MANILA, 11 January 2008 — Work abroad remains enticing as an average of 2,941 Filipinos left the Philippines every day to work overseas, mainly in the Middle East last year, despite the continuing decrease in the value of remittances due to fluctuating the peso-dollar exchange rate.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) revealed that remittances by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have increased by 21.92 percent with May 2006 total remittances of $1 million jumping to January 2007 remittances of $5.9 million.
Contributions of OFWs to the Philippine economy remain high, with Middle East OFWs sending 48.64 percent of the total from 2006 up to 2007. May 2006 remittances were $654,091 while January 2007 remittances posted $972,633.
OFWs from Saudi Arabia posted a 28.32 percent increase in their remittances from $407,319 in May 2006 to $522,669 in January 2007.
Kuwait OFWs showed the highest increase at 89.20 percent from $42, 172 to $79,788 during the same period.
Abu Dhabi OFWs posted a 61 percent increase with May 2006 remittances of $51,712 increasing to $83,254. Dubai OFWs recorded a 76.48 increase in their remittances from $82,457 to $145,518 during the same period.
A report from POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz to Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo Brion showed that total deployment registered a one percent increase from 1,062,567 in 2006 to 1,073,402 last year.
The increase was largely seen in land-based workers as the number rose 2.7 percent, from 788,070 to 809,740 for a daily average of 2,218.
Baldoz said the number of Filipinos rehired by foreign employers surged 5.9 percent, from 470,390 in 2006 to 498,142 last year. She said the POEA sent out an average of 1,365 new workers per day in 2007.
The increase in land-based workers was, however, was offset by a decrease in sea-based workers, from 274,497 in 2006 to 263,662 in 2007. On a per day basis, 722 seafarers were leaving the country every day in 2007.
The POEA clarified that the deployment figure was still lower than the number of contracts processed, perhaps owing to the large number of rehires who already had existing employers and existing contracts. Although the total figures showed that the POEA surpassed their target by 20 percent, Baldoz said they processed 1.1 percent less contracts in 2007. In 2007, they prepared 1,208,220 new contracts as compared to 1,221,417 in 2007.
Total contracts processed for landbased workers actually decreased 10.4 percent from 866,090 in 2006 to 775,659 in 2007. In contrast, total contracts processed for seabased workers rose 21.7 percent in 2007 to 432,561 from 355,327 in 2006. This was not enough, however, to offset the decrease in contracts of land-based workers processed by the POEA.
Peso Surges On
The peso’s rebound against the US dollar, meanwhile, continues to take its toll on OFWs and their families.
Jasmine Cordero, whose husband works in New Zealand, feels bad that the value of the US dollar against the peso is declining.
“Before, I could receive between P10,000 and P15,000 a month from him. Now, its less than that,” Cordero of Tacloban City said. Her husband, Gerry, left the country in March 2007.
The peso gained nearly 19 percent against the dollar in 2007, making it Asia’s best performing currency. The Philippine currency further strengthened against the dollar at the start of 2008.
Francis Allan Angelo of Iloilo City, a son of an OFW, said the strong peso adversely affected his family’s income. Angelo’s mother Esther has been working in Jeddah for 12 years.
“Before the dollar went down to P40, we received a monthly allotment of P25,000 to P30,000. Now, we receive only around P20,000 to 22,000,” he said. He said the strengthening of the peso came at a bad time because the family was still paying debts incurred when his father got sick.
Semi-skilled OFWs, or those earning between $200 and $399 a month, were the ones experiencing tougher times, a Malacañang deputy spokesperson said.
Evangeline Filamor, director of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for the Eastern Visayas, said several OFWs visited her office to express disappointment over the strong peso.
“They even told us that they feel like not going back abroad again because of the weak dollar. But then again, they realized that they have to leave the country and work outside for the sake of their family,” Filamor said. (Additional input from Inquirer News Service)
