Remittance money spent on wants not needs?


MANILA, Philippines – Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) send millions of dollars in remittances back to their families in the Philippines, but is the money being spent on wants instead of needs?

“I personally have heard horror stories from Filipinos that are overseas,” Eduardo Cobangbang, Philippines, Japan and Korea cluster manager for business development of Xpress Money Services, said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.
“[The] money that they kept sending back [to their families], thinking it was being used for their intentions, was not even fully utilized for that purpose,” he said.

According to records of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), more than $21.4 billion were remitted in 2012.
Remittances have grown steadily since 2010 with $18.7 billion and 2011 with $20.1 billion, BSP record shows.
The more than 10 million OFWs worldwide are also steadily growing in number, with 1.8 million deployed in 2012, 1.6 million in 2011 and 1.4 million in 2010, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Cobangbang said that the money-sending behavior of OFWs is different compared with that of other nationalities.
“Filipinos would tend to send money every payday. Compare it with Indonesians, they don’t send every payday, they send every two or three months. It’s their culture, it’s inherent in them,” he said.

Financial literacy
Joel Candy, Asia and Pacific Xpress Money regional vice president for business development, agreed with Cobangbang, saying that financial literacy was needed among the OFWs and their families.

“One critical factor is the education, just opening a bank account and keeping the money there improves the level of awareness on their finances [so that] instead of buying a brand new cell phone, which is tempting, they would look at possible investment options,” Candy said.

He noted, however, that the number of Filipinos who don’t have bank accounts was large compared with other nationalities. This leads OFWs to remit money in the form of cash to relatives.

“If I get money and I get it in cash, physical cash, I am bound to spend it because it is disposable, it’s in my hand. Whereas,if I have money in the bank account then probably I won’t be that impulsive to spend it,” Candy said.
Cobangbang said that the benefits of financial literacy do not end with a family spending wisely.

“If they learn financial literacy, it will have an impact on them. And what’s good for the basic unit of the [country which is the] family, becomes good for the whole country,” he said.

Filipinos who have some savings in the bank are better equipped and prepared to face unexpected troubles such as natural calamities, Cobangbang said.

One financial awareness project of Xpress Money is the “Ipon booklet,” which is given to OFWs so they could keep track of how much they have remitted to their relatives in the Philippines.

“What we want to do is raise the level of consciousness of the sender, how much they are sending, saving and keeping for themselves,” Cobangbang said.

“It’s not a solution by itself,” he said, but raising awareness of how much OFWs are sending back home will make them aware of how the money is being spent.

Candy said that the project, which is being piloted in Hong Kong, was conceived because they observed OFWs sending money without keeping track of their remittances.


Read more: http://business.inquirer.net/164909/remittance-money-spent-on-needs-not-wants#ixzz2uViTv3vK
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more