, but he would be away for at least eight months a year,” Constantino told the OFW Journalism Consortium in a separate interview.

Should her husband decide to venture into business, they could stay together as a family, but with no sense of security that the business with prosper. “It’s quite risky to venture into business with today’s political and economic situation,” she said echoing Veleña’s concerns.

Sanctuary

According to Saquilayan, Imus’s proximity to Manila is the main attraction for the municipality’s business environment. “A lot of people, including OFWs, have chosen to start their businesses here mainly because of [that] and the booming population, not to mention that a lot of Imuseños are highly qualified, prospective employees,” Saquilayan said.

He added that the municipality -one of the province’s twenty- is “the breeding ground for political, economic and business leaders.” When asked why there’s no specific program to attract more OFWs to return, Saquilayan said the local government is “open to help or assist them, just like what we are doing to other sectors of the society.”

Saquilayan said he is no stranger to the plight of OFWs, having left the country and his job as government employee in 1985 to work in Saudi Arabia. He said he returned after a two-year contract and worked as the municipal engineer for a decade.

In the 2001 local elections, he gained the votes needed for the mayoral post. I never missed overseas work, Saquilayan said adding he didn’t go into business since, he said, he’s “not a business-inclined person.” Other former OFWs who went into politics include Rodolfo del Rosario, who worked as a mess man aboard international ships, and Napolen Monzon, who worked in construction projects in Saudi Arabia. Both gained the votes needed to lead their respective barangay or village.

“Naliitan ako sa sweldo [I deigned the meager salary as a construction worker in Saudi Arabia],” Monzon told the OFW Journalism Consortium. “I thought that it would be better for me to stay. Pareho lang naman [It's just the same],” Monzon said of his decision to return in 1986.

All three consider Imus, once a battlefield for the country’s heroes in the 1896 Philippine Revolution, is now the sanctuary for “modern-day heroes” deeming reintegration, return, or retirement. According to researcher Roberto de Vera, they are members of an estimated 93,620 OFW households in this province. Government agency Philippine Overseas Employment Administration cited number constitutes some 9.5 percent of the overall deployment of 981,677 last year.

However, government has no data available either for those who returned more than two years or OFWs who went into business or sought political positions like Saquilayan, Del Rosario or Monzon.

Nature

Returning OFWs’ option to go into business rather than politics is seen as a natural path, surmised Antonio Valeriano. Antonio Valeriano is the 68-year-old proprietor of a small restaurant that has been operating for 24 years now. “I guess that business is becoming a path for OFWs,” Valeriano said adding: “It’s like a form of retirement.” Valeriano came home in 1982 and put up the restaurant after working as a secretary in Becthel Co. in Jubail.

He told the OFW Journalism Consortium he was able to establish a business with the money he earned abroad. Valeriano’s restaurant first became famous when it was still situated at the Imus public market, which, through the years, has undergone renovations under different municipal mayors.

Near Valeriano’s business is Sarno’s stall. Sarno believes that he made the right decision and thinks that his present “job” is more rewarding than his work abroad, in more ways than one. “I earn more and, at the same time, I am with my family,” he said. Both credit their success in reintegration to themselves rather than to the absence or presence of an OFW-focused local government project. Veleña added: “Should they [the local government] create programs for us, then that would be very welcome, especially if it concerns medical assistance.”

Nonetheless, Veleña said OFWs should consider the timing whether they want to go into business or enter the highly-charged politics of Imus, Cavite. “Also, save first. That’s the most important thing.” Indeed, according to them, saving is the most heroic thing they have done in their daily lives as migrant workers. (OFW Journalism Consortium)

THE government has no plan to take away from recruitment companies the deployment of Filipino workers abroad. Labor Secretary Arturo Brion made the clarification to dispel reports that the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is poised to take over and control the recruitment of Filipinos work employment overseas by entering into a government-to-government scheme.

He said the government is happy with the way licensed placement agencies are handling the placement of Filipinos abroad. “The private sector is more efficient and we are happy with the way they deploy our workers,” he said. Brion said if there is anything what the government wants to do is to retain its regulatory functions to ensure the welfare and safety of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

He admitted that there are cases wherein government might solely administer the deployment and recruitment of OFWs like in the case of South Korea, which sought a government-to-government transaction. South Korea had forged an agreement with the Philippines through the Electronic Permit System wherein the recruitment of Filipinos will be handled directly by labor department through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Brion said there also other countries that want a government-to-government system of recruitment. “We didn’t like the idea so we turned them down,” he said. (MSN/Sunnex)

THE regional office of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA)-Northern Mindanao said the National Government will continue to implement measures to sustain the confidence reaped by overseas Filipinos for their hard work and contribution to the country’s economy through their dollar remittances.

Ann Apasra S. Abas, officer-in-charge of the POEA Regional Extension Unit in Northern Mindanao, issued this statement. She said Filipino migrant workers all over the world had sent home almost $1 billion for the month of September alone. “We expect them to send in more of their money during the Christmas season, something that we look forward to support the national government’s resolve to push our economic roadmap forward,” she said.

Meanwhile, Abas announces the batch recruitment of nurses bound for the USA by the Health Care Corporation of America (HCCA) on November 27, 2006, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Mullberry Inn, LimKetKai Drive, Cagayan de Oro City, who meets the following qualifications:

* Must be able to communicate effectively in English and have a sincere desire to continue his/her career in America.

* Must have at least one year of current acute care nursing experience in a medical, surgical, telemetry or a critical care unit in a hospital with 150 beds or more, if with CGFNS or NCLEX or must be currently employed for at least six (6) months with the same exposure in a hospital with 160 beds or more, if without CGFNS or NCLEX.

Among the documents required from applicants are an updated resume/biodata with CV (with photo), comprehensive list of cases handled, procedures performed or assisted and equipment handled, per specialty area.

They are also asked to present the original and provide photocopies of their Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), Board Certificate, Board Ratings, Transcript of Records, College diploma and examination results, if any of the CGFNS, NCLEX, TOEFL/TSE or IELTS.

Post-hire requirements include the applicant’s valid passports, high school diploma in English, marriage certificate, if married, birth certificate and those of dependents, if applicable, passport of dependents and clearance to travel abroad from the National Bureau of Investigation.

The other requirements are employment certificates, previous and current, printed on official letterhead with dry seal and six pieces of passport-size colored photo with white background and with collar. (Trends) (Sunstar Cagayan)

 

By Bong Garcia (Sunstar Zamboanga)

CLOSE to P1 million in livelihood assistance were released Friday to dependents of overseas Filipinos workers in the Zamboanga Peninsula, a government agency said. Overseas Workers Welfare Association (Owwa) officer Sheryl Joaquin, also the designated information officer, said a total of 18 OFW Family Circles (OFCs) were organized into a federation and benefited from the livelihood loan assistance.

Joaquin said the OFC-beneficiaries in Friday’s release of livelihood assistance were from this city and nearby Isabela City, the capital of Basilan province. She said the 18 OFCs received a total loan of P900,000 at P50,000 each group, and payable in two years after a two-month grace period from date of release.

The release of livelihood assistance was spearheaded by Owwa acting Regional Director Liddy Rasul-Tañedo, also a labor attaché’. The monthly loan amortization for each OFCs is P2,083.33, according to Joaquin. The livelihood assistance loan is granted to OFWs and dependents under the “Owwa Groceriya Project” in line with the Philippine reintegration Program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The loan is interest-free and no collateral is required except that the OFCs have to undergo the needed training to qualify for the livelihood assistance. Joaquin said OFWs or their dependents must organize into a group of not less than five members, register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and come up with a business plan.

“We will evaluate it to determine if their propose business is buyable for eventual approval,” she said. She said they prefer that each OFCs will engage in the business of fast-moving goods like grocery items and other basic commodities, fish, vegetables and fruits vending.

Aside from OFWs and dependents, the others who are entitled to avail themselves of livelihood assistance loan are those who used to work abroad provided they can present proof of employment, according to Joaquin.

Previously, 21 OFCs mostly from Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte received the same livelihood assistance. Nine OFCS are from this city. Livelihood assistance to OFWs and their dependents started in 2004.

(Note: www.sentidokomon.com ‘Life is common sense’ salutes one of the icons of Philippine Journalism, Veteran journalist and Philippine Star publisher Max Soliven who died Friday, 24th of November 2006. May his soul rest in peace.)

VETERAN journalist and Philippine Star publisher Max Soliven passed away early Friday in Japan. He was 77.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she and the country are “deeply saddened” by Soliven’s death.

A report in Philippine Star’s website said Soliven, who was on a trip in Japan with his wife Preciosa, succumbed to “complications brought about by pneumonia.”

But a report received by Malacañang from the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo said Soliven succumbed to cardiac arrest at around 11:26 a.m. (Tokyo time) at the Narita Red Cross Hospital.

The embassy is coordinating with Soliven’s family for the repatriation of the late journalist’s remains.

In a statement, Arroyo said she was sad over the loss of an “icon of freedom”.

Arroyo said the “post-war march of the Philippine democracy” could not have been vibrant without Soliven.

“(Soliven) fought beside the forces of enlightenment in the struggle against despotism and wrong. We grieve with his family and pray with the people for his eternal peace in the palms of the Lord,” she said. (JMR with Sunnex)

By Maria Theresa S. Samante (OFW Guide) 

The labor group, Trade Union of the Philippines (TUCP), wants the government to help overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in obtaining loans as funds for their dependants’ livelihood here in Philippines.

“Right now, many OFWs and their families find it difficult to obtain a credit facility here since they do not have a Philippine income tax return (ITR), or any other admissible document showing that they are earning,� former senator and TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera stated.  The TUCP asked the government to provide the OFWs with an acceptable “proof of personal income� that they can use for easy access to loans and freely engage in other financial transactions here.

According to the TUCP secretary-general, the OFWs are having a hard time obtaining the loans since they can’t present ITRs and other documentary proof of earnings which are usually the requirements to avail the loans. “The lack of an ITR is clearly a practical issue faced by OFWs and their families in relation to their tax-exempt status. Many OFWs are even having problems getting housing loans because they are unable to readily prove income or establish their capability to incur any borrowing,� he emphasize. Thus, as solution to this problem, Herrera said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) since the agency handles the deployment of OFW, should produce a “verified personal income certificate� for them so that they can use it in transactions.

“This should not be difficult since POEA is supposed to be in constant touch with licensed recruiters that, in turn, deal routinely with employers or principals abroad,� Herrera said.“The additional paperwork may entail some cost, but surely our OFWs, dubbed economic heroes because of their growing remittances, are more than entitled to the service,� he added.

Herrera also said that if the POEA hesitate to produce the verified personal income certificate for OFWs, the agency should be compelled to do so by Congress. “Congress should require the POEA to produce the certificates in the context of passing new legislation that would expressly affirm the tax-exempt status of OFWs, insofar as their foreign earnings are concerned,� he said.

He also said that it would be possible to produce the document since the POEA is in constant touch with the licensed recruiters who deals with the employers or principals abroad. The OFWs, like a non-resident citizen, are taxed only on their Philippine-sourced income, regardless of the period that they are outside the country. As tax-exempt individuals, they are not required to file a Philippine ITR, assuming they are fully exempt; that is, they did not earn any income here, on top of their foreign-sourced income.

Herrera also said that the additional time, effort and money that such an endeavor would entail should not be an issue since the beneficiaries would be OFWs, whose remittances have been acknowledged as among the factors that help keep the country’s economy afloat.
 
 
 

By Maria Theresa S. Samante (OFW Guide)

South Korea is the new destination for Filipino skilled workers since the Philippines and South Korean government under the Employment Permit System (EPS) has assigned 10,000 slots for Filipino workers to work in their manufacturing, construction, agriculture/livestock, fisheries and services sectors in 2006.

“For its manufacturing industry, Korea allocated 9,100; for fisheries sector, 500; construction, 150; agriculture, 200; and 50 for its services sector. But for now, Korea is hiring factory workers only,� said Baldoz.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz denied that their agency is sending Filipina entertainers in Korean under EPS since Japan has tightened its immigration policy. She also denied the statement that about 50% of the number of entertainers who worked in Japan has been deployed in South Korea to work in establishments near American military bases with three months to six months contracts.

The administrator said that effective February 2003, the Korean Ministry of Justice decided to stop issuing E-6 visas or entertainer’s visa for dancers and singers wishing to work in bars and night clubs, especially those that are located near the American military facilities in Korea. The decision aims to extremely reduce or eradicate illegal trafficking of women into Korea for prostitution and for other similar illegal purposes.

In the press release issued by the POEA states that only entertainers bound for major and deluxe hotels and qualified art troupes will be granted the E-6 visa. Filipino singers who are holders of ARBs and musicians with contracts duly verified by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Seoul and processed by the POEA will be among those who may be issued the visa.

The POEA re-opened the registration for EPS but it is only offered for male applicants age raging from 18 to 38 years old. Applicants who are high school graduates or college undergraduates are required to have at least two years of work experience while college graduate applicants are required to have at least one-year experience. Must not have any criminal records both in the Philippines and Korea, not restricted from re-entering Korea and physically and mentally fit to work.

The registration for the next Korean Language Test (KLT) will be conducted in Manila, Cebu and Davao. The Philippines was allocated a quota of 7,000 male and 500 female applicants to take the tests. The agency will soon announce the official registration period.
 

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano

DALY CITY, California, USA — On the doorsteps of a simple yet elegant-looking apartment here were 30 pairs of shoes. True enough, 30 kids and parents all fit into that 40-square-meter home. And what was it time for? Manny Pacquiao. The attendees were mostly staff members of the Philippine Consulate here, and they even came from a Jollibee birthday bash of an officemate’s one-year-old girl. The 6 pm party had to be abbreviated because it’s “Pacman” time.

All were ready to watch the “Grand Finale” between Pacquiao and three-time world champion Erik Morales. The chips and nuts were ready on the center table. Some were standing, seating in the couch, and lying on the carpeted floor. Sarah Geronimo sang the national anthem, and all the 30 people in that home stood up and placed their right hand on their heart as if they were in a flag ceremony back home in school. Even the Filipinos born here in the US stood up. They were serious about doing that.

Michael Buffer then did his trademark announcement of the protagonists, and his vocal bellowing of Pacquiao’s name alone saw the people in that apartment howl. Much more that they howled when Pacquiao floored Morales in the second rough with a right hook, and when Pacquiao’s right jabs and hooks led to his powerful left straights to Morales’ jaw in the two knockouts in the third round.

“We watched here also last time,” said Consulate staff Eloy. Tthe night was not complete without the simple bounty of pansit, spicy chicken, cheese sticks, bibingka, leche flan, soda, and beer. Filipinos back home and across the world were not disappointed: a hero brought pride to a beleaguered country. “Temporary happiness for us once again,” said Vice Consul Arvic Arevalo.

For a developing country that is wanting of rays of hope for a promising future, Filipinos around the world -rich and poor, powerful and powerless- are looking for heroes. Not only because they can unite a nation through their triumphs, but because they are telling us a lesson.

We Filipinos can still arise and be alive once more.

Those messages are apt for us Filipinos. The Philippines has been searching for widespread progress in the daily toil of poverty, and has yet to find it. Filipinos are fed up with too much politicking and slow-moving socio-economic reforms, yet these instances continue despite two bloodless people power revolutions.

So, among the results of these Philippine realities are daily droves of departing Filipinos in our international airports. Pulse Asia’s annual surveys have revealed the rising desire of Filipinos to think of overseas migration as the only way out: from 26 percent in 2004 to 30 percent this year.

That survey finding is also saying something else: there is growing hopelessness about Filipinos’ future within the country. Says a migrant advocate: “Are we losing the ability to believe in ourselves?”

Thus, a nation has been looking for heroes. So the media has found delight and inspiration into “good news” such as a policeman back home who has returned a missing attaché case of cash. Meanwhile, government always calls a group of people “heroes” in today’s modern times: these heroes are 7.924 million strong in 193 countries.

I spoke at the Philippine Consulate here in San Francisco about the country’s future beside the exodus in the morning of the Pacquiao-Morales fight. So I asked some of the Filipinos there: “Are you a hero?” OFW Mutual Benefit Corporation president Nestor Duldulao wondered, and the lips reveal his puzzled response. Others cannot answer my question.

“I think I am a hero,” said Vanessa Bonifacio, a computer programmer in Brunei Darussalam. Bonifacio’s point of reference is the work of her relatives who worked abroad and who funded her schooling. While work is hard in Brunei, she wants to do the same and for fellow Filipinos. Her own contribution is a website for overseas Filipinos called OFW Connect (www.ofw-connect.com), and the pictures of Filipinos from multiple countries are aplenty.

While Filipinos abroad are puzzled at being called “modern-day heroes,” they are also searching for heroes. Here in the US, some 2.3 million Filipinos are happy whenever a Filipino or Filipino-American was appointed as official in a certain city, got elected for public office, is chef for President George W. Bush, and many more.

In other countries, we would hear stories such as the only Filipino lawyer in an unknown area in the United Kingdom; the Filipina who is among the top directors of Nokia headquarters in Finland; the Filipina who maintains a salon in an atoll in Maldives (south of India), and the daughter of a Filipino-Dutch couple who is now Ms. Netherlands and will compete in the Ms. World Beauty pageant.

For a country that’s besieged both at home and in other countries, these stories of hope hype us and make us feel good as a race and as a nation. The only thing missing is how we translate that hope into a new Philippines. We hope to see a Philippines that’s slowly becoming a robust economy to perfectly complement the hard work and endurance of her citizens. That will make us Filipinos, already among the happiest people in the world despite poverty, happier.

A Filipino race that’s distributed worldwide wants more hope in the seemingly rising tide of Filipino hopelessness that overseas migration breeds. But we do not need wait for another Pacquiao victory to feel that Filipino hope.

We can breed more hope ourselves, wherever we are. That’s what Manny and others have been telling us all the time.

Comments are welcome at ofw_philanthropy@yahoo.com.

(Jeremaiah M. Opiniano of the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (www.filipinodiaspoiragiving.org) is in San Francisco, USA as a Yuchengco Media Fellow at the University of San Francisco-Center for the Pacific Rim. He is representing the OFW Journalism Consortium (www.ofwjournalism.net) during a three-month media fellowship that is focused on writing about overseas Filipinos.)

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano

SAN JOSE, California — Crisanta Allas’s arm shot forward to stop the roll of an empty softdrink can – one of several garbage the 78-year-old Filipino picks up so she can send money to her daughter in Manila. Allas, a staff of the Northside Community Center here, is one of several hundred elderly Filipinos coming out of retirement to perform odd jobs to sustain their role as the link to life by their loved ones across another continent.

There is something spiritual in what people like Allas does, so thinks Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez who is studying the link between immigration and the spirituality of Filipino-Americans. The preliminary results of the ongoing study by Gonzalez, director of Philippine Studies at the University of San Francisco, reveals the connection between the value of giving and being Filipino in the heart of the country’s colonizers is less tenuous.

For Allas however, sending money to her ailing daughter in the Philippines, home for her once, is a duty she silently performs. “My daughter can’t walk, you know; she needs money,” Allas said adding this week would be the third time this year she would remit US$100 (P5,000 at US$1=P50) to the Philippines. “I just don’t complain that I don’t have money,” Allas said trudging inside the 250-square meter social hall.

She spoke to the OFW Journalism Consortium while cleaning up after several of her compatriots mulled patriotism and pined for a brighter Philippines during the South Bay’s celebration last October 21 of the centennial of the Filipinos’ first arrival to the US in the 20th century. Hunched back over plastic cups, half-eaten chicken sandwiches, and disposable straws, Allas could only sigh.

The irony escapes her. But it doesn’t with Gonzalez who said he is keeping an open-mind since he has so far surveyed only 1,457 Filipino Catholics from the dioceses of San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco. Looking into these Filipinos socio-economic condition, citizenship, employment, and religious activities, Gonzalez initially discovered that over half of those surveyed send at least $100 to $500 monthly to the Philippines. The initial findings, presented during the Fil-Am immigration centennial forum at the University of San Francisco early last month, would be presented early next year.

Remitting

Gonzalez surveyed 342 respondents in San Jose, 391 in Oakland, and 717 in San Francisco. The three dioceses have 280,301 Filipino Catholics (including 76,060 in San Jose), says the American bishops’ migrants and refugees office.
Some 57 percent or 822 of the respondents said they send a minimum US$100 to a maximum US$500 (P25,000) every month. Those who said they send a minimum US$500 up to US$1,000 (P50,000) a month formed 23 percent (340 respondents) of the total.

Gonzalez’s research stands to affirm the 2004 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study entitled “Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Filipinos’ Remittances”, which found that some 40 percent remit monthly, and that the average remittance amount was US$342.

The ADB surveyed 413 Filipinos in the San Francisco consular jurisdiction, as well as Filipinos in Singapore, vacationing overseas Filipinos, and families with dependents abroad.

ADB study team leader Ildefonso Bagasao however thinks that Filipinos in the US are different because many of them have reunited with their families here, unlike Filipinos in other countries who primarily fend for families back home in the Philippines. These Filipinos are like Mara Mendoza and Consuelo Dacanay.

Mendoza, who works for a non-profit organization in San Jose, told the Consortium she sends US$100 to siblings in Manila “only when the need arises.” Meanwhile, Dacanay sends home between US$100 to US$200 four times a year.
This, she said, she does religiously despite having lost a security-related job three years ago at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. Gonzalez’s study is expected to bare the spiritual values behind such resilience.

Some 47 percent of Gonzalez’s respondents send their money through money transfer companies like Western Union and Filipino-run Bayanihan Cargo International Inc. and Luzon Brokerage Co. (LBC). The other 32 percent on the other hand send their money through bank channels. The remaining 21 percent send money through courier channels like the US Postal System, FedEx and American Express, as well as through the Filipino immigrant practice of padala (personally entrusting of money to vacationing compatriots at no cost but at high risk).

Responding

Supporting grandparents and parents is the reason some 24 percent of total respondents say why they send money to the Philippines. Gonzalez’s study noted that other purposes of remittances include relatives’ health care needs (22 percent), housing mortgage, and school payments of direct children and nieces or grandchildren (18 percent each).

When May and October come along, a month each before classes in Philippine universities open, undocumented immigrant worker Wigberto (not his real name) sends US$2,000 to fully pay the tuition and other fees of his five children, including three in college. Earnings from doing home service electrical work also enable the electrical engineer to send US$1,000 monthly to his family in Angeles City, Pampanga province (northeast of Manila).

As for the respondents’ total annual earnings, 14 percent earn between US$50,001 and US$60,000; 13 percent take home US$20,001 to US$30,000; and 12 percent earn incomes in each of these ranges – US$30,001 to US$40,000 and US$40,001 to US$50,000. These varied annual incomes are, for 75 percent of respondents, a product of one job. Some 15 percent of respondents have two jobs while two percent have three or more jobs.

Some 21 percent of respondents are in hotel, restaurant, and government service jobs; 20 percent are in legal, accounting and consultancy professions; and 13 percent are in marketing, retail and sales, engineering, information technology and electronics. Dacanay receives a monthly pension of more than $800. All her eight professional children are employed.

Recently, she said, they sent US$600 to Dacanay’s sister for the repair of her home destroyed when typhoon Xangsane entered the Philippines. “My eight kids pitched in US$50 each, and I gave US$200,” Dacanay said. For the former public school teacher, with or without a work here, sending -sharing, as she says-her money makes her “feel good and happy”. While Gonzalez’s remittance datasets are what US- and Philippine-run companies have been looking for, the professor’s study would look at the motivation for the act of sending money.

The Philippines, colonized for more than a century by Spanish friars and soldiers, remains the only country in Asia with majority of its 87 million people following the beliefs and traditions of the State of Vatican. (OFW Journalism Consortium and the Yuchengco Media Fellows Program, University of San Francisco-Center for the Pacific Rim/Sunnex)