Nakakahabag ang kalagayan ng ating mga overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Hindi birong bilang ang stranded ngayon sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo.

Bagama’t dati nang problema, lalo itong lumala sa nangyaring global financial turmoil na unang tumama sa Amerika at mala-dominong humagip sa iba pang malalaking bansa.


Ang resulta, kaliwa’t kanang baklasan sa trabaho at intindido na una talagang mahahagip ay ang mga dayuhang manggagawa sa mga bansang naapektuhan. At isa ang mga kababayan natin sa mga nasagasaan.
Hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa rin ‘fully recovered’ ‘ika nga, kaya marami pa rin sa mga OFWs ang hanggang ngayon ay pakalat-kalat sa kalsada sa mga pinuntahan nilang bansa. May namamalimos at nagkakalkal ng basura.

Nakakalungkot dahil umalis sila rito taglay ang pag-asang magkakaroon sila ng magandang trabaho na may malaking sweldo para maigapang ang pangangailangan ng kanilang pamilya. Pero ang nangyari, kung gaano kahirap ang trabaho rito ay gayon din ang kanilang kinasadlakan sa pakikipagsapalaran. Malayo pa sa kanilang pamilya at sa nasa lupain ng mga estranghero.

Pero maliban sa lehitimong problema ng mga na-layoff na pumatong sa dati pang problema ng illegal recruitment na nagreresulta rin sa stranded na mga OFWs, marami rin talagang problema sa abroad na kagagawan na rin ng ilan nating kababayan na ang tanging puhunan ay ambisyon at lakas ng loob.

Ito ‘yung mga kababayan nating napakatapang magpalundag-lundag ng trabaho roon. Kumbaga, gagamitin lang nila ang trabahong aaplayan dito para makapasok sa puntiryang bansa. Pero pagdating du’n, bigla na lang silang kakalas sa employer na kakontrata para maghanap ng mas magandang oportunidad.

Dito nagsisimula ang maraming problema ng ilan sa ating mga kababayan. Hindi tumutupad sa kontrata at nagsosolong dumidiskarte. Pagkatapos, kapag bulilyaso na ay sisisihin ang gobyerno at ipasasagot ang kanilang pag-uwi.

Ilang ulit na nating binomba ang pamahalaan sa pagbubulag-bulagan at pagbibingi-bingihan sa problema ng mga OFWs. Pero kung titingnan sa mas malawak na pagtanaw, makikitang mayroon ding pagkakasala ang ilan sa mga kababayan natin.

Kapag dumiskarte ka kasi nang solo, hindi makatarungan na ipasagot mo pa rin sa gobyerno o kung kaninuman ang magiging bu nga nito.
Pero sa totoo lang, itong problemang ito ay matatapos lang kung babaguhin ng pamahalaan at ng ating mga kababayan ang mentalidad na may asenso sa pagtatrabaho sa abroad.

Dapat nang putulin ng gobyerno ang pagsandal sa dolyares na inaakyat ng mga OFWs at sa panig naman ng OFWs ay baguhin na natin ang mentalidad na nasa abroad ang ating pag-asa.

Patatagin natin ang sariling ekonomiya at employment dito sa sariling teritoryo at matatapos ang problema sa naaabuso, namamaltrato, napapatay, nakukulong at kahabag-habag na kalagayan ng mga OFWs.

Abante Editorial

I somewhat agree.

Remittances can only get as as far. What it only does is further fuel consumerism and our dependency on foreigners.

Using the money sent to us, we just buy. Many of us only buy just to show that we are well-off. We have big debts, because we only keep on buying but not really leveraging against these remittances.

But some of us do venture into business ventures using the money sent back to us, but have no vision to play in the major leagues (sometimes it's just enough for many of us to have a sari-sari store).

We have ambitions but often they are off the target.

But looking further, as a tangent, the problem is indeed with our government. Because a corrupt and very bureaucratic government cannot create opportunities. But it goes back to the truth in the saying: we do get what we vote for.

Think about it.

1. How long can you put up a business here in the Philippines?
2. Do we have enough infrastructure to induce a climate of productivity and entrepreneurship?
3. If a business start-up is achieved, how does the government let them progress?
4. How does the government favor the local entrepreneur?

Our government have no consistent and realistic roadmap towards development.

Because of a liberal approach to our industries (local and foreign), both them and the government have been very prone to rent-seeking activities.

Our government endorses tourism too much to entice FDIs but have no strategic policies with these FDIs. Thus we are prone to exploitation - a race to the bottom situation. We are made to believe that we are beggars that cannot choose and subject ourselves into a trap with no benefits.

Going back to the local level, some of our own industries do reach out and get involve in mergers & acquisitions - but there is no policy towards technology transfers. Our firms enter agreements and alliances with foreign firms telling us that they have a noble purpose of creating more jobs for the Filipino. But it stops there - there is no strategy to knowledge-capacity building. Because this is the case, our local firms keep on being eaten by their foreign partners who has superior technology in products and processes.

Also, our own local industries are too parochial. Meaning, they have no specific targets for knowledge acquisition; carries out adhoc and ineffective learning activities; tends to view changes, not as business opportunities, but as problems to be avoided. They don't expand and just content with their lineup. In other words, our own industries are too traditional.

We are not doing any catchup. We are only content with acquisition of material value and profit alone. We measure wealth with our material assets. Most of us do not move up the ladder to become more than adapters instead of becoming significant pioneers and innovators or to leap-frog. Can we just keep on priding ourself as good adapters?

We keep on endorsing our native goods, the "sariling atin", but we can't create enough market and loses our chances to be competitive.

The governnment has a role here to act not just as a mere referee but facilitate policies and purposefully act on them.

Think again:

1. We are said to be the texting capital of world, but do not have our own cellphone.
2. We prided ourselves with our jeepneys. But who else wants to buy them?
3. We love to use the internet, but our telcos have been only buying their equipment abroad. If some part of their infrastructure does not work, they just buy it.
4. We have manufacturing units here for electronics but only as OEM and sub-contractors. Never moving beyond to ODM and eventually to OBM.
5. We have more lawyers and entertainers than scientists and engineers. What has it done for us?

Top this with our penchant for all things foreign; and with our selfish and misplaced "practicality" and "common sense" to reach only to what is convenient.

The government has a role here to educate and support what direction should we be moving.

Think about the other countries like Japan, S. Korea, China, Taiwan, India, and Brazil. They manufacture modern products and carry modern processes but overall still retain their image and culture. Their products, although not "native", are instead infused with their culture. Their countries get to be known because of a clear mindset of economic nationalism. They look globally but acted locally.

True, their workers can be Filipinos. But we can't call these countries products our own.

I could go on, but I need to stop. If I appear being unorganized, I apologize. A lot of ideas comes from my mind for the many linkages that fail in our country. It's a hard and very complex problem which no single answer can resolve.

>>Our government have no consistent and realistic roadmap towards development.

the leading families would have to allow the creation of bigger, sustainable businesses by others too, but then these would also have a say in the system..

>>How long can you put up a business here in the Philippines?

probably until it is destroyed by some hostile crabs, or by some brute competition, or by sime illegal activity by competitors who happen to be mightier.
it will be swallowed by a foreign business partner only AFTER it has created something worthy, like know-how or a customer base. this is a matter of foreseeing protection.

>>Remittances can only get as as far. What it only does is further fuel consumerism and our dependency on foreigners.

some elites in the west of course are fond of this structure.
at first glance it is similar to outsourcing employed work into countries with a lower level of wages.
end then even they spend so much on import from the OFWs' host countries.
but fact is, filipinos are being networked very densely, and they have access to vast knowledge and procedure, and they can manage flow of capital. why is it not played the other way, that foreigners are depending on them?

>>We are made to believe that we are beggars that cannot choose and subject ourselves into a trap with no benefits.

OFWs are not beggars at all. not more than every other worker in this world, that has a "crisis of work". but filipinos are very skilled and less prone to this type of crisis.
they can change this view. but they are sometimes tricked into a position to be the givers who maintain this structure of "no choice" in a particular way. consumerism is eventually a "no choice" thing because people tend to buy luxury goods that do not make their lives more sustainable. the market and propaganda are trying to pull the most cash flow into symbols of status, like too big cars, and the newest playstation.
on the other end, remittances are eaten up by the lack of social and medical insurance, and of course medical treatment for a family member goes before repairing the roof, or investing into the little shop.

>>there is no strategy to knowledge-capacity building.

perhaps this is lack of optimism, and optimism would grow with better legal and physical protection for the daring hitech entrepreneurs. some comparison about how companies owned by chinese citizens are able to do this, might shed some light on the problems.

>>In other words, our own industries are too traditional.

if this is the case, it is pointing also to a problem with buyers who do not care for the balance. when they are traditional in the realm of producing and working, they just need to be as traditional in the role of buyers.
when we combine this with the (internationally quite popular) idea to not buy from companies who exploit local populations, it might create some more coherent behavior. it is about the same context: what amount and method of protectionism would be required to keep the system healthy and sustainable?


>>We have more lawyers and entertainers than scientists and engineers. What has it done for us?

probably that a beauty surgeon seems to own half a TV network, and that artists and staff can sue each other to have a bit more fun when the show is too boring..
what I have perceived is that artists cannot pursue their own bigger internationnal carers and cannot create their own enterprises, because they have to represent a family and a political faction, and this would severely conflict their plans.
but availablle talent is definitely huge, and charice who happens to be very free (which is her point and example), is showing us that it can be done..


--
create businesses with a goal to export to the same group of countries where the richest countries are exporting to.
beat them with the price tag, while quality is equal. even when operating sweatshops, they are prone to factors of cost they cannot avoid.

prepare against tricks by the major enterprises who sell below break-even to conquerr a market. let them starve by being more sustainable.
often, wise "family business" can achieve this.

----

but I believe this is all not new, and eventually it is a bit bigheaded to tell others what to do. - sorry for this.

the most important thing I have learned in these discussions is, that the problem is not so much with knowledge.
it is more about motivation and optimism, and how to find the emotion and energy to do and create what the mind has found out since long.

other countries are stumbling into very similar problems. hierarchies are corrupt, and people are discouraged and fatalistic.
game shows and lotteries are global symptoms of this.
it is a circle. the networks are spreading fatalist and backwards world-views, and support this with showing that the only chance for salvage to so many is winning a game show. and then, often enough the winners are less than real, and owe some person a big favor, who helped them into the show in the first place. this is an obvious "educational" agenda. I know it from germany, that game shows and singing contests have a tendency to promote very backwards principles of "utang na loob" (the blackmailing exploit of it) and obedience, when people better should revolt against injustice and official blunder.


the cultural influence that keeps these problems running, is hidden between the lines, and comes with all infotainment.
only in the face of an emergency, like ondoy, I have seen there is some chance to improve matters. good minds and compassionate hearts are getting a lot of momentum, and we must hope they will not stop too early.
the trick lies in the required cooperation and solidarity, and every corruption and egotism becomes a bit more obvious than during better times.
hopefully someone will insist on the need to improve infrastructures, and push some of the raised relief funds into this too.

Why not try E-Business which is easier to setup and does not need much capital all you need is a manufacturing plant, website and an account for money transfer.

I tried it and I was successfull I manufactured motorcycle parts and sold and advertise them on the internet and many ordered from me locally and internationally and I just send the items to them via DHL.

At least there will be no crabs around you.

do you have plans about protection when your shop will grow and pull "attention" ?

Actually its just my hobby to make motorcycle parts I do not intend to expand further but the extra income helps a lot. I have a day job that is why I cannot comit fulltime and expand.

I just like to show that E-Business is the cheapest way to do business with less capital and advertising cost.

at boy! that's another conscience Filipino that's awaking to the problems of Philippines that can no longer over looked.

its in the hands of Filipinos to take Philippines to next level of maturity as a country.

And also another problem is the greedy and apathetic elitistas who oppress the masa.