Despite P1.098 B raised in development assistance

Commission on Filipinos Overseas in danger of abolition

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
OFW Journalism Consortium

ZAMBOANGA CITY --The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) which has been encouraging overseas Filipinos to support rehabilitation efforts for the deportees from Sabah, Malaysia, is one of 14 government agencies being eyed for abolition in the government's bid to lower its budget expenditures.

CFO, an attached agency under the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has an annual budget of P40 million.

The closure of the Commission, however, could result in the loss of billion-peso donations from overseas Filipinos for anti-poverty projects in the homeland through the CFO's Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (Service to Fellow Filipinos) or LinKaPil program, the Philippine government's biggest and most systematic philanthropy program.

From its inception in 1990 until June 2002, LinKaPil received P1.098 billion in cash and material donations from 1,532 individual and organizational donors abroad..

A CFO team composed of Evelyn Duriman and Marita del Rosario, which held a relief mission in Zambopanga last month, turned over 570 bags of goods and medicines collected through LinKaPil to the Region 9 office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

According to Rona Magno, CFO Projects Management Office director, a major donor to the relief mission was the Filipino non-profit organization, Feed the Hungry, Inc., based in Virginia, USA, which donated P150,000 for the deportees. Other donations came from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Ladies Association, Senator Manuel Villar, and the University of Perpetual Help (UPHR) in Las Pinas City.

The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), through lead convenor, Teresita "Ging" Quintos Deles, is currently working on a possible collaboration with CFO for the funding of anti-poverty projects, through LinKaPil.

Annual donation for development efforts

Feed the Hungry makes an annual donation to LinKaPil. In line with its mission "to uplift the spirit and well-being of the poorest of the poor, the abused and the desolate in the Philippines through gift-giving, livelihood and educational programs," it is also setting up houses and classrooms in Cavite, said CFO's Rona Magno.

Working through LinKaPil, Feed the Hungry has reached out to 27,796 beneficiaries, 24 orphanages, and 19 municipalities in 16 cities and provinces in the Philippines, donating more than P1.3 million for its gift-giving project.

Feed the Hungry has solicited more than P3.4 million in medical equipment and supplies, medicines, books and used clothing from Filipino immigrants in the United States. According to its webpage, these donations benefited about 10,700 individuals across the country.

Feed the Hungry is an established partner of CFO's 12-year-old philanthropy program, which is also called the Link to Philippine Development program.

Breakdown of donations

LinKaPil has established five programs through which donations are distributed: calamity or relief assistance, health missions, livelihood, infrastructure, and education. Of the P1.098 billion received by LinKaPil, P603.981 million went the health program, P284.804 million to the calamity program, P172.242 million to education, P30.564 million to livelihood, and P6.422 million to infrastructure.

Magno described the LinKaPil program as "an affirmation that overseas Filipinos are agents of national development". It aims to provide long-term assistance to the needy in the Philippines.

"A lot of people are trying to tap Filipinos overseas because they have 'investible' funds," Magno said.

The CFO has produced a compact disc, Philippine Sectoral Development and Needs Profiling System or PHILNEED, that contains a database of the development needs of the country's different regions and local governments.

"PHILNEED was a product of inputs coming from the local government units. We asked them 'what are the needs of your provinces?' We would like to work more with the provinces and find out their needs (such as livelihood, health, education, etc)," Magno explained.

Fil-Ams are number one donors

Most of the donations coursed through LinKaPil are from overseas Filipinos residing in the United States who, as of June 2002, had given P874.24 million to the cause.

Some P56.45 million come from overseas Filipinos in Germany, P51.60 million from Canada, P35.66 million from Australia, P30.11 million from Japan, and P10.61 million from the Netherlands.

Some 80 percent of LinKaPil's donations have gone to Luzon, 13 percent to the Visayas, and only seven percent to Mindanao.

In a paper presented during an international conference on migration and development in Davao City in April, the CFO reported that the bulk of the donations were sent to the victims of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.

According to CFO's latest donation report, Pampanga has received a total of P150,714,723.72 in donations - of which P102,399,418.72 went to calamity or relief assistance. Pampanga is the second largest recipient of donations, behind the National Capital Region with P154,433,424.42.

Benguet province is the third largest recipient overall with P131,602,580.28. Among the Mindanao provinces, the highest recipients were Surigao del Sur (P11,223,353.15) and Davao del Sur (P11,199,590).

Magno acknowledges the small percentage of donations that went to Mindanao, but she said that CFO hopes to link up with rural banks in the island "since they have more access to micro-enterprises."

No consultation

In an August 23 memorandum to the President, DFA secretary Blas Ople protested the abolition of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas--saying "no consultation was ever undertaken with the DFA nor the CFO."

Ople pointed out that while the planned abolition might save the government some P40 million a year, it "overlooks the fact that communities in the Filipino diaspora do engage in collective efforts to effect transfers and development in their country or regions of origin."

He listed the support of overseas Filipinos, taking note of donations coursed through LinKaPil:

• P1.098 billion in development assistance (or an average of P86.74 million a year);
• Scholarships for 366 poor, deserving students and 1.92 million books and teaching aids for 256 institutions in 67 provinces;
• 298,612 beneficiaries of medical missions and free surgical operations conducted by Filipino doctors from abroad;
• P498.89 million worth of medicines, medical supplies and equipment donated to 153 hospitals and 158 NGOs in 64 provinces;
• P30.56 million in livelihood assistance in 13 provinces across the country, and emergency assistance worth P284.80 million in 29 provinces.

These figures, Ople said, "will show that much of the Philippines' engagement with Filipino communities abroad is concrete and very constructive."

"The rate of return, if one were to look at the figures in a purely business sense, is overwhelming and decisive - a 400 percent net gain in investments, or P4 net gain for every peso spent by the government on CFO programs for the period 1990 to 2001," Ople added.

The Foreign Affairs secretary said CFO's functions "are neither redundant nor insignificant," and it implements programs "to promote national consciousness among Filipino immigrant communities overseasc (and) to allow Filipino immigrants to maintain social, economic and political relationships that bind them with the ancestral homeland."

The CFO was established in June 16, 1980 by Republic Act 79 "to promote and uphold the interests and well-being of Filipinos overseas."

While the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) processes the papers of temporary migrant workers, CFO processes those of prospective immigrants to countries such as the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia.

According to CFO deputy executive director Catherine Maceda, there has been no response from Malacanang to Ople's memorandum.