My Blog

Filipinos are known to take advantage of opportunity. I think that’s more positive than negative as history proves it so. As a response to that dire need for “workers” abroad, especially of those developed countries who have more slackers willing to work the “easier, less demanding jobs,” many Filipinos, out of their needs, too, got equipped and head for “greener pastures” as the cliché goes. The government, more over, got the urge of reinforcing the demand through the Administrative Order No. 247, issued on December 4, 2008, stressing that “the challenging times require out-of-the-box, not-business-as-usual, solutions.”

Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care for Migrant and Itinerant People, said he wanted to know how the OFWs and their families can gain from the programs the government claimed it prepared for them, this being A.O. 247, which mandates POEA to have a paradigm shift from regulations to full-blast marketing development efforts, exploration of frontier placements to, as termed in the document, “Code Green” countries. Criticizing the “stimulus package, he lamented that the government, in this effort, is even promoting migration instead of creating job at home, saying that the government should not depend on labor exports to support the economy. “This is not the right way to develop our country,” Corros said.

Furthermore, Dr. Amelou Benitez-Reyes, President of the Philippine Women’s University, confirmed on that same gathering the reports of overseas Filipino workers’ concerns about losing their high-paying jobs. With this, she called on the government and various organizations to empower women for them to become productive members of society. “China and India would not have prospered without able support of their women,” she said, underscoring the need for women to consider micro-financing and self-help programs. Adding to that, she said that the government should not only be concerned about the plight of overseas workers but be aware of Filipinos who cannot find work in the Philippines.

As I reflect on these concerns, it poses three facts. One, that the Philippines is affected by the global economic crisis; two, that the Philippines, as advanced by the pessimistic politicians, is overpopulated can supply greatly the demand for “workers” all over the world; and third, that this scenario proves the point that the problem is not overpopulation but population management to which many of our politicians ignore as the powerful and most sustainable alternative to the imprudent and impulsive, immoral, malicious suggestions they have brought forth to the public to believe.

If I would have a voice, I’d say, we take control of the opportunity with the great resources we have --- first and foremost, the greatness of our being a Filipino, be it in the country or abroad. We have to shine like beacons in this dark times making the most of human power God has given us. Let us not be afraid of numbers but let us make use of the goodness and greatness of numbers.
Joseph Sylvester E. Pampliega