A Salute to the OFW - continued

Since September 26, 2005, the country has sent almost 14,000 OFWs to 170 host destinations more than the 711,813 that were deployed in September of last year.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Sto. Tomas said the biggest number of OFWs is still in Saudi Arabia, making up 26 percent of the 209,293 land-based OFWs deployed in various countries during the first quarter of 2005.

Next to Saudi Arabia are Hong Kong with 28,006 OFWs, or 13.3 percent of the total deployed land-based OFWs; United Arab Emirates with 9.47 percent (19,817); Japan with 8.22 percent (17,213); Taiwan with 5.8 percent (12,222); Kuwait with 5 percent (10,216); Singapore with 4 percent (8,660); and Qatar with 3.4 percent (7,193).

In terms of demand for land-based OFWs, Qatar registered the highest increase, employing 50 percent more than the 4,793 Filipinos it hired in the first quarter of 2004.

• Bahrain, 49 percent (1,810 to 2,693)
• Kuwait, 24 percent (8,213 to 10,216)
• Malaysia, 21 percent (1,748 to 2,114)
• UAE, 15.4 percent (17,172 to 19,817)
• United States, 13.6 percent 1,074 to 1,220)
• Singapore, 12.8 percent (7,678 to 8,660)

Sto. Tomas said at least 6 percent of Filipino families receive income from abroad; 6 out of 10 of these families live in urban areas and are relatively better off. It’s no wonder, therefore, that migrant workers and their families are regarded as the new middle class.

With the number of overseas employment and the volume of OFW remittances growing, the country managed to generate a consumer-led economic growth amid recession and high unemployment, Sto. Tomas said.

Money is not the only thing our migrants abroad have brought home. They have also brought honor and fame to the country.

Melitza Anne Chan, a 27-year-old nurse from Manduriao, Iloilo, works as assistant to the chief of the Dental Department of the Marabi Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Chan was recently commended for honesty after reporting to her bank some 10 million Saudi riyals (around $2.6 million or more than P150 million) erroneously credited to her own account. Chan had first discovered the 10 million Saudi riyals in her account while applying for a visa to the United Kingdom.

Arthur Lucas, a trainee-worker in South Korea, demonstrated world-class skills in a construction event that won for him second prize, proving once again that Filipinos have the capability to compete in the global arena.

Lucas won at the 13th Construction Association of Korea Competition on Korean Construction Techniques, held recently in Seoul.

He was awarded a plaque of appreciation and 700,000 won ($674). Lucas was the only Filipino among four foreigners and 276 Koreans who joined the competition.

He competed with 27 other contestants in the rebar category.

But if there are OFW winners, there are also losers. A Department of Foreign Affairs "global situationer" report has counted 4,775 Filipinos being held in foreign prisons, a quarter of them women.

One of those in jail is Guen Aguilar, who is languishing in Singapore’s Changi Women’s Prison for the alleged murder of her best friend and fellow Filipina, Jane La Puebla. Parts of La Puebla’s dismembered body were discovered in two places in the city-state.

Sto. Tomas said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is providing all assistance possible to all jailed OFWs in parts of the world.

She said the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in almost all the Philippine diplomatic posts abroad see to it that the OFWs who have had brushes with the law in their host country are given legal and humanitarian assistance.

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