LABOR MIGRATION HAS TRIPLED UNDER THE AQUINO ADMIN

Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 10/02/2014

(Interphoto)

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs' (DFA) most recent tally. Just 3 years ago in 2011, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated only 2.2 million OFWs worked abroad at anytime during the period April to September 2011.

No thanks for the migrant Workers

The number of registered Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has reached 6.3 million, President Benigno Aquino III announced on Monday, February 10 at the annual Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration (POEA) Outstanding Agency Awards, for private employment and manning agencies licensed by the Department of Labor and Employment in providing decent employment to OFWs.

It appears that for the president, the real heroes here are the private manning/recruiting agencies and not the migrants who bears the brunt of the hardships of working abroad.

Crescendo of remittances

The Country Migration Report (CMR) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM),  an intergovernmental organization that assesses migration movements for informed policy making released a report  In June 2013 that showed the number of OFWs being deployed to other countries has been constantly increasing for the past 3 decades.

The credit for Philippines' historic achievement of investment grade status should go to the country's army of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), a report by FinanceAsia said on October 3, 2013.

The OFWs send home about $24 billion a year. Remittances to the Philippines have stayed resilient despite the economic crises that hit host countries in the west and the security issues that hounded Middle East and North Africa.

Collusions

The continuing increase in OFW ranks would mean an upsurge of remittances for the Philippine economy.  The Aquino government also benefits from a gift that keeps on giving: remittances from the 15 million overseas Filipino workers, who have already sent home more than $12 billion so far this year — a 5.8% rise from the same period last year.

The president has awarded the recruitment agencies forgetting that the OFWs can go without these agencies but the Philippine government policies has banned direct hiring of migrant workers by foreign employers which shows that the government is in collusion with the private recruiters for obvious reasons: so that both the government and the recruiters could milk the OFWs.

For more readings click links
http://www.rappler.com/business/economy-watch/40537-thank-ofws-for-philippine-investment-grade http://www.rappler.com/business/jobs/50149-aquino-registered-ofws-now-at-6-3-million