By Dcart
Philippine is the 4th highest recipient of global remittances ($16 billion) next to Mexico ($26.3 billion), while India tops the list having $52 billion remittances, followed by China ($40.6 billion) based on 2008 report from World bank.
Working abroad is a fad for an ordinary Pinoy, not because of the comfort living the host country can offer especially in the western continent, but for the comfort of living if not sustainability of the family that have left behind.
Year-on-year, the number of dispatched Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are on the rise, even in the midst of global recession that force some big corporations to retrench worker to stay afloat — thanks to the growing demand in the middle eastern countries for pinoy workers. Based on 2008 Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) daily deployment average statistic, there were 3,377 Filipinos have left the country and 1,726 Filipinos heading to the Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia. As the remittances of OFWs buoyed-up the Philippine economy, there is a looming concerned of brain drain phenomenon for Philippine local labor force, since mostly the talented and highly skilled pinoys are being enticed to work abroad as there is huge salary disparity between local employment and overseas employment. A staff nurse working in National Capital Region, in the Philippines could earn gross monthly salary of 10,350 pesos, while working in Middle Eastern country as a staff nurse would have a monthly take home of 15,000 to 20,000 pesos (tax free, with free accommodation).
The medical and manufacturing sectors of the Philippine are the most affective industries due to this OFWs phenomenon. Some hospitals have closed or were scaling down their operations, according to Antonio Almonte Chang, group president of the Private Hospitals Associations of the Philippines. The lack of medical personnel especially nurses, had caused 687 private hospitals to stop operations since 1998, the report said. Although there are new nursing graduates that can replenish those who opt to work abroad, the quality of medical care is deteriorating as new nurses have less skilled compared with the highly competent and experienced nurses. In fact, a newly graduate nurse after completing the two-year mandatory year of service in the Philippines would start looking for opportunity abroad and mostly like leave the country. The closure and scaling down of some private hospitals had a severe impact on heath care. “All that are left now, especially in the provinces are government hospital, which are overloaded and overcrowded but are staffed inadequately” said Chang.
On the local industries aspects, having setback for the appreciation of Philippine pesos, exports become costly while imports become cheap and would result in jobless growth, also known as the Dutch Disease. The continued inflow of remittances in billion of dollars from OFWs caused the pesos to appreciate and change the dynamic of the exporting businesses. For the local industries, as import products become cheaper, imported products would be favorable commodities compared to local product. Thus, local manufacture will scale down operations and retrench workers.
Ironically, the higher the exchange rate of peso against the dollar, the lesser amount money an OFW can send back home. Take for an example, when an OFW remit $1,000 to his family in the Philippines at current exchange rate of P45 / $1, then a total 45,000 pesos would be enjoyed by his/her family back home — whereas, in 1997, the dollar was traded against the peso at P50/$1.
Moreover, as Philippine healthcare suffered the brain drain, so the domestic industries have depleted the manpower pool for highly skilled and professional workers.
One thing is for certain, these OFWs might not be a hero in the eyes of local manufacturers or medical health providers, but for the direct families who have been the recipient of their monthly remittances, considered them the modern heroes.
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