How do you deal with 6,282[1] overseas Filipino workers, 5,977 (95%) of whom are women, 132 (2%) males, and 175 (3%) of them not even bothering to fill up the intake sheets, and if they did, they only wrote their names? It would have been more manageable had it been that all of them are members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), but they are not. Out of the 6,109 intake sheets received by OWWA, only 2,812 (46%) are members and 3,295 (56%) are non-members.
There are 3,887 (62%) repatriated workers coming from Luzon, 777 (12%) from Visayas, 994 (16%) from Mindanao. This does not include those who did not fill out the intake sheets (3%) and the 449 (7%) who did not specify their province of origin.
Of those coming from Luzon, 1,044 (27%) come from Region II, 716 (18%) from the National Capital Region (NCR), 598 (15%) from Region IV, 592 (15%) from Region I, 514 (13%) from Region III, 233 (6%) from Region 5 and 190 (5%) from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
In the Visayas, 452 (58%) come from Region VI, 179 (23%) come from Region VIII and 146 (19%) from Region VII.
From Mindanao, there were 297 (30%) from Region XI, 188 (19%) from Region IX, 142 (14%) from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 136 (14%) from Region X, 132 (13%) from Region XII, and 99 )10%) from Caraga.
Most of them would prefer being redeployed outside the Philippines, some opted to go for training for work programs here and abroad, others plainly gave up, lost their minds, or worse, lost their spirit to try anything.
The government has always responded with livelihood training and loan programs which, while temporarily alleviating the situation, is far from self-sustaining and far from the appropriate response to widespread poverty, the overarching reason why Filipinos seek employment abroad.
As NGOs, we must stop demanding creative solutions solely from government, and create it on our own. Postpone marching on the streets and start doing our own spade work as development workers. That is what Gawad Kalinga and some NGOs are doing. That is what very few people are doing.
Then we can truly answer the question, “How Now, Lebanon?” with “Here’s How, Philippines!"
There are 3,887 (62%) repatriated workers coming from Luzon, 777 (12%) from Visayas, 994 (16%) from Mindanao. This does not include those who did not fill out the intake sheets (3%) and the 449 (7%) who did not specify their province of origin.
Of those coming from Luzon, 1,044 (27%) come from Region II, 716 (18%) from the National Capital Region (NCR), 598 (15%) from Region IV, 592 (15%) from Region I, 514 (13%) from Region III, 233 (6%) from Region 5 and 190 (5%) from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
In the Visayas, 452 (58%) come from Region VI, 179 (23%) come from Region VIII and 146 (19%) from Region VII.
From Mindanao, there were 297 (30%) from Region XI, 188 (19%) from Region IX, 142 (14%) from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 136 (14%) from Region X, 132 (13%) from Region XII, and 99 )10%) from Caraga.
Most of them would prefer being redeployed outside the Philippines, some opted to go for training for work programs here and abroad, others plainly gave up, lost their minds, or worse, lost their spirit to try anything.
The government has always responded with livelihood training and loan programs which, while temporarily alleviating the situation, is far from self-sustaining and far from the appropriate response to widespread poverty, the overarching reason why Filipinos seek employment abroad.
As NGOs, we must stop demanding creative solutions solely from government, and create it on our own. Postpone marching on the streets and start doing our own spade work as development workers. That is what Gawad Kalinga and some NGOs are doing. That is what very few people are doing.
Then we can truly answer the question, “How Now, Lebanon?” with “Here’s How, Philippines!"
[1] Leovy S. Aguila, Head, Documentation Team and Consolacion C. Marquez, Member, Lebanon Crisis Committee, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Lebanon-Israel Conflict, Total No. of Repatriates, 16 October 2006, 2 pages. This includes the 175 who did not fill up the intake sheets.
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