NGOs help OFWs manage remittances

IN front of the concrete house painted white and blue, where 49-year-old Cristina Sotto and her children live in Barangay Pampanga, Davao City, is an old kubo (nipa hut). "That was our house before my husband went on board," said Mrs. Sotto whose husband Eduardo is working on an oceangoing vessel. The key to Mrs. Sotto's relative success, says Ramon Naguita, president of the group Barangay Pampanga Overseas Filipino Workers and Dependents Association (BPOFWDA), is the effective way she has managed her husband's remittances. JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO reports for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

Six-month survey of OFW families

Survey of overseas Filipinos shows increase in OFWs, remittances

THE number of overseas Filipino workers and the amount of remittances their families receive have been rising, according to comparative 2002 and 2001 figures of the Survey of Overseas Filipinos conducted by the government's National Statistics Office. The NSO's annual SOF gathers estimates of the number of overseas Filipino workers, their socio-economic characteristics, and the amount and mode of remittances, in cash or in kind, received by their families. The survey of OFW households from April to September 2002 showed that 1.056 million OFWs--an increase from last year's SOF estimate of 1.029 million--remitted P67.711 billion during the six-month period, compared to P55.325 billion in 2001. JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO reports for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

OFWs want to buy NAIA Terminal 3

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) want to buy into national development by suggesting that OFW funds be tapped to raise $400 million to pay Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) for Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The idea is the brainchild of financial analyst Mike Bolos, who has worked for a Saudi Arabian health-care firm for 23 years. "The cost price of $400 million (for NAIA Terminal 3) that they are talking about can be easily raised from the OFW community. Just $400 each from a million OFWs out of a total 7-8 million OFWs all over the world will produce the amount," he said. JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS filed this report for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

OFWs need all the protection gov't can give

Migrant groups lobby against deregulation of overseas employment

INASMUCH as the migrant labor sector has helped keep the ailing Philippine economy afloat with its US dollar remittances, it would stand to reason that the government would want to give the sector all the assistance and protection possible. But according to migrant groups, certain provisions in the Migrant Workers' Act of 1995--the law enacted to protect overseas Filipino workers--actually relinquish state responsibility for the country's so-called modern-day economic heroes. AMEND, a coalition of 16 organizations of migrant workers, women, religious, and OFW supporters and advocates called a press conference recently to push for the immediate approval of two bills amending RA 8042 in the Senate and the House of Representatives. ALFRED A. ARAYA, JR. of CyberDyaryo contributes this story for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more