Migrant's Focus Magazine: Issue #2     Main Feature: The Lucrative Business That is Labor Export The Labour Export Program (LEP) of the Philippine government can be considered as its most elaborated program that exploits the Filipino people in every step of the way by regarding them as commodities for export for much needed dollars. The Philippine government sees to it that its "products" for export is globally competitive. Every migrant worker has to undergo pre-departure orientation seminars, training, securing of clearances, medical reports, and other requirements and finally, to secure an exit permit from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) before they can be allowed to leave the country to work abroad. And in each and every step, they have to pay exorbitant fees. This is apart from the huge amount of fees that private recruitment agencies, actually, extort from them. But ever since the late dictator Marcos made this labour export program and up to the present administration of President Estrada, there had been no admission that LEP is existing. All of them are saying that going abroad is the sole decision of the migrant workers themselves. How did this LEP come about? First of all, to migrate is a human right. Everyone has the right to go anywhere she pleases to go, even to the extent of working and settling abroad. This is voluntary and a decision of an individual. Before the LEP, there already is a pattern of migration within the country and eventually abroad. Usually , this is to find a living for the family. Some professionals went to the USA and Europe. Others even joined the US navy and finally settled down in the USA. All one has to do is to secure a passport and apply for a either a tourist or employment visa from the country of destination. But this is not the case now when the LEP was put in place. When the Middle East oil boom started in the seventies, the development especially in Saudi Arabia created a vacuum for skilled workers and manual labourers. Construction companies have to import workers to meet their demands for shortage of labour. In the case of the Philippines, it started it all. Thousands of Filipino workers were sent to work in the Middle East with the aid of construction companies based in the Philippines like EEI and AG & P being subcontracted by companies in the Middle East. The "imported" workers are earning in US dollars which is a big boost to the family income. Eventually, Filipinos are now found in more than 180 countries. This boost in family income became so visible in terms of renovated houses or newly constructed ones, electronic appliances and other concrete evidence of "economic upliftment". Some are even so proud that they put visible signs in the public utility jeeps or tricycle "katas ng Saudi or Hong Kong", meaning the fruit of their labour in working overseas. This "news" spread so fast that even the parents started convincing their sons and daughters to try their luck abroad for the sake of the family. This was also the time when the political and economic situation in the Philippines was fast deteriorating because of the late President Marcos' greediness for power, corruption and widespread human rights violation. He even imposed martial law in the Philippines to quell the growing dissent against his administration. This difficult times all the more pushed the Filipinos to seek "greener pastures" abroad. Some even said that it was better to leave their families and work aborad than to see them die of hunger in the Philippines. The Filipino migrant workers, the de facto breadwinners of the family, have to send their remittances every month. What started in millions of US dollars, remittances grew to billions and continue to grow each year. Confronted with a growing balance of payment deficit, trade deficit and other financial woes, the late President Marcos' government saw this huge amount of remittances, in fact the whole export of labor, as a sure source of the much needed dollars to prop up the fast deteriorating economy. Mr. Marcos systematized and institutionalized the export of labour by merging government agencies that deals with overseas work, to become the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). It became the biggest recruitment agency for it was not only tasked to process the papers of overseas worker but also to look for "market" abroad. Since then, processing of documents for overseas employment took longer and entailed more expenses. One has to secure an NBI/police clearance, apply to a private recruitment agency, apply for passport as overseas contract workers (OCW), pay US$125 adminstrative fee to the POEA, get a medical certificate, secure an artist record book (ARB) for musicians and other bureaucratic clearances and permits. In all of these, the migrant workers have to pay corresponding fees. The LEP, having been projected by the government as a stop-gap measure to address unemployment and underemployment, became a permanent program, an export industry, a pillar of the Philippine economy. True enough, after Marcos was toppled down, former President Corazon Aquino called migrant workers as the "new economic heroes" and included their remittances as a prime source of foreign exchange necessary for her recovery program. Previous President Fidel Ramos, for his part, proposed workshops during the APEC meeting in Manila about "Internationally Shared Human Resources" to harness export and mobility of labor. Current President Joseph Ejercito Estrada activated two important agencies to ensure quality export of human resources - the Technical Education for Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) and the Job Fair under the joint management of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade. The former does the training and the latter does the marketing by inviting placement agencies and employers to scout among the trained workers. The economic and political dimension of the LEP To corner the dollar earning of migrant workers, the late President Marcos came out with the infamous Executive Order 857 or what the migrant workers called Forced Remittance. Every migrant worker had to remit every month about 50% to 70% (for land based and sea based workers respectively) of their earnings through authorized channels. Failure to do so would subject the migrant worker to penalties such as non-renewal of contracts or passports and "blacklisting" as ineligible overseas contract workers. The strong protest of migrant workers worldwide forced the late dictator to remove the punitive provisions in the said Order. Seeing that coercion is not feasible, they resorted to streamlining, facilitating and upgrading the technological capabilities of Philippine based offshore banks to efficiently handle the remittances of migrant workers. Now, the electronic on-line remittance service is in place. In the research done by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrant Filipinos (APMMF), a regional institution that caters to migrant workers in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, it says that according to the findings of the World Bank, worldwide remittances of migrant workers is second only to the earnings of crude oil trading and bigger than the combined developmental aid in the world. No wonder, the Philippine government and other sending countries really bank on the foreign exchange earnings derived from the export of labor. The Filipino migrant workers remit from USD 4 to 7 billion annually. And on top of that, they are charged exorbitant fees for every service they render to these economic heroes and heroines. The former Labor Secretary in the administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos categorically mentioned another aspect of the LEP. Fearing the growing political unrest because of economic hardships and the effects of the declaration of martial law, the labor secretary mentioned that overseas employment would help in arresting the growth of the insurgency movement and political unrest in the Philippines. The reason for the poor services and protection to migrant workers by the Philippine government The Philippine government has to make it appear that they are responsible for the promotion and protection of the rights and welfare of overseas Filipinos. From Overseas Welfare Fund, the government transformed it to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. This agency is supposed to be tasked to attend to the plight of overseas contract workers. It has an elaborated program from on-site protection to reintegration program and livelihood programs. But after close scrutiny of their own budget allocation, only 11% is allotted for on site services. Worse, the national government has no budget for this agency. OWWA has to operate from the contribution of migrant workers themselves. Recently, OWWA came out with Resolution 99-016, making the US$25 contribution an annual payment instead of a lifetime membership fee. Prior to this, there was a Memorandum Circular No. 41 making it mandatory to pass through a private recruitment agency, in effect, banning the direct hiring of overseas workers by their respective employers. The government reasoned out that it was to protect the migrant workers from unscrupulous employers. But in studying the said Memorandum, there is a provision, which passes the burden of servicing migrant workers, especially during crisis situations, to the private recruitment agency. In effect, the government privatized its welfare program for overseas workers while continuously collecting fees from migrant workers. Supposedly, overseas Filipinos are exempted from filing their income tax through the Comprehensive Tax Reform Law passed under the Administration of President Fidel Ramos. But under President Joseph Estrada, a memorandum was circulated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to penalize migrant workers of P1,000 for late filing of income tax exemption. These are but some of the glaring examples on how the government is making a fool out of our new economic heroes and heroines. They really have no political will nor intention to protect their constituents abroad so as not to jeopardize the top dollar earning export industry. The restlessness and the growing awareness of migrant workers The social impact of the LEP is best exemplified when Flor Contemplacion was hanged to death in Singapore on what many still believe as framed up charges. Many lost their loved ones or are languishing in jail. Many families are broken up because of the need to work abroad for survival. Many professionals and skilled workers suffer from the process of de-skilling in working as domestic helpers or nannies. The very experience of migrant workers and the impact of their situation to their families and loved ones added by the negligence of the government to their plight exposed migrants to the harsh reality of the LEP. This made them establish and strengthen their network with each other through their respective organizations and alliances. They became aware that their rights wouldn't be offered them in a silver platter. They have to fight for it in order to get it. They affirmed in their congresses and conferences that only by being organized can they best promote and protect their rights and welfare. Forced migration in the Philippine context will never cease as long as the country remains backward, agricultural and with no basic industry to absorb the ever-growing labour force. It is a task and an objective for all migrant workers to change this situation. It is a big task. But it is worth the time, effort and energy for after all, our own families and loved ones are at stake. And, it is the whole country and its social fiber that is being destroyed by those who invented this LEP. We are the ones who suffer and experience the ill-effects of the LEP. No one will be in a better position to address this than us.     Search our site: advance search             Back to top           1995 - 2001 (c) copyright The Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (HK) Society e-mail: mission@migrants.net website: http://www.migrants.net