MIGRANT
WATCH
War-Torn Mindanao Is Country’s Biggest
Source of Women OFWs
“Until sufficient jobs
can be created, overseas workers will have to continue risking physical
and psychological abuse, and even death, in order to feed their families
and ensure them a decent life.”
By Aubrey SC
Makilan
Bulatlat
As the
poorest island in the country,
Mindanao has topped the Philippines’ deployment of women workers abroad
over the last three years, with Region 12 or the Soccsksargen leading over
the island's six regions.
A source, the Center
for Migrant Advocacy Philippines (CMA-Philippines), recently revealed that
four out of 10 OFWs come from Mindanao. CMA also said that out of the
135,000 OFWs from the island, 66.2 percent were women while only 34.8
percent were men. Confirming the report, the National Statistical
Coordination Board (NSCB) said in 2005 that in Region 12 said six out of
10 OFWs coming from Mindanao are women, compared to only four in Luzon and
Visayas.
Soccsksargen region
covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, (North)
Cotabato and the cities of Koronadal, General Santos, Tacurong, Kidapawan
and Cotabato. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) also
reports that the region currently has more than 500,000 OFWs deployed
overseas either as skilled or professional workers.
In terms of
remittances, the women OFWs from the region reportedly sent home around
P443 million or 72.1 percent of the P614 million total remittances in 2002
alone.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, in her recent state-of-the-nation address, said she
envisions economic development through the country’s four “super regions”
-- an agricultural belt that will cover northern and central Luzon and
northern Mindanao, a tourist area in the Visayas, the industrial heartland
stretching from Clark and Subic down to Metro Manila and Batangas, and a
“cyber corridor” that would include major cities from Baguio to Davao.
But in reality, IBON
Foundation, an independent think tank, said “the fact that many OFWs would
prefer to risk their lives in war-torn Lebanon than return home only
highlights how the Arroyo administration has failed to create sufficient
livelihoods locally to enable them come home permanently and make a decent
living.”
IBON added that from
April 2001 to April 2006, the government has created an average of only
787,000 jobs annually, “not even enough to absorb just the new average new
entrants in the job market of more than 978,000, much less make a dent in
the growing number of unemployed Filipinos, currently pegged at over 4.4
million workers.”
Meanwhile, the
government has deployed a yearly average of 900,000 OFWs from 2001 to
2005. The share of OFW remittances to the gross national product has grown
from nearly 8 percent in 2001 to 10 percent in 2005, said IBON. (Refer to
Table 1)
“Until sufficient
jobs can be created, overseas workers will have to continue risking
physical and psychological abuse, and even death, in order to feed their
families and ensure them a decent life,” the think tank said. Bulatlat
Table 1. Jobs
created vs. OFW deployment
2001- 2006 |
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
Jobs Created
('000; as of April) |
859 |
1,026
|
232 |
1,115
|
688 |
803 |
OFWs Deployed |
867,599
|
891,908
|
867,969
|
933,588
|
988,383
|
564,920a
|
OFWs Remittances
($M) |
6,031.3
|
7,189.2
|
7,640.0
|
8,344.5
|
10,689.0
|
3,712.9b
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Labor Force Survey-NSO; POEA;
BSP
A – Jan to June
B – Jan to April |
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