DAVAO CITY, 14 August — Congratulations to all Filipino migrant workers — you now have a new name!
President Gloria Arroyo yesterday said in a televised speech that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) deserve to be renamed Overseas Filipino Investors (OFIs) as a tribute to their contributions to the national economy.
She said Filipino workers abroad should be called investors since they capitalize on their productive years to provide for their families and to contribute immensely to the economy.
“It is only fitting to call them OFIs because they send large sums of money to the Philippines,” she said.
She noted that overseas workers infused $7 billion to $8 billion as remittances during the first quarter of the year alone, which is 25 percent of the increase of the gross national product. She did not cite any sources for the figures.
The new acronym is the third since President Marcos termed migrant workers as Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs).
When Fidel Ramos became president in 1992, he changed the name to OFW to include not just the contract workers but also the immigrants.
Ramos had also called migrant workers bagong bayani or “new heroes,” with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) shelling out awards every year.
A similar award had also been given out during the time of President Cory Aquino.
Deposed President Joseph Estrada declared 2000 as the “Year of OFWs” but migrants workers’ group criticized him for paying lip service to their concerns.
In a speech he gave to graduating students in March 2000, Estrada even faulted, perhaps unwittingly, Filipinos who seek work abroad for lacking in patriotism.
Observers note that President Arroyo, in pleading with migrant workers to continue working abroad, genuinely realizes that OFWs have become a pillar of the national economy.
She said yesterday that “investor” is the proper term for them because most of them go and work abroad in preparation for better income opportunities.
She noted that many Filipinos even sell or mortgage their properties to be able to work abroad, with the view to not only redeeming these later but also acquiring more properties or going into business.
Arroyo also vowed yesterday to push for the passage of the Overseas Voting Act so that overseas Filipinos can vote starting in 2004. “There is a need for enacting an Overseas Voting Act this year, if possible, so that Overseas Filipino Investors could participate to the national elections on 2004,” she said.
