Bush’s War on Iraq to Hurt Negros’ ‘Floating Economy’ 
Churches, Militant Groups, OFWs Gear for Bigger Anti-war Protests on Feb. 15

If there’s one region that will be hurt most by the imminent U.S. war on Iraq it is Negros Island. Ilonggos from the two provinces of Negros, along with Cebuanos, contribute the largest army of overseas workers in the Middle East and across the globe. If the war breaks out and OFWs are displaced, the region’s economy – whose lifeblood is practically fed by OFW remittances – will collapse.

By Karl G. Ombion 
Bulatlat.com/Cobra-ans

BACOLOD CITY – Despite government’s contingency measures, hundreds of thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries will be uprooted by the imminent U.S. war on Iraq. The displacement of OFWs in this favored destination of contract workers will be worse if the war escalates in other countries in the region, as members of Arab League of Nations fear.

Under this worse war scenario, Negros Island, along with Cebu province in central Philippines will be adversely affected and the Negros economy itself is at risk of being hit severely on a scale not seen since the sugar crisis of the 1980s. Reason: both areas contribute the biggest number of OFWs in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world and the workers’ remittances are what make the local economy survive.

So big will be the displacement caused by the war on overseas employment that some labor officials here have expressed doubts over President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s support for the U.S. war on Iraq.

Research conducted by Bulatlat.com/Cobra-Ans at the regional offices of the labor department and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) revealed that Ilonggos particularly from the two provinces of Negros Island comprise the biggest number of OFWs deployed in the Middle East at 250,000-300,000. Across the globe, Ilonggos number about 1 million. Cebuanos, on the other hand, comprise the second largest group of OFWs.

The figures however represent only the number of registered OFWs. Yolly Quizon, an OFW working as a nurse in a military hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said the number would be hundreds of thousands more if Filipino migrant workers without official working permits are included.

Biggest number of skilled labor

Labor groups here say that Negros has one of the biggest reserve forces of skilled labor in the country. It was this labor army that made sugar mills running full steam during the 1960s-1970s and made sugar barons even richer. They also helped run small machine shops serving the mills, handicraft industries and commercial shipping.

Negros furthermore used to host many technical or vocational and maritime schools as well as nursing schools churning out thousands for domestic and foreign services, including mechanics, electricians, engineers, nurses, midwives, doctors, or simple technical assistants in foreign shops, companies, state enterprises, or military hospitals, and as seafarers in domestic and international commercial shipping.

Sugar mills and other industrial and commercial establishments virtually stood still with the sugar industry crisis in the late 1970s-1980s, affecting as well related industries and commercial stores. The economic crash in the island in turn led to the exodus of valuable labor abroad.

Today, practically one in every five families in Negros have either a son, daughter, husband, wife, or relatives working abroad.  My own family and relatives, colleagues in the profession, work associates, friends, and even some people I know who have joined the revolutionary movement or right wing groups, have practically a family member or kin working overseas. Throughout Bacolod and other Negros Occidental towns and cities many concrete houses, small stores, appliances, public utility jeepneys (PUJs), taxis and even private cars have been built or bought out of an OFW’s income.

Even infrastructures that cannot be built or repaired by government could be had through OFW remittances. Many municipal roads, school walls and waiting sheds bear the mark, “Donated by Association of OFWs of…” Almost all cities and towns of Negros have their own organizations of OFWs.

Local economy propelled by remittances

For the past five years, dollar remittances of OFWs in the island are several-fold bigger than the combined annual budget and incomes of the two provinces of Negros. Dan Alcoriza, local labor information officer, himself confirmed to Bulatlat.com that indeed a sizeable chunk of money circulating in the local market comes from OFW remittances.

All these will possibly come to naught when the U.S. threat to attack Iraq as a means of dismantling its alleged weapons of mass destruction and toppling Saddam Hussein materializes. But the displacement of OFWs will happen not only in the Middle East – it is already taking place in the so-called “belly of the beast itself,” the U.S. mainland.

Reports reaching Bulatlat.com reveal that more and more Filipino professionals and skilled workers in the United States are finding themselves out of work amid the worsening recession that is considered the worst ever over the past five decades. For the past two years, recession has led to retrenchments, spin-offs, shop closures, substantial cuts in social securities and increasing taxes. Aggravated by the U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security system, peoples of color including Filipinos are reportedly experiencing other multiple hardships caused by a creeping fascism, racism and discriminatory measures.

At home, Negrenses have not recovered from the sugar crisis and in fact unemployment has worsened with 20,000 workers losing their jobs owing to another slump in the sugar industry last year. Most likely, said Guillermo Barreta, a leader of the Negros Federation of Sugar Workers-Kilusang Mayo Uno (NFSW-KMU) in Negros, once OFWs displaced by the U.S. war are forced to return home they would find no jobs let alone social subsidies.

Catholic priest and social activist Fr. Bebe Gordoncillo said that the President and her officials do not fully know the price of their pro-war stand. The government treasury is empty and businesses are collapsing, he said, and yet they support the war at the expense of the country’s economy, patrimony, liberties and freedom.

More and bigger protests

Meanwhile, the imminent war and the adverse impact it is expected to cause on the country’s economy and its OFWs has stirred anti-war sentiments in the island. Bishop Vicente Navarra of the Bacolod Diocese last week called on all the churches and parishioners to get out of their churches, offices and communities and join the global anti-war protests on Feb. 15. Several citizens groups and peace advocates have also signified their support for the nationwide protest action.

Teresita Apitan, deputy secretary-general of Bayan-Negros, said she is glad that more and more people and sectors are heeding their call against U.S. “imperialist wars of aggression.” Bayan has always stood against the U.S. war on Iraq and Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo’s all-out support for Bush.

“They (Bush and Macapagal-Arroyo) are waging not a justifiable war but an act of aggression by a superpower to prop up its sagging economy, and whose arrogance and its own record of terrorism and genocide are beyond compare in mankind's history,” Apitan said. “The US war on Iraq will only ignite a bigger war and wide-ranging destruction the world over,” she added.

And OFWs who are themselves back in Negros for a visit or other reason are also restive. Leaders of OFW associations in Bacolod and other cities and town centers said they will make their presence felt in the coming anti-war protests, Bulatlat.com learned.

Organizers of the Feb. 15 anti-U.S. war campaign which will be held simultaneously in other cities and towns across the country said they expect at least 20,000 anti-war protesters to swarm the streets of Bacolod. Bulatlat.com/Cobra-Ans

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