Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the 12th Anniversary of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration

[Delivered at the Metropolitan Theater, Manila, June 9, 1994]

Our modern-day
propagandists

IN MEETING here today, so close to the observance of Independence Day in our country, I am reminded of another group of Filipinos who, over a century ago, bravely crossed the oceans into foreign soil.

They journeyed to Spain and other capitals of Europe, and yet were all the time thinking of home. They spent long years of exile abroad, but in this way were buying a chance for their countrymen to become a nation. They were our revolutionary propagandists, and they included some of the greater names in our nation’s history—José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Juan and Antonio Luna. And it was they who first brought the Philippines and the Filipinos to the attention of the world.

Counterparts

It is not flattery or jest when I say that our overseas workers today are the nearest counterpart we have in our time to the propagandists of Rizal’s time. Your courage to work in foreign lands, your devotion to family and home, and your contribution to the life of our nation are in every way as vital as what those illustrious Filipino travelers of long ago did for our people.

We might note this difference between the propagandists of the nineteenth century and the overseas contract workers of the twentieth century. In the cause of the propagandists, Filipinos here at home sent them money so they could live and study abroad. In the case of the overseas contract workers they send money from abroad so that their families may have a better life and the country can develop.

It is only fitting that once a year we should hold this “Parangal sa Overseas Contract Workers,” because truly we owe them our tribute.

And it is good that this should coincide with the anniversary of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. For in bringing these two events together, we can address directly the tasks of honoring our overseas workers, and of looking into their welfare and that of their families.

Awards for overseas contract workers

Earlier, I had the privilege of presenting the San Lorenzo Ruiz Awards for overseas contract workers.

I congratulate all the awardees for the exceptional work; and I also would like to congratulate the Rotary Club of Makati-Legaspi district 3810, which, in cooperation with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, has founded and institutionalized these awards.

The premium placed here on honesty and dedication is one that should find a place in the hearts and minds of all our workers, whether in the country or abroad, in Government or in the private sector.

Honesty and dedication, as well as loyalty, are Filipino values that have shone brightly in many parts of the world, mainly through the example of our overseas workers.

The Rotary Club of Makati-Legaspi demonstrates its deep civic spirit by spearheading these awards. And the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has performed an inestimable service by handling the spadework and initial screening through key posts abroad. I congratulate you for your joint achievement.

My heartfelt appreciation also goes to the 23 Filipinos who gave their invaluable services in the gallant effort to evacuate their fellow workers from strife-torn Yemen. They put love for countrymen above all else in total disregard of their own personal safety.

The recipients of these awards bring pride not only to our country. They bring to the world the excellence of the Filipino, expand the global reach of our innate skills and abilities, and demonstrate, in a quiet yet forceful way, the nobility of our race—our resilience, hardy spirit and total devotion to family and home.

Values are what matter most in the quest for national greatness. Our will to succeed, our courage and sacrifice, can surmount all limitations and take us to our destiny.

Results of consultations

It has also been my pleasure to receive the consolidated report on the national consultations with our overseas contract workers. This document can guide us in doing the best for our overseas workers and their families. The welfare of our overseas contract workers deserves the highest priority and attention.

The officials and staff of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration deserve our congratulations for completing these consultations with dispatch.

We are dealing today with more than 2 million overseas workers. If we count their family members and dependents, the total number could reach 12 million, nearly 20 percent of our population.

I am glad that this constituency is now being organized, consolidated and strengthened, especially through democratic consultations. I understand that there has been a bottom-to-top dialogue—starting at the municipal level and involving the broadest range of non-Government and people’s organizations.

Broad grassroots participation has always been effective in percolating ideas and issues for decision-making. Your recommendations as based on experience shall be relevant and responsive to the pressing problems facing our overseas contract workers and their dependents.

I am, of course, speaking of fundamental problems like those related to recruitment and deployment, pre-employment assistance, on-site services, crisis intervention, repatriation, and postemployment livelihood programs.

Resolving these problems requires the highest form of cooperation and coordination, not only among those agencies within the Labor Department, but also among concerned Cabinet departments. I am happy to note that this has been ably demonstrated in several instances, the latest of which was the crisis in Yemen, where we were able to repatriate hundreds of our workers through a speedy inter-Governmental effort backed by foreign-based non-Government assistance.

The lessons we learned from this operation are quite clear, as they are applicable throughout the entire range of our endeavors: we must close ranks, act decisively and network effectively with our partners, whether they are foreign governments or non-Government entities, here and abroad.

Challenges at home

Illegal recruitment continues to victimize a large number of our people. The problem must be attacked at the grassroots, where it has become widespread and prevalent. I therefore seek the cooperation of our Local Government units in institutionalizing anti-illegal recruitment mechanisms, with the involvement of our overseas contract workers through their organizations.

Beyond this, basic challenges we still face concern matters of welfare here at home: livelihood, shelter, education, health and nutrition. Families of overseas contract workers are not isolated from these realities. They may be a notch higher than the poor in terms of income, but they share the same anxieties and concerns, on top of the anguish of separation from their loved ones for extended periods.

That is why Government, like grandparents or foster parents, has much to do relative to the needs of the families who are left behind.

It is in this spirit that I direct the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to intensify its program on reintegration, particularly its livelihood packages in the areas of financing and technical assistance. Efforts should be exerted to develop a strong domestic economic environment to encourage overseas contract workers to engage in livelihood enterprises here at home.

In the same direction, I urge the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to reinvigorate its efforts toward setting up fully integrated communities of overseas contract workers that would incorporate a whole system of social, economic and public service components.

Community system

I am speaking not merely of a housing program, but of a community system that would match skills with employment opportunities in the same area, provide downstream, part-time jobs for wives and young ones in the home, and productivity training right where the workers and industries are located.

For the purpose, I call on the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to fast-track the implementation of the housing program and provide the funding to bridge the needs of the overseas contract workers in coordination with other agencies of Government.

This should serve as a showcase of vibrancy and self-sufficiency spearheaded by our overseas workers and their families—a model of productivity, discipline, bayanihan at pagkakaisa in a single community.

I order the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to speed up the economic feasibility and sustainability studies that are necessary to give life to this concept. Let us go one step higher than the usual dole, loan or privilege programs. Let us shoot for the long-term, basic programs of self-reliant, cooperative enterprise.

Finally, let us put our overseas contract workers at the forefront of all these endeavors. They have the dynamism, the commitment and patriotism to make it work.

Let this concept be the cutting edge of all our priorities— like the campaign for overseas contract worker registration, broader decentralization of services in our regions, more comprehensive training activities, and increased capability building within the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Right to development

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration should continue to bolster its streamlining program. We need a lean and mean organization. Formidable challenges loom on the horizon.

I believe it is also fair to speak of a human right to development—the right of the people, first, to improve the quality of their lives, and second, to achieve sustainable development for the benefit of future generations.

Today, more than ever, we must strive to emphasize this right alongside the cherished freedoms enjoyed by our people.

The right to development is essentially a right to dignity—a right to find one’s place in the overall scheme of national greatness. In this, our overseas workers must be at the vanguard, and it is our common responsibility to place them there, together with the entire cast of heroic nation-builders.

Overseas employment will remain a major pillar of national development. And it will remain a tool for economic diplomacy and amity with other nations.

Yet, as I have said in the past, we must plan and look forward to the day when our country shall have gained enough economic strength to bring our workers home and reward them with commensurate benefits for their labors.

Distant though it still may be, that day is coming. Already, progress is beginning to stir in our country. The economy is moving with vigor. The energies of the nation are gathering with might. We are on the brink of record and sustained growth in our country.

And this is all because we have pulled together as one people.

We must all join hands in anticipating that day when our workers can come home to join their families, for no Filipino would want to be separated from his loved ones for so long.

We must aspire to a future where Filipinos have jobs in their own country—well-paid jobs close to home and family. This is a goal to which we must dedicate our will and effort.

Until then, however, overseas employment will be, and must be, an important part of our public policy and a pillar of the economy.

For this, I once more salute our overseas contract workers and their persevering families.

And for looking into their welfare, I commend the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for a job well done.