‘Slave to no one’
THE sttatement read last February 9 in Davao City will be forever remembered by our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs):
“The Filipino is no slave to anyone, anywhere and everywhere. Every unlawful physical injury that is inflicted on an OFW is an injury I personally bear as the head of this Republic.”
This strong statement was read as the Philippine government announced a ban on deployment of our Overseas Filipino Worker OFWs to Kuwait.
Many of our OFWs shed joyful tears, gushing at what perhaps is the strongest statement ever made by a Filipino president about them.
They are thankful that for the first time, government has issued strong statements to protect them, and backed it up with action.
As far as i recall i have never heard a Philippine president issue a deployment ban on country on the issue of OFW conditions. Previous bans having more to do with factors such as war or natural calamities in various countries.
Many previous Philippine governments have been careful to tiptoe around the Arab States on this, earning the cynicism of many OFWs who have had to nevertheless swallow the platitude of “Bagong Bayani” (new hero) while their interests remained underserved by what was an often soft response to abuse at the hands of foreign employers, or even our own embassy staff.
Whether we like it or not, this statement sends shock waves will resound througout the Arab world.
In turn, Kuwait responded with concern, seeking an agreement with the Philippines on this sensitive matter, a move which is forecast to encourage other Arab States to do the same.
Kuwait, as one of the Middle East countries receives a hefty 6.4 percent of the 2.2 million overseas contract workers. The Middle East in all receives more than half of all OFWs, with Saudi Arabia geting about 25 percent according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
While it is true that many of these countries have stepped up long term indigenization programs to enable their locals to obtain work related skills to eventually replace the Filipinos, the short and medium term labor requirements will necessarily require foreign workers.
Thus, any disruption of this supply of Filipino workers will naturally worry these recieving governnents, which will neverthless take a decade to raise new local talent.
Worse, as China ramps up production of electric vehicles and leads the world in solar panel production, these technologies are expected to claim a major component of the energy and transport mix of ASEAN countries, slowly reducing their dependence on imported, especialy Arab oil.
When our mass transit systems are done and jeepneys converted to electric variants over the next five years, we expect a slight dip in our oil imports.
Thus, the flow of wealth into Arab coffers is slowly threatened by countries eventually buying less imported oil.
This forces them to take better stock of their human capital, and compels them to keep highly skilled labor and expertise on hand as they transition from an oil based economy to the information age.
The Kuwaiti response sets the stage for more cooperative and proactive positions from other Arab countries.
OFWs are a leg of the Philippine economy, remitting around 20 billon dollars last year according to the Bangko Sentral, constituting the equivalent of about 10 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. Protecting their welfare is a vital facet of our foreign policy.
With this statement, expect more bilateral agreements between us and Arab states to better ensure their welfare and protection from harm and harassment, and better assistance programs as they cooperate with us.
Likewise, this also sends a strong message to our embassies and offshore labor offices to ensure that no OFW is abused or unserved by any one in their own offices. For reactions: