JEDDAH, 23 December 2007 — The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) yesterday said the number of Filipinos who have left the country to work overseas has surpassed 1 million.
POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz told Arab News she was overjoyed that despite the many deployment bans that had been imposed, they still managed to deploy over 1 million workers as of Dec. 7.
She said the agency was now concentrating on the deployment of professionals rather than blue collar and service workers, and domestic helpers.
Remittances from Filipinos worldwide also reached $11.9 billion for the first 10 months of the year and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank) said the figure could hit $16 billion in 2008.
Baldoz said that total global OFW deployment reached 1,012,954 to more than 190 host destinations worldwide from Jan. 1 to Dec. 7, 2007, surpassing the annual one-million OFW deployment goal by 1.3 percent (+12,954).
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said global deployment figures had been boosted by a 5.2 percent growth (+23,619) in the number of rehired OFWs in the land-based sector from 453,643 in the same period in 2006 to 477,262 in the same period in 2007.
He said that the growth in the rehired segment resulted in a positive global gain of 1.1 percent (+8,241) in total land-based OFW deployment to 766,340 from Jan. 1 to Dec. 9 this year, from 758,099 in the same period last year.
Brion added that on top of the 766,340 land-based OFWs globally deployed, a total of 246,614 Filipino seafarers have also been deployed from Jan. 1 to Dec. 9 this year.
Brion added that, “the deployment of overseas Filipino seafarers is strongly complemented by the total number of contracts processed per worker by the DOLE’s Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), which surged by 8.5 percent (+28,787) from 337,140 in the same period last year to 365,927 from January 1 to December 9, 2007.”
Meanwhile, Brion cited a report of the Central Bank that the $11.9 billion remitted by the OFWs from January to October 2007 represents an increase of 15.2 percent relative to the $10.2 billion remittances recorded in the same period in 2006.
The bank observed that growth in remittances was consistent with recovery in deployment, citing preliminary POEA figures that total OFW deployment numbers in October climbed by 3.9 percent to 88,058 — the fourth consecutive month that the figure was higher compared to the same months last year.
Brion further noted that the increase in remittance inflows is attributable to greater access by OFWs to remittance centers and their tie-ups with foreign financial institutions, which are facilitated by the BSP for the benefit of the country’s modern day heroes and their families back home.
According to the BSP, the globally enhanced financial services in banks and non-bank channels provided encouragement to OFWs particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong, which are the major sources of remittances throughout the year.
The bank expects total remittances from overseas Filipinos to reach $16.2 billion in 2008 with labor deployment increasing despite the slowdown in the US economy.
BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. earlier said in an interview with the Philippine Star that gross OFW inflows would expand by eight percent next year, including remittances that go through informal and non-bank channels. Remittances that go through banks, on the other hand, are projected to grow at a faster rate of 10 percent to reach $15.7 billion compared to only $14 billion this year.
According to Tetangco, the latest estimates of the BSP also upgraded the full-year projection for 2007 when OFW remittances are expected to increase faster by seven percent.
“Originally, we expected remittances to grow by five percent but based on what we have seen so far, we think total remittances will actually grow by seven percent,” Tetangco said.
At this rate, Tetangco said total remittances are projected to reach $15 billion, about $300 million more than the $14.7 billion total projected earlier in the year.
Remittances that go through banks, on the other hand, are projected to end 2007 at $14.3 billion, slightly over the original projection of $14 billion.
Tetangco said there was an expected pick-up in deployment in 2008 but said that over the medium term, the sustainability of remittances would depend on the availability of manpower.
“The demand is likely to stay, it all depends on how fast and how many we can train to fill up that demand,” Tetangco said.
