MANILA, 21 May 2003 — The proposal for the Philippine government to sell the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s new Terminal 3 to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is being endorsed even by a big group of businessmen.
The Philippine Association Of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), the country’s largest and most active group of labor exporters, yesterday said the “novel proposal” is one that the government should not ignore.
“The idea of the OFWs buying the NAIA Terminal 3 is a realistic proposition, mathematically and economically. One million OFWs contributing a minimum of $400 each will readily raised the required amount of $400 million to buy the NAIA 3 Terminal,” said the group in a statement.
Mike Bolos, an OFW based in Riyadh, came up with the proposal after the Philippine Supreme Court last month nullified the contract of the Piatco consortium to operate Terminal 3 because of irregularities.
The government has said it would return the money spent by Piatco investors, amounting to an estimated $400 million, in building the state-of-the-art terminal in Manila’s district of Para?aque.
The proposal is being debated upon by OFWs in the Internet, with many forum participants supporting it as a “tangible” investment.
In its statement, PASEI said the economic emancipation of OFWs, through the creation of mandatory investment and retirement fund for the OFWs and the organizing of entrepreneurial orientation activities for OFW dependents at home is part of the group’s Medium Term Comprehensive Employment Plan (1999-2004) submitted to the government.
To make the proposal a reality, PASEI said, the government’s financial institutions (GFIs), with the imprimatur of the national government, should first finance the purchase of the Terminal 3 properties and let OFWs repay it.
This is in consideration of the difficulty of organizing one million or so OFW-investors from the different time zones and the immediate need of raising the $400 million, it said. The GFIs such as the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Landbank of the Philippines (LBP), Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and others, could easily come up with the amount if they pool together their resources, the PASEI said.
“The GFIs have the resources. All we need, as correctly identified by the proponents, is ‘political will’ of those who are in power,” it added.
The PASEI statement said the “valuable contributions” of the OFWs to the Philippine economy “are something that is not foreign to us.”
“The business communities and the government have recognized the OFW sector as very reliable and stable source of foreign currencies and as the sector that helps keep our economy afloat during these times of global economic meltdown and financial instability,” it said.
“Considering the inherent temporary nature of our OFWs contractual relation with their foreign hosts, the government should support this proposal in order to give our OCWs the financial stability they need,” it said.
PASEI further said the proposal of Mike Bolos could only become a reality, however, if it gets the “strong support of our government and with the cooperation of each and every OFW worldwide.”