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Slave-like labor rendered by Pinoys in different countries around the world is mostly what keeps us Pinoys in the Philippines alive. It is an unavoidable truth.
An article from The Philippine Daily Inquirer which came out on June 17, 2009 states that:
...from 2001 to 2007, except for 2006, male plant and machine operators and assemblers were the top remitters (P7.92 in 2001, P8.73 billion in 2002, P9.55 billion in 2003, P11.7 billion in 2004, P10.4 billion in 2005, and P14.5 billion in 2007).
...The same survey shows that female laborers and unskilled workers, which is the category of household services, dominated the top remitters list from 2001 to 2007: P6.45 billion in 2001, P7.322 billion in 2002, P7.434 billion in 2003, P9.32 billion in 2004, P9.73 billion in 2005, P12.674 billion in 2006, and P13.08 billion in 2007.
In contrast, male and female “officials of government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors, and supervisors” were remitting only between P46 million and P4 billion through the same period.
...low- and semi-skilled OFWs contribute the biggest amount of remittances because they comprise the biggest number of migrant Filipino workers.
Quoted From:
“A significant number of Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates,” the report said.
The money sent back to the Philippines--these "remittances"--by Pinoys working in other countries is what makes possible the subsistence of almost everybody in our country. Remittances enable Pinoys in the Philippines to purchase goods and services, thereby ensuring that the local economy would sustain employment for most Pinoys who stay in the country.
And now it turns out that a great volume of these remittances are sent by "low- and semi-skilled OFWs", which is just another euphemism for OFWs who work in deplorable and slave-like conditions.
This reality is further confirmed by a US Department of State report on the "state of human trafficking" in the Philippines, as also revealed by an article in The Philippine Daily Inquirer dated June 17, 2009, to wit:
“Filipinas are also trafficked abroad..., primarily to Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Western Europe,” it added.
The report further elaborates that:
“Migrant workers were often subject to violence, threats, inhumane living conditions, non-payment of salaries, and withholding of travel and identity documents...”
Quoted From:
It turns out that should these Pinoys working like slaves--domestic helpers, laborers, janitors, waiters, etc.--all stopped sending money back to the Philippines, the whole country and everybody in it would practically come to a standstill and go flat-out broke.
Are we Pinoys, therefore, a whole nation of slaves? Is there any other perspective which could mean otherwise?
Will there ever come a time in the future when Pinoys who go to work overseas will not have to put up with oppression and exploitation? Or is the next generation--our very own children-- destined to simply just be another batch of...slaves?
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