This would mean that the 5 million to 10 million Filipinos who currently make up our OFWs (temporary, permanent and illegal migrants) are included in the country’s labor force, sharing in the roller-coaster ride of queuing in job fairs, crowding the Metro Rail Transit every morning, and joining the country’s largest-growing industry, the business-process outsourcing sector.
Their sheer number would undoubtedly expand to unimaginable proportions in the coming years—especially with more than a million newbies joining the labor force yearly. With the current severe lack of employment opportunities, Secretary General Romulo A. Virola of the National Statistical Coordination Board said there would be a high possibility that the informal sector would take up the slack, creating a thriving and robust informal economy.
But, Virola said, without the remittances, poverty would be higher than the 2009 figure of 26.5 percent encompassing 23.14 million Filipinos. It is widely known that while many OFW families are not poor, their remittances impact greatly on their lives and in the communities where they belong, through some form of assistance or employment-generating activity, like building new houses.
Director General Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said overseas Filipino remittances used for constructing homes for their families do not only benefit these families but create employment in the community and feed its retail trade through the purchase of construction materials, new home appliances and other items.
Further, for those OFWs who are quite comfortable with their salaries, they also share their blessings with their neighbors by donating part of their hard-earned salaries to projects like the construction of churches, assistance to families in mourning and other contributions to the community.
“Our economy will not collapse without remittances but we would be faced with a difficult situation. Remittance is already a feature of the Philippine economic situation. This is why we are focusing on the right policies to help our OFWs. We really owe a lot to our kababayans who venture out,” Paderanga said in an interview conducted over the telephone.
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