This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 8, March 26-April 1, 2006
MIGRANT watch
Cordi OFWs Contributed $
11.7 M This January
Cordillera overseas workers contributed at least $11.7 million of the $917
million remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) posted this January by
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP or the Central Bank of the Philippines).
BY
ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW Cordillera overseas workers
contributed at least $11.7 million of the $917 million remittances of overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs) posted this January by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP
or the Central Bank of the Philippines). The $11.7 million is equivalent to
P604.36 million with the present exchange rate of a dollar to P51.26 as of March
24. Citing 2003 data, the
Cordillera regional chapter of the overseas Filipinos’ group Migrante
International disclosed that out of the 4.2 million documented OFWs, 54,000 come
from different Cordillera provinces and the city of Baguio (246 kms. north of
Manila) equivalent to 1.28 percent of the total national figure. Migrante
regional spokesperson Flora Belinan said however that the figure may even be
higher as the Cordillera OFW figure is from a 2003 report by the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Cordillera regional office.
She added that the BSP is
able to record only amounts passing through legal channels like banks, and does
not reflect money hand-carried by the OFWs’ friends. “In fact, our organization
believes that actual remittances are more than the said figures as there are at
least 3,000 to 4,000 workers leaving the country per day,” Belinan stated.
Belinan further said that
more Filipino workers are left with no choice but to go abroad because no
employment opportunities are available in the country. Government records this
month showed that the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent this January from
7.4 percent in October last year. Migrante also revealed that
that there at least 1.6 million undocumented OFWs aside from the 4.2 million
documented ones. Also, there are now 3.6 million Filipinos who have opted to
migrate to other countries, Migrante data shows. Migrante’s figures further
reveal that 85 percent of those who have migrated to other countries are from
the health sector. This flight of our health professionals has made the
Philippines the second largest exporter of physicians next to India. Northern
Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat