* Gov't eyes OFW money to stabilize peso, encourages more OFW deployment
            * In long-term, however, government intends to reduce reliance on remittances
            * Overseas Pinoys helped RP recovery
            * Real powers of expatriates

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may be the country’s "unsung heroes" for the dollars they contribute to the economy, but to the family left behind, the separation and, in many cases, infidelity are costs that do not come with the dollar sign.

Dollar remittances usually peak in the last quarter because of the Christmas season, and government financial managers are hopeful these would help prop up the economy and stabilize the peso.

But to the OFW family, this time of the year is when the anxiety peaks. Will the husband or wife posted in the foreign country come home for the holidays to make the family whole again? Will he or she ever return?

Alma, wife of an OFW, is hungry not so much for the dollars being remitted by her husband from Taiwan but for news on his return so their children might see him again. Alma knows her husband had fooled around and has taken a second family in Taiwan, leaving her and their children without any contact except for the money that come irregularly.

While government recognizes the contribution of OFWs to the economy, its policy shift to encourage more OFW deployments has been seen by some groups as prioritizing remittances over the welfare of OFWs and their families.

Groups for the protection of migrant workers and their families have noted government’s apparent lack of political will to implement provisions of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.

The law declares that "the State does not promote overseas employment as a means to sustain economic development...."

But a statement by President Estrada on June 30, 1998 was to the contrary. Estrada said "it is now incumbent upon government to reexamine its policy on overseas employment, and pursue a policy shift from treating overseas employment as a temporary measure to economic growth into promoting and encouraging it."

This inconsistency between Estrada’s statement and the law was pointed out in June by the Church’s Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

Reports said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects US$8 billion in dollar remittances to flow into the country this year, with the inflows peaking during the Christmas season.

This represents an increase from the US$7 billion in total remittances in 1998, and US$5.7 billion in 1997.

Dollar remittances easily account for one percent of the gross national product, or the total amount of goods and services produced within the year, reports said.

These remittances are those made through formal banking channels and do not include dollars sent through courier or door-to-door. Actual remittances from OFWs are pegged at US$1 billion a month.

Bulk of the remittances still come from workers deployed to the U.S., Middle East and Asia.

An average of 600,000 Filipinos a year over the last 10 years have worked in foreign countries.

The average per worker remittances was US$1,594 in 1987, US$3,044 in 1992, and US$6,356 in 1996, a 1997 study by a research fellow of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies said. On the assumption that an average of US$3,000 was remitted to OFW families a year, every OFW household received the equivalent of P78,000 per annum. This is equal to a salary of P6,500 a month in the Philippines, an amount about 45 percent (in 1997) higher than the minimum wage measured on a monthly basis, fellow Gonzalo M. Jurado said in his study.

"This is the sunny side of the mountain. The twilight side of the hill is this — Many families of OFWs break up some years into the separation because of the prolonged absence. Lacking parental guidance, children of such families become prone to anti-social behavior, creating burdens of control on the communities in which they live," he said.*
  

Related stories: Real powers of Filipino expatriates By ROBERT PONCE LEPON Filipinos abroad helped RP recovery By JOSE M. TIONGCO Asia still OFWs' top region of choice By MARLEN DEL MAR