A Salute to the OFW

They are called the country’s "modern-day heroes." They are the estimated 8.4 million overseas Filipino workers and migrants in 194 countries and territories all over the world.

Of the total, 3.2 million are permanently living abroad and 3.6 million are temporarily working overseas. Illegal migrant workers are estimated at 1.3 million.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said overseas Filipinos have become an emerging economic class of Philippine society, bringing in $8.5 billion in remittances in 2004-the highest level since 1970, when highly paid professionals first entered the labor market overseas. The remittances made up about 9.2 percent of the country’s gross national product.

Records of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that since September 2005 remittances from land-based OFWs have reached P6.71 billion, up from last year’s. By year-end the total is expected to hit over $10 billion.

Time and again, the overseas Filipinos’ dollar remittances have propped up the country’s economy.

But the impact of their contributions is even more significant this year, when the economy felt the fallout from the political crisis that had gripped the Arroyo administration.

The role of the OFW in keeping the economy healthy makes him or her the hands-down choice of The Manila Times as its Person of the Year.

The Times editors considered several other movers and shakers as Person of the Year, including President Arroyo and the Filipino athletes who gave the Philippines the overall title in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

The Manila Times launches its Man of the Year award to honor Filipinos who have made great contributions to the nation. The Times, together with the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran Foundation, also conducts the yearly Jose Rizal Awards for Excellence to recognize and honor outstanding Chinese Filipinos. More than 40 outstanding Tsinoys have received the awards since 2002.

Of the total number of OFWs abroad, about one million have found work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Other countries with large concentrations of Filipino workers are the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar in the Middle East; the United Kingdom and Italy in Europe; the United States and Canada in North America; and Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysiain Asia.

The overseas employment program was initiated in 1974 by the statesman Blas F. Ople during his stint as labor secretary. To carry it out, he created the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to serve as the program’s regulating agency, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, its welfare arm.

Ople also created a corps of private fee-charging recruitment agencies to help the government scout for labor markets for Filipino workers. More than a thousand licensed placement agencies are now operating in the country.

To give greater protection to the OFWs at the job sites, Ople also created a corps of labor attachés and welfare officers in countries worldwide. Welfare centers were created to serve as the homes of runaway maids and other distressed workers.

The Department of Foreign Affairs opened an office for migrant workers’ affairs, which renders legal and repatriation assistance to OFWs with problems. The office played a lead role in the release of OFWs abducted by extremists in some countries and in the evacuation of workers affected by disasters and internal conflicts in their host countries.

All documented workers are insured as members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. The OWWA gives them predeparture loans and livelihood loans. A halfway house was established at the OWWA Building for arriving OFWs, especially those from the Visayas and Mindanao, who cannot go home immediately for lack of transportation.

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