More Pinoys feel hopeless, want to migrate — Pulse Asia

the desire to seek greener pastures abroad, at least to some able and qualified professionals, i believe is not equatable at all to one’s love of country. on the other hand it is within the confines of ones interest in self upliftment, the desire to have a prosperous life, better food at the table, better clothing, etc.

when one is given the opportunity to work for the same amount of labor but with better pay, security, environment and comfort, who wouldn’t grab that chance. it is therefore, not hopelessness nor the absence of love of country that encourages or push people to take their chances overseas. it’s only people taking risks with their lives.

Revised National Anthem
by Rye Bosco

**********************

Bayang magulo
‘di perlas ng Silanganan.
Arab o ‘cano
tayo’y naging chimoy.

Lupang hiniram,
duyan ka ng banyaga.
Nang gagahasa,
baboy damo daw siya.

Sa dagat at bundok,
ang simoy ay mabahong korupsyon.
May dilag ang bansa
ang ‘ngalan niya’y Imelda walang hiya.

Ang kislap ng ninakaw mo’y
tagumpay na nagniningning;
Ang binoboto natin sa
Kongreso, bansa nga magdidilim.

Lupa ng ayaw, natin, sa mga linta,
buhay impyerno ang bayan ko;
Aming ligaya, na pag may mang-aapi
patayin natin dahil sa iyo.

According to the survey the number of Filipinos who want to migrate has risen to 33 percent, chiefly by the urbanites, class ABC, the 18- to 24-year-olds.

The percentage of 33 percent is concentrated among urbanites of class ABC. This percentage will be greatly reduced if the non-urbanites, those in the provinces, were included.

This age bracket, 18-24, represents the majority of the young city people fresh from college who have ambitions to start their professional careers and their desire to leave to promote their career is understandable. We produce less than a million college graduates nationwide each year. Does that represent a third of the population?

To banner that 33 percent of all Filipinos or nearly 30 million people want out is misleading, not the least a fallacy.

I agree that we Filipinos are known to be a loving people. And this is the reason why we want to leave our country and find for a job abroad so we could help our love ones as well as our country’s economy through our remittances.

If our country can provide a better job enough to live in a decent kind of living, I am sure no one wish to leave their families and our dear country. Why should we put our lives in to a risk?

We Filipinos don’t have a choice…”ta-ub na ang kaldiro” we cannot stand looking at the table not having enough food to eat especially if we have childrens.

Our small farmers and other small business sectors are affected with this WTO. If we do have small business we have to struggled to compete with the Capitalist and foriegn investors.

Politicians or Leader in our country should understand the pain and struggles that the OFW’s that they have to carry while they are away from their country and families. OFW’s are humiliated because of our menial job and our country’s reputation.

Changes for a better is what the always wish for. OFW’s contributions to Philippines economy should be recognize. Not just to be called Buhay na Bayani ….. what we OFW’s what we want is a good leader with a good heart for the poor people, act with a good values that we Filipinos should be proud of and advertise the truth not lies.

“The number of Filipinos who expressed an intention to migrate has also risen from 26 percent to 33 percent over the same period. The sentiment is expressed chiefly by the urbanites, class ABC, the 18- to 24-year-olds and those with some college preparation or completed college.”

i’m an urbanite, i think i’m in class C, i’m 27, i’ve completed college, i’m single, but i guess i wasn’t one of those asked (must’ve been my age and/or civil status).

heck, even if i was asked, my answer would be that i’m more inclined to stay than to leave. that’s the same answer i’ve had since i started working and became a taxpayer (i.e., the minimum requirement for being a useful citizen, i should think).

perhaps i’m an oddity. i’ve been told that as being an engineer with a strong materials science background plus other skills (english, technical and journal writing, and others) i could be snapped up by some firm abroad, that these firms would offer me a paycheck at least ten times what i make here, and that these companies would take care of my immigration. with a gross monthly salary significantly below PhP 20k (yeah, that’s no joke), offers like that should turn my head.

but they don’t.

i don’t want to be an immigrant and take an oath to a country not mine. i am Pinoy; i’ll die Pinoy.

i don’t want to become one of those (former) Pinoys who damn my country but did nothing to better it while they lived here (on a business trip to the US two years ago i met one of those naturalized Americans — the fellow left ‘Pinas in his 30’s during the early ’80s — who kept on cursing ‘Pinas and Pinoys; he damn near bashed me in the face when i asked him, “fine, maybe that’s all true, but were you doing anything about it? what good were you doing the Philippines before you left?”).

though i respect them for their courage, i don’t want to be an OFW. i don’t want to have my remittances keeping the economy afloat while the government doesn’t do anything to improve my condition as well as that of my loved ones whom i’ve left behind. also, i don’t want to be an OFW because there are things that need to be fought for, and the battle is here; i know of OFWs who want to be involved in the fight for a better Philippines, but are frustrated because they think they can do little (i don’t agree with them, but i can see their point).

i am Pinoy. no way can i call myself that if i leave this country and swear allegiance to another. no way can i call myself that without being involved in efforts to fix what’s rotten in this country. no way can i call myself that if i damn this country, doing nothing constructive for the country in the meantime.

i may be one of the several million Pinoys who are underemployed and underpaid, but thus far i’ve proven that my principles, my nationality, and my loyalty are not for sale.

i don’t think there’ll be many who agree with this stand i’ve taken. one thing i know for sure, though: in my mind i will not call anybody Filipino who refuses to take part in the betterment of my country.

May your tribe increase, Jester.

Your sense of patriotism, Jester, is admirable.

There indeed is a desire by countless Pinoys to leave the country, in fact, Pulse Asia and other polling institutions like it need not go through head counting, a brief visit at any embassy worthy of targeting for work or visit visas will just be okay to come up with numbers to fill to tell just how serious and how people in desperation so pervasive that to be away has become already a byword and norm for Pinoys these days.

The brain drain as people make their exodus for greener pasture now include teachers, and this is the one thing I find to be worrisome, how will the Pinoy children fare in schools with replacement teachers, the good ones having left or is about to leave?

Places in Europe like Rome and couple of other European work destinations are simply overburdened especially undocumented workers in their midst, seeing our compatriots in train stations and the Champs Elysee in Paris Thursdays and Sundays, in congregation of hundreds scattered, huddled in hordes as appearing resigned to just be the other people’s worker or sex objects truly is heart wrenching.

But what is there to do, we’ve been as people unlearning of lessons, like the terribly long years of struggle removing despotism that we have to go through, brave and honorable men and women who had to die to be able to change for the better, like Ninoy, his assassins remaining out there so free to do more harm, why would people want staying home in the first place, be hungry and desperate?

So people leave sometimes for good to migrate to places like Canada, the US and Australia among other ‘greener’ destinations.

The object of the argument I would think, is how to stop the brain drain or just perhaps maybe delay it a bit till we’re able to figure something.

As for me, to be able to effectively curtail brain drain in the country, we would certain to need the right business infrastructure and to do that, of course the kind of detailing business plan to enable the venue building through support planks is a necessity since surely, it’s all about economics, the sort of money problem we are deeply enmeshed with, trillions worth of debt isn’t anybody’s cup of pito-pito.

The good ones leave for good, and if threesome is to make of the study discourse, they should be like the movie-make of the Good, the Bad & the Ugly.

So okay, we have few good ones let us then work on them little circle of the very few, well they could be the fewer clique of the oligarchy who still feel they should have the monopoly of the business, but work on them we will surely.

Can they sustain to monopolize the money it will take to allow for us the ‘crucial’ business infrastructure? If they have the tiny-weenie tidbit of caring for the greater good for the greater number, we could not have allowed suffering all these years having the jeepney, while they take to the streets with Benzes and BMWs.

Because we are a nation so largely scattered numerously over islands big and small, all 7100 of it, we would as I think very importantly need foremost the right transport infrastructure.

Let me argue along these lines; how about a “railway connect” for ASEAN & Asia, a growth projection to specifically address the transport connections. This I mean by just the distribution of food and services, all hell can break delay on the debt servicing until such that an itemized verifiable dissection why World Bank had to allow borrowings of this magnitude is given its due, we suspend paying up. As soon as this is proactively initiated, Asia need not worry, we have as people the kind of culture capable of taking care of everything including terrorism, and why not a unified currency for Asians, why not Yvonne?

chabeli,

like those really nice southern belles say, “padayon!”

why leave? para lang naman nasa gera ang sitwasyon natin ngayon.better to die in ones own country!

jester,

i agree with your observation with regards to naykika.

for one, i am against the wisdom of dual citizenship believing that one’s allegiance can never be divided into two countries. while the country would potentially benefit from the assets of ex-filipinos, regaining their birth rights should be restored only after renouncing the current citizenship. this might discouraged some, but at least we would be able to segregate those with intention to help and those who would just like to gain from the benefits of re-acquiring it in addition to the citizenship they currently possess.

renouncing one’s allegiance to the country is a choice one may not take to live or work abroad.

given the chance, its also worthwhile to work abroad specially if you are allowed to bring your family (to combat loneliness). this is specially attractive to young ones who are building his/her finances or starting-up a family. in most instances, if you have the necessary qualifications, a 4-months pay is equivalent to a year-long pay in the phil. this is beneficial also to uplift a close-knit clan from poverty.

for some, this is just a temporary undertaking and nuances such as the feeling of being a second class citizen is normally underminded to the original purpose. a lot however succumb to these pressures and become indiffirent to other races as well. this is commonly observe to asians and latino immigrants in the states and prevalent to lower earning bracket. however, people easily adopt and while being indifferent is the common refuge, many try to avoid the instances of discrimination (and develop inferiority) while some fight thru it tit-for-tat.

this is less experienced by professionals in the states and in many instances, the indifference is caused by being threatened that the perceived 2nd class citizens are in fact better than them. this is also common to fellow foreign citizen professionals.

analyzing it though, i find it no different at all to the many discrimination experienced by the maids, the helpers, the uneducated and other low-earning citizens in the country. the culprit i believe is one’s assessment that he is a better class than the other and thus justified to do it.

naykika,

when you said “one doesn’t lose his Filipino citizenship by becoming a Canadian,” does that mean you possess dual citizenship?

if so, i’d like to point out my agreement with koj, when he questioned the wisdom of dual citizenship. how does the oath of allegiance go for any country? pretty much an expression of exclusivity, doesn’t it?

“to question one’s love of country and patriotism is pointless and just plain demagoguery…”

i respectfully disagree. demagoguery is defined as “speech appealing to the baser emotions of the audience.” certainly love of country is not a base emotion… unless perhaps when is given equality with, say, expediency.

jr_lad,

it’s not easy, nor i doubt it will become so for a long time, for anyone to take a stand such as that. it would have been easier for me (singlehood has its benefits, such as drop-of-a-hat mobility), but your situation has much more relevance to what we need today than mine.

koj,

though i think we’re beginning to drift from the main focus of the thread, which is the hopelessness many people feel resulting in their desire to escape the Philippines, maybe you could expound on your two comments above, vis-a-vis each other? they both reflect on the post.

Jester,

Canda has only one type of citizen. Be you are bornhere or naturalized. Multiple citizenships is allowed and encouraged. That means that when you take an oath of citizenship you do not have to renounce your original citizenship, thereby not losing it. And the Philippines allow her citizens to maintain theirs, except in U.S. where
you have to renounce your current before taking the oath to uncle sam

Again on subject of loyalty and patriotism to both my countries I’d rather keep them to myself. At the moment, I’ll be hitting the campaign
trail for upcoming election, because my party(opposition is lagging badly) and I have the feeling we are going to loss this one big time.
thanks and seasons greting to all..

jester,

i can only say this to you…..

I admire your idealism but you will have a very RUDE AWAKENING!

after a few years lets talk again and i do hope you stand up to everything that you said here…..

jester-in-exile said,
December 5, 2005 @ 12:39 pm

how can one reconcile patriotism for the Philippines with having replaced Filipino citizenship for Canadian citizenship?

how can one be involved in working for a better Philippines, if, unlike Filipinos who choose to remain Filipino, whether working locally or as an OFW retaining his citizenship, one can’t vote and thus cannot be involved in choosing our leaders, and can’t pay taxes to the Philippines and thus is not supporting the development of our infrastructure?

jester-in-exile said,
December 7, 2005 @ 4:57 pm

rather sad, to have such a point of view. more to the point, i am disappointed that people espouse such, in the sense that one would rather demean another’s such principles.

who is the one demeaning another’s principles? see…….

just look at the thread my fellow filipino…. it doesn’t matter what your citizenship is… what is important where one’s heart belongs… (KAPUSO)

i rest my case!

i rest my case….. just read the thread……

jester-in-exile said:
============
one thing i know for sure, though: in my mind i will not call anybody Filipino who refuses to take part in the betterment of my country.
============

This certainly brings tears to many people’s eyes.

But to presume to be the judge of who deserves to be called “Filipino” or not is a bit of a stretch bordering on self-righteousness.

To equate being Filipino with actually living in the Philippines and being “happy” being paid peanuts after slogging throug Engineering school highlights the disease that affects Pinoy society — this penchant for undervaluing one’s personal worth and settling for mediocre rewards for what for many are world class skills and talents.

Great nations like the United States where built by migrants who believed they deserved to be well-rewarded for a hard-day’s work. To comfort yourself with the security blanket of nationalism as a means to justify subjecting yourself to mediocre government, mediocre standards of living, and mediocre pay is truly the Pinoy Way.

As I once said in my value proposition to the Filipino which I articulate here:
http://www.geocities.com/benign0/admin/whyshouldi.html

“Great nations were not built on good intentions. They were built on business sense. Real change in Pinoy society will never be achieved through the “sacrifice” of altruistic “heroes”. True change will be driven by people who find no shame in expecting a buck for their trouble.”

ha ha! 😀

Some really thought-provoking discussion here. However, I observe, most of us are only good at discussing things.

Jester belongs to an extremely rare breed (am envious). I met a person of the same conviction only once…before I decided to leave the country.

I would like to believe that our move is not an act of desperation. Rather, it’s more of choosing a better option available to us. Realizing that RP’s situation has become a “chicken and egg” thing, pragmatism took over my patriotism. Having 80M(or so) “problems” look daunting indeed.

i respect your comments jester.. but doesn’t necessarily agree to your point that when someone leaves his own country to work and give some food over the table back there already equals to swearing allegiance to that country…

“i don’t want to be an immigrant and take an oath to a country not mine. i am Pinoy; i’ll die Pinoy.”

that post talks about the immigrants, or those who opted to change citizenships, or acquire dual citizenship.. but you should not post it to this blog that has OFWs as subject….

let me dissect that statement…

“i don’t want to be an immigrant” – being an OFW doesn’t equal to being an immigrant right away… you can opt not to become one… and besides, those who opt to be an immigrant have their own reasons..

“take an oath to a country not mine” – still our oath of allegiance is to the Philippines and will always stay that way…

” i am Pinoy; i’ll die Pinoy.” – leaving Philippines doesn’t strip you off of being a Filipino.. and dying outside your country doesn’t mean you will die not a Pinoy… as i’ve said those who opted to change citizenship have their reasons… which i don’t think could be misconstrued as not being patriotic….

It pains us to no end when people like you in the Philippines think of us like the way you are thinking Jester… Maybe you were born in a different situation from us that’s why you can say that..I believe 100% that if we have a beeter option than leaving the Philiipines, no one would leave that country…

Take it from me.. I left the country last 1998 and went back 1999… i hust saved money for a small business and stayed there.. but things got worse than what I expected and prayed for… that’s is why i am back here, i na foreign land…

If only we could see the taxes we are paying for (20% of my salary) is going to rightful purposes and not inthe pockets of the congressmen who are up to now are trying to make it appear that telling lies is ok so long as they are not proven… etc..

and you know what jester, any time of the day, if you want to exhange places with me, so long as your situation now could feed my children and provide them with descent life that I want them to have, i would gladly agree.

please don’t generalize.

It is quite admirable jester-in-exile’s conviction of being a “Filipino citizen”, but equally disturbing is his manner of expressing his views almost as if he owns the right to define “being a Filipino”. I AM A FILIPINO living abroad, after a few more months, I will be a Canadian Citizen but still I AM A FILIPINO and don’t you @%&$#*! dare question that. Being a Filipino cannot be defined by simply being physically in the Philippines. I was in the Philippines, had a decent and honest job as an engineer and living a fairly comfortable life with my family. But what drove me to migrate? First reason is to secure my child’s (now children’s) future and secondly is I know I can be of better service to my country by being the best I could, earn a substantial money and share these with my family back home and with my country (see Gawad Kalinga for example), third reason is the frustration on the political and economic situation. Why will I apply for a Canadian citizenship? For the very simple reason of practicality, I like to enjoy the full rewards of my hard work, I will get a chance to voice my vote in the elections (good government = good economy = good jobs = good salary = more help to family back home = more help to charitable organization/s back home = more Filipino!!!). Again, I admire your (jester-in-exile) conviction, your flowery-style of writing is commendable, but please be sensible since your extreme patriotism doesn’t warrant that you can judge other people’s decision……Yan ang nasusulat sa aking crystal ball(s)…hahaha… Peace!

the title of this article speaks for itself. (sorry, but philstar’s links are temporary so i’m posting part of the article on OFWs)…

Manage our OFW business better
DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star 01/23/2006

When the Marcos regime first resorted to the export of Filipino labor to alleviate the unemployment problem and also earn precious foreign exchange, it was supposed to be a stop gap measure. It was something we had to do while the country worked on the basics for economic growth… until our economy can provide jobs right here at home.

But it didn’t happen that way. The spectacular performance of our OFWs this year in terms of earnings remittance and the absence of real indicators that our economy is truly on the mend, means this temporary strategy will have to be around for quite a while more.

Putting aside the serious social implications of children growing up without parents or of a culture of dependency taking root among relatives left behind, the OFW strategy has at least provided the element of hope needed to keep the masses from revolting. It is also creating a new middle class that is exposed to world class ways of doing things and I am banking on this development to improve the quality of our voters in the future.

I saw a special report on ANC last week that featured pretty good looking homes of OFWs in Mabini, Batangas. The village itself is known as Italian village because the OFWs there worked as household help in Italy. It is heartwarming to see such fruits of their hard work. Those houses and the much improved lives they now live must surely make all those bitter heartaches in a foreign land worthwhile.

Now that we are resigned to sending our workers abroad in the next 10 or maybe even 20 years, we should start handling this business a lot better than we are doing now. I am not talking only of worker protection and welfare like what OWWA, POEA and DFA should be providing. I think various high level government agency heads, together with some in the private sector, should give the OFW strategy more thought to maximize the benefits we as a country can derive from it.

We often hear some official or economist lament that the billions of dollars OFWs send back home are dissipated in consumption, benefiting only the mall owners and the smugglers in Divisoria. There is a lot of truth in that view. The $10 billion or so that OFWs sent back here last year could have done more than just strengthen the peso and fatten our gross international reserves.

That’s a lot of money, to begin with. Couldn’t we capture that or some of that in terms of government securities tailor made for OFWs? Every time the National Treasury floats a bond issue, that is to say, borrow foreign exchange from banks and other investors, it is normally in a range that’s lower than $10 billion. The last one was just $2 billion. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Treasury paid interest to an OFW holding such a bond instead of to foreign banks or investors?

There was an attempt by some wise guys in Malacañang some years back to issue such an “investment instrument” that did not clearly define its use. In fact, they did not coordinate with DOF or BSP, making the caper look like a scam. But if the issue is designed by the proper financial authorities and would be used to reduce our foreign debt obligations or to build an expressway somewhere or equip PGH with world class facilities, that would be just great.

Right now, the investment choices of OFWs are limited to buying a tricycle, a jeep or a FX van… or putting up a sari sari store. Assisting the OFWs in investing their hard-earned money should be a joint government-private sector undertaking.

While I wouldn’t recommend for the uninitiated OFW to venture into the stock market the way the NEDA chief suggested, the PSE can probably come up with an index fund, a mutual fund type of instrument that tracks the Phisix. While there is still a strong element of risk here, it wouldn’t be as bad as losing all your money on one bad listed issue. It should also be more liquid. Something like the Vanguard in the US should be a good model.

Deploying our OFWs can also stand a lot of improvement. Our consul general in Guangdong province, China once told our Wednesday lunch group at Havana Greenbelt that China seems more organized in this respect. She told us that at least in Guangdong, the Chinese government negotiated directly with the British government for the supply of Chinese nurses. The package deal involves everything from English language training to professional certification and guaranteed wages. When governments talk to each other, the likelihood of abuses is reduced, if not eliminated.

This is why I think DFA should be at the forefront of efforts to negotiate and sign up treaties with various countries that would facilitate the fielding of Filipino labor. Mobility of labor is an important component of globalization and we ought to be as tough in negotiating this issue as we are in regard to the entry of manufactured goods and raw materials to developed country markets. It is a tough issue but it is also one issue we need to be proactive with. Otherwise, other countries that also send their workers abroad may get their labor agreements ahead of us.

Then there is the problem raised by the POEA of inadequate available flights out of the country to ferry our workers. Thousands of prospective workers, whose papers are already in order, lost the opportunity to work and earn money abroad because there are not enough planes to get them there. That’s a logistic problem that shouldn’t be too difficult to fix. We just need the Civil Aeronautics Board to work with POEA. The lost opportunity is an unpardonable failure of the bureaucracy.

Finally, there is the police side of it too. There was news last week that about 20 or so Pinoy “tourists” were stranded in St. Petersburg, Russia after their “guide”, a Filipina, abandoned them after taking their passports and money. Apparently, the “tourists” were really bound for Western Europe to look for work and the “guide” was supposed to facilitate their Schengen visa for an atrocious fee.

Winter is a tough time to be stranded in Russia without food and shelter. And CNN says it is record cold there now. There must be some way government can monitor situations like this before these “tourists” even leave the country. Given our economic problems, people are desperate enough to take big risks for that dream job abroad. We simply have to protect our own from the more criminally inclined, also among us.

It would be nice to see more Italian Villages like the one in Mabini, Batangas. But replicating the success stories there must not be left to chance and to the desperation of our people to take unreasonable risks. We all have to put our heads together in an organized effort to maximize the benefits of this OFW phenomenon and minimize the heartaches to those who are in the thick of it.