Let's save the family and the child

Filipinos have an inimitable secret to survival even in the toughest times: the family.

Like other families all over the world, the Filipino family is the basic unit of society. But its universality ends there. Unlike in most modern societies, the Filipino family is also the basic, and most functional, economic unit--not industrial or commercial corporations, small- or medium-scale enterprises, agricultural cooperatives or any other income-generating entity.

What buoyed the Philippine economy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, besting even the so-called Asian tigers? What will make us the GDP growth frontrunner in Asia this year, if the 3-percent increase forecast of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is accurate?

The answer is the same: foreign currency remittances from overseas foreign workers (OFWs). The US$8 billion annual remittance, which shows a linear increase year after year, is the single bright spot in our economic report that shows consumption, industrial output and exports in a tailspin in the wake of the global economic meltdown and the terrorist attack in the US.

Unlike other economies, this massive transfer of foreign currency from overseas is the aggregate of small individual remittances for family support, not corporate transactions to build industries. The major lifeblood of the Philippine economy is sustained by millions of Filipinos working abroad to feed, shelter, clothe and school their families.

In Japan, even as individual remittances have plunged from a high of Y100,000 to a low Y30,000 every month, the total volume is increasing. This is accounted for partly by a greater percentage being channeled through the banking system. But the biggest factor is the increase in the number of remitters, reflecting the continuing exodus of Filipinos to Japan. In the first six months of this year, Japan-bound OFWs increased by 21%, making Japan the top overseas destination,according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

It is quite telling that 58% of the OFWs in Japan are entertainers, according to Department of Labor and Employment statistics.

It must be recalled that the heydey of the Filipino entertainment industry in Japan (late 80s to the first half of 90s) coincided with the period of steep increase in Japanese-Filipino marriages. It is supposed that a good percentage of entertainers will eventually marry Japanese nationals, if only for economic reasons. Knowledgeable sources estimate that about half of the 70,000 registered Japanese-Filipino marriages will ultimately end in divorce.

We may not see the danger that looms ahead. Even our woman president seems trapped in a blind spot created by dire economic necessity, re-echoing the extolment of previous administrations of the heroism of OFWs, even elevating their status rhetorically from "workers" to "investors."

The reality is that the Filipino family is under siege on two fronts: at home and overseas. At home, we see more Filipino families riven by the exigency to work overseas--children growing up with only one or worse, totally without, parents; broken relationships; school truancies.

Overseas, unions between Filipinos and foreign nationals, especially those hastily arranged and impelled by economic needs, eventually run aground on the shoals of irreconcilable differences: language, culture, family value systems.

Interestingly, one of the thorns in Filipino-Japanese marriages is the Filipino tradition of helping financially his secondary family in the Philippines. The rosy remittance statistics from Japan belies friction between husband and wife, tension on the part of the Filipino wife stealthily setting aside money for her parents, or the pressure on her to take a night job.

At home or overseas, the common denominator of these problems is the fallout on children. As we saw in the multi-awarded movie Anak, children take the brunt of parental absenteeism in the form of disruptive social behavior. In Japan, conflictive parental relationship and the mother's inability to adapt socially and culturally as the child grows up results in the alienation of the child from the mother as well as from his peers. Bullying is rife in Japanese schools even if the child does not physically stand out.

Unless we heed this crisis call , we may yet live to tell the sad story that in our frenzy to save our family, we lost our child.*