Leveraging the OFWs

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
21 November 2010

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – In 18 November 2010, the US State Department was quoted as saying that there is “possibility that the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is getting funding from Filipino workers abroad.” Published in one of the country’s top dailies, further it said “external sources can be the Middle East-based extremists.”

What a biased accusation from the country whose economy is propelled in part by OFWs’ authentic synergy of psyche and physique which Filipino talents are known for? What paranoia of sort from the world’s superpower whose reach has gone beyond limits and control overboard thus jeopardizing the sovereignty these affected nations have?

A concoction of wizardry must be brewing. I have seen this from espionage movies; the same plots the pentagonal structure brought into play in the killing fields of countries the “land of milk and honey” has once dominated.

Firstly, Filipino contract workers nowadays earn meager income compared to the eighties where they used to be the highest paid overseas workers. While they are still the “apple of the eyes” of their employers elsewhere in the world, OFWs bargaining power diminished because of the upsurge of cheap labor from its counterparts in Asia, Africa and South America. Specifically in the Arab Peninsula, OFWs are compared with talents from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Egypt and the surrounding neighbours of the oil-rich Middle-Eastern Kingdoms.

Secondly, the ailing Philippine economy does not promise enough latitude for OFW beneficiaries to spend less for more value; the Philippine economy, technically, does not support the OFW to save. Conversely, the high cost of living abroad does not allow OFWs to indulge in other activities, especially the expensive ones; it sucks their meager income.

It is such an irrational act to divest their meager income into an activity that endangers human lives and consequently downplays the world economy. Why would overseas workers finance the ASG when they can hardly finance the expenses for their respective families in the Philippines? Rationally, what do you think would urge them to play around with their earnings, if there are really earnings – strictly speaking?

Now, let’s detonate one landmine after the other!

One, linking OFWs to ASG is actually naming them as rebels. The plain vanilla interpretation of the statement suggests that the US government proposes to monitor the movements of the OFWs and it is completely disturbing. For one, the government classifies migrant workers as unsung heroes; they did not cross the borders to finance the rebels. Listing them as supporters to these wayward extremists is not fair at all.

Two, the statement can lead us to believe that the US government wants control over the bank accounts of the OFWs or virtually requiring all migrant workers to declare publicly their assets and liabilities only self-serving members of the houses and the cowards from the cabinets are required of. This is entirely inhumane and completely a violation of the Human Rights Law. What the heck is the US government doing?

Three, if the preceding reasons appear irrational – which are actually valid as far as migrant workers are concerned, then I would like to opine that linking OFW remittances with ASG is a prelude to something bigger at stake. When there is smoke, there is fire; when there is war, there is US support. And US supports are actually in the guise of – putting the record straight - the Visiting Forces Agreement, which is now on its way to another review.

Getting the VFA signed at the expense of the OFWs doesn’t sound fair at all; more so, leveraging the OFWs and their beneficiaries for this exercise is inhumane. Can’t the US government think of more compelling and convincing reasons or justifications to maintain their Military Forces in countries like the Philippines, and conceivably, maintain their high profile business? The US government has already withdrawn their forces as early as the nineties. What brings them back in the guise of the VFA?

Putting my two cents in once again, accusing them as supporters of ASG equates OFWs to notoriety only these extremists are known for and is therefore equating them further to be high profile rebels. Linking them to this terrorism is exasperatingly inconceivable and wholly unacceptable, matter which deserves apology. The US government is only adding insult to the present conditions of the OFWs, which does not help at all.

There is only one war Overseas Filipino Workers are in: War against poverty which the Philippine government cannot extinguish to date. Not even the consolidation of minds, if there are minds available at all, of senators and congressmen who are always aiming the spotlight for their self-serving interests. It is the same war that has been plaguing the country even when we stood mentors to our Asian neighbours in the early eighties in technology and agriculture; the same war that continuously drives these rebellion-accused overseas Filipino workers to conquer uncharted kingdoms for bread and butter.

Proudly, the remittances of these unsung heroes have kept the Philippine economy at float, figuratively and literally. Is this how the US government define terrorism – working overseas to earn green bucks to feed the hungry families of these OFWs?

Statistically, where the US military camps are based, these countries are at war; more so, their economies are jeopardized. Take it from the numbers!