KAKAMMPI News

By PIA LEE BRAGO The Philippine Star More overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are opting to stay in the country to start their own business or seek employment instead of going abroad again, according to Commission on Filipino Overseas chairman Dante Ang. Ang explained that the increasing number of OFWs who want to stay in the country presents a new trend of reverse migration in the Philippines. He said returning Filipinos either want to raise their families, put up their own business, practice their profession or retire here. According to Ang, Filipino students, businessmen, permanent residents and foreign citizens were returning to the Philippines because "they see a new Philippines full of promise and potential." "The stories are anecdotal, the statistics are now well organized and case histories are impressionistic but one gets a sense of a reverse migration, a new longing for home, a new sense of belonging, a new beginning, not for greener pastures elsewhere but for new...

Vice President Noli "Kabayan" de Castro lauded the overseas employment industry which has expanded to meet most needs of Filipinos wanting to work abroad. At a forum commemorating International Migrants Day Tuesday, de Castro echoed Commission on Filipinos Overseas Chairman Dante Ang when he said the overseas employment industry has grown from "merely a stopgap measure" to solve the unemployment problem in the early seventies. "The CFO bears witness to the excellence of Filipinos overseas who have brought honor to our country and who continue to drive the Philippine economy forward through remittances, technology and skills transfer, and invaluable contributions to their host countries," Ang said. He added that both the Department of Labor and Employment and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were looking for ways to expand the reintegration program for returning overseas Filipino workers. Meanwhile, OWWA came under fire as two members of think ta...

Recent central bank data doesn’t bode too well for those selling cars and houses to families of overseas Filipino workers. Majority of OFW families are either deep in debt to lenders for the overseas stint or they prefer to save money. Whatever is in between the latter two major spending, as cited in the recent consumer expectations survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, are spent on food and education. Just ask 44-year-old Clarita Quisel, a housewife and fish vendor here. Her husband, who’s now in Qatar, had just finished repaying some P65,000 in debt prior to his overseas trip last year. Despite that, she says it’s still an uphill climb to save P20 a week or nearly a dollar within 14 days. “We’re still hard up," Quisel told the OFW Journalism Consortium and sweeps her hand to their one-bedroom house on a 70-square meter lot. With the strengthening of the peso against the American greenback, Quisel says she augments the P9,000 (US$219.50 at $1=P41) monthly remittance her husb...

Sun.Star: The continued inflow of dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and growth in tourism, real estate development and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will continue to drive the Philippine economy next year. Economist Antonio Agcaoili Jr., Asia United Bank senior vice president for treasury group, gave this assessment of the Philippine economy in an economic briefing conducted by the bank recently. He also expects mining biofuels and government spending to boost the economy by 2008. In his report, Agcaoili projected a 15-percent growth rate in OFW remittances in 2008 and 2009. He said remittances from OFWs will sustain the growth of the economy. He noted that many migrant workers are now high-level professionals, composed mainly of seafarers and caregivers earning bigger salaries as compared to when most of OFWs worked as domestic helpers. Seafarers, for instance, are now receiving an average monthly salary of $3,000 (about P120,000) to $4,000 (P1...

A manpower export industry leader has called on Congress to pass the bill creating an Overseas Filipino Workers Bank to assist "modern heroes" to set-up livelihood projects and small business enterprises after their stint overseas. Jackson Gan, vice-president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said the bank operations should be able to help all OFWs as they finished their contracts and decide to stay for good in the country. FAME is an association of manpower agencies with 600 members. Funds can be sourced from the P 8.6 billion trust fund where membership fees from OFWs are held in trust by Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Board. "OWWA projects for OFWs have been far and few for the past years and many workers have been complaining that requirements for livelihood loans and placement fee assistance are too stringent and most of them do not have the collateral imposed by the OWWA fund assistance department," Gan said. Gan thanked OWWA ...

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is now closely monitoring recruitment agencies in the country to pin down those who are violating the existing deployment ban imposed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Lebanon. In a memorandum signed by Labor Secretary Arturo Brion sent to POEA administrator Rosalinda Baldoz, administrator Marianito Roque of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) and Labor Undersecretary Luzvimnda Padilla, Brion directed the three officials to ensure that no recruitment firm will be spared from this new order if proven guilty for violating the deployment ban. “The POEA should take, both criminal and administrative, against recruitment agencies violating our ban," the order stated. “Upon prima facie evidence of the violation, the erring recruitment agency should immediately be suspended," Brion said He said they have decided to re-impose a total ban in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Iraq, Afghanistan, Niger...

Ending three weeks of uncertainty, the new head of the Philippine consulate in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia arrived over the weekend to assume his post. Online news site Arab News reported Monday that Consul General Ezzedin Tago arrived in Jeddah from Manila Saturday morning and got a welcome party from consulate staff. He asked for full support from the staff and community, assuring that he was open to discussing with them issues and activities concerning the community. Tago also asked members of the community to always avoid unnecessarily getting into trouble by abiding with the laws and respecting the customs of the host country. "Whatever activity by organizations that are helpful to the community and not contrary to the host government’s laws are assured of our support," he said in a brief interview during the welcome party held early in the night at the Ramada Hotel. Also, he assured the consulate staff and the Filipino community he will maintain the good things his predecess...

Can you monetize a child’s separation for more than a year from her mother working overseas? Such question has not only kept both mother and child sleepless at night but economists like Alvin Ang burning the midnight oil. With most of the eight million Filipinos overseas linked to their country one way or another, Ang said it’s time to face up to the socio-economic cost of such profitable arrangement. But for an economy that will not see diminished reliance on remittance inflows and overseas migration outflows in the coming years, Ang is searching for a formula where migration yields visible economic returns. We’re looking at the “net of net" –a dividend, said Ang, a professor at the University of Santo Tomas. That “net of net" is what Ang calls the “diasporic dividend" of the socio-economic costs of international migration to the country. This type of dividend, Ang explains to the OFW Journalism Consortium, will relate remittances with exports and imports. It is a calcu...

Seventeen overseas Filipino workers’ families have been selected models for doing ordinary things in extraordinarily odd situations. Each of the 2007 model OFWs was able to provide for their children, keep family bonds unbroken and render outstanding community services despite great divides of time and space. Families of two seafarers and a household service worker were proclaimed on December 6, 2007 as national winners among the 17 regional title holders of the Model OFW Family of the Year Award (MOFYA). The MOFYA is an annual event of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to honor migrant workers and their families who have demonstrated financial stability, steady and enduring family ties, and outstanding community service. The three MOFYA national winners represent each of the countries major island groups –Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The annual awards, which began in 2005, “is OWWA’s way of instituting and emphasizing the importance of a complete family as an aspect o...

Filipino workers in Israel are seeking a reduction in the processing fee for overseas employment contract for which they are charged $12 abroad, which is far higher than the P100 collected by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for OECs processed in Manila. The Filipino community in Israel said that if the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration can reduce the conversion rate of the $25 membership dues collected from departing OFWs from P51 to P42 following the steady appreciation of the peso, then it should also use the lower change rate on the OECs. The Filipino workers said the Philippine Overseas Labor Office under the POEA has been collecting $12, or P612 at an exchange rate of $51:1. Returning overseas Filipino workers or Balik-Manggagawa, are required to secure an overseas employment certificate (OEC) at the POEA Balik-Manggagawa processing division, regional centers and satellite offices and some POLOs to enable them to leave the country again and avail of the sam...

The Department of Foreign Affairs assured relatives of second mate officer Loreto N. Quiles Jr that his disappearance from the Japanese chemical tanker Golden Nori hijacked off the coast of Somalia on Oct. 28 is being investigated. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr said Quiles was declared missing when the multinational forces led by the US navy boarded the hijacked vessel on December 12. “Investigation on the circumstances of his disappearance is ongoing. DFA has asked the manning agency for an official report," Conejos said. Quiles was one of the nine Filipinos among the 23-man crew of Golden Nori that was taken by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The pirates released the crew on Dec. 3 but only eight of the nine Filipinos arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last Saturday. Redentor Anaya, vice president for operations of Seacreast Maritime Management that recruited the seafarers, said they were still clueless on the wher...

Five overseas job applicants lost a total of P1.1 million to a woman who promised to secure visas for them from the Italian embassy in Manila. Salome “Babes" Jacobe allegedly boasted of her strong connections at the embassy and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in convincing the job applicants to give their money to her. She collected P220,000 each from Daisy Miguel Rockville Subd. in Mapitic, Pampanga; Rolando Rabano of Tiaong, Quezon; Harry Corpus of Kamuning, Quezon City; Tomneth dela Cruz of Rosario, Pasig City and Nadia Ico of Bayambang, Pangasinan. Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Jacobe in an entrapment at the airport on Dec 12. The victims said a certain Denwel Dulog introduced them to Jacobe who promised them that she could procure Italian visa for them within a short period. They were told to buy their Manila-Bangkok-Italy round trip place ticket for departure on Oct. 19. Their passports were given to them, with a stamped Italian visa. Jacobe ...

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has welcomed the plan of the state-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to offer overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) a fixed peso-dollar exchange rate. This will soften the negative impact of the local currency's rise on the buying power. Under the plan, OFWs may voluntarily subscribe to a program, under which they would agree to send home through DBP's remittance network a fixed amount of dollars every month for at least one year. In return, the DBP would pledge to convert the dollars into pesos based on a pre-agreed exchange rate. "We laud this initiative. This will not only protect OFWs and their families from further currency risks going forward, but also heighten competition in the remittance trade, which is crucially important in driving down excessive money transfer charges," TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said. TUCP has been pushing both the DBP and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), which is also g...

On orders of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Board of Trustees chaired by Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo D. Brion has officially adjusted the 25 dollars per-contract membership fee collected from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to P42 per US dollar effective Dec. 18, 2007. In a report to the President, Brion said that per Resolution No. 38 signed Dec. 17, 2007, the Board reached a consensus that the peso-dollar exchange developments require such adjustments in the rate of exchange of membership fees paid from Jan. 1, 2007 to Dec. 18, 2007. "The excess payments made to OWWA this year prior to the implementation of this order, based on a P51-1 dollar exchange rate shall be credited to the name of the member OFW," Brion told the President. "It means that a Credit Memorandum shall be issued in their names that entitles them to an extended OWWA membership coverage for a period of three months beyond the two years o...

The government on Saturday advised overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) bound for Libya to adhere to that country's newly imposed regulation requiring their passports to carry the appropriate Arabic translation. In a report to Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo D. Brion, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Tripoli, Libya said that non-adherence by OFWs to the new policy would severely affect their entry or re-entry to Libya, resulting in deportation. Labor Attache Nasser S. Mustafa, who heads the POLO in Libya, warned that after the new policy was implemented by the Libyan government, three OFWs returning to Tripoli after vacation were not allowed to re-enter the country, and were deported back to the Philippines. Mustafa said the three OFWs were not allowed to re-enter Libya because the first page of their passports, which gives the personal circumstances of the bearer, had not been translated from English to Arabic language. He indicated that other foreign nationals ent...

The recruitment sector and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are happy with the Christmas gift given by the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA), which is to officially adjust the per-contract membership fee collected from OFWs to P42 per US dollar. Jackson Gan, vice-president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME), thanked OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque for lowering to P42 the computation for the OWWA membership fee or P1050 starting this week. "This is a very good Christmas gift to our OFWs. The lower fee will be able to help more than 100,000 rehires or balikbayan workers who are on vacation here for the holidays," he said. On orders of Pressident Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the OWWA Board of Trustees chaired by Labor Secretary Arturo Brion has officially adjusted the computation for its membership fee effective December 18, 2007. Rosalinda Baldoz, administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), earlier disclosed...

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Sunday reported that the global deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has breached the one-million mark as of December 9, while global OFW remittances totaled a record US$ 11.9 (about P490.3 billion) during the first 10 months of the year. Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo D. Brion said that total global OFW deployment reached 1,012,954 in more than 190 host destinations worldwide from January 1 to December 9, surpassing the annual one-million OFW deployment goal by 1.3 percent (+12,954). The Labor Secretary, amidst the growth in deployment, also expressed confidence that at the current growth rate, global OFW remittances will continue to approach, if not reach, US$ 14 billion for the first time in history by year end 2007. Brion said that this year's global deployment of OFWs had been boosted by a 5.2 percent growth (+23,619) in the numbers of rehired OFWs in the land-based sector from 453,643 in the same period in 2006...

A total of 19 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been saved from execution through the efforts of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the representation of other government officials since Jan. 2006. In a report to Malacanang, the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it has monitored 52 death penalty cases involving OFWs. Of the 52 cases, 19 were “commuted through the efforts of the President, the Vice President and the Department (DFA) conducting high-level negotiations with the host governments.” The latest to be saved from the hangman’s noose was Marilou Ranario whose death sentence was commuted by the Emir of Kuwait early this month following the personal intercession of the President. The 19 commuted death penalty cases comprise 37 percent of the total OFWs on death row abroad. Of the 19, seven have been repatriated to the Philippines since last February. Six of the seven were convicted of murder in t...

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested a woman for allegedly duping five complainants of a total of P1.1 million after promising them she could facilitate their visa from the Italian Embassy due to her "strong connection" with the embassy and airport personnel during an operation at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City. Head Agent Angelito Magno, chief of the NBI-Special Action Unit, identified the suspect as Salome "Babes" Jacobe. She is facing charges of estafa through falsification of public document. The arrest stemmed from the complaints of Daisy Miguel, of Block 5, Lot 19, Rockville Subdivision, Malpitic, Pampanga; Rolando Rabano, of Barangay Paiisa, Tiaong, Quezon; Harry Corpus, of Scout Fuentabella, of 186 Kamuning, Quezon City; Tomneth dela Cruz, of 23 Jennes Avenue, Rosario, Pasig City and Nadia Ico, of 84 Sapang, Bayambang, Pangasinan. Investigation showed that the suspect was nabbed during an entrapment last ...

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—DATA per country from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that the United States, Japan, and Norway are the top three remittance points for Filipino seafarers and the manning agencies that remit 80 percent of seafarers’ salaries to Filipino families. From January to September this year, Filipino seafarers remitted $933.461 million through ports and remittance centers in the United States. Meanwhile, seafarers’ remittances coming from Japan reached $140.338 million, while those coming from Norway reached $119.338 million. Other major remittance points for the country’s 274,497 seafarers in ocean-plying vessels are Germany with $91.672 million; the United Kingdom with $75.124 million; Greece with US$57.392 million; Singapore with US$54.659 million; Cyprus with $26.769 million; The Netherlands with $26.883 million; and Hong Kong with US$19.007 million. From January-to-Septe...

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—DESPITE decreasing wage levels, ban on deployment, and nationalization of labor markets, four Middle East destination countries of Filipino temporary contract workers posted the biggest year-on-year increases of remittances, based on data by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from 190 countries and territories. The January-to-September 2007 data from the BSP showed that the United Arab Emirates tops Middle East countries in terms of year-on-year increases in remittances sent to the Philippines. Nine-month period data showed that Filipinos sent a total $427.525 million to the Philippines from the UAE. This figure is nearly 50-percent (49.57%) higher than the $285.84 million in remittances that Filipinos sent from UAE from January to September last year. The increase came mostly from land-based temporary migrant workers. These workers sent home $0.418 billion from January to September this year. In the same pe...

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net (Editor’s note: The real identities of women in this story are kept confidential as they requested) QUEZON CITY (OFW Journalism Consortium)–TWENTY-year-old Rita pointed to the words stretched on her tight-fitting mid-rib t-shirt as the reason she’s marrying 66-year-old Endo: “Sweet Love,” it says on her chest. “Love? Who is she kidding?” whispered one of the women at the seminar on inter-racial marriages sponsored by a Catholic group where Rita, a former garments factory worker, spoke. However, some who share similar state of affairs or maybe feel the same way as Rita nodded. After a break, Rita saunters over to a group of women and admits “love” is the farthest reason for accepting the proposal of Endo, who is 46 years older than her. “I don’t really love him. I want to work there (in Japan) and help my family here,” Rita says almost in a whisper. That revelation brought her words of sympathy, quick hugs, and...

by JOYCE ANNE B. ROBIÑO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—THE rising number of overseas Filipino workers with the human immunodeficiency virus hasn’t rattled government and UN executives who assert the country will still meet one of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The HIV incidence among returning OFWs, and among the general Filipino populace, is “low and slow,” Dr. Roderick Poblete of the United Nations Population Fund said. Poblete spoke to the OFW Journalism Consortium days after the World AIDS Day commemoration on December 1, as eight years are left before the 2015 deadline for governments to make true their promises to eradicate debilitating conditions of the poor. One of these is HIV, which causes the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The observation from Poblete came after latest figures (end-October) from the health department’s HIV/Aids Registry show that nearly half or 1,042 of the 2,997 Filipinos ...

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—DESPITE increasing risks in host countries and disasters in the Philippines, Filipinos abroad still feel safer that remittances stay in their pockets rather than put these in health and non-life insurance, a social security specialist bared in his report on social protection. “Ironically, it is the remittances sent by overseas migrants that serve as social insurance for recipient households, shielding them from environmental risks,” Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez wrote for the 2007 global report of Montevideo, Uruguay-based nonprofit group Social Watch. Gonzalez, who is also professor at the University of the Philippines’s Asian Centre, said these “shocks” include lack of access to health insurance, and damages to properties brought by natural disasters like typhoons. Citing a study by Filipino-American Dean Yang and Korean Hwa Jung Choi on OFW remittances and the use of these during rain...