BEA, OFW’S AND PINOY BIG BROTHER

“As an avid fan of Pinoy Big Brother, I am constantly glued to the television hours after work and school. I am always in track for updates about the show. Needless to say, I am a PBB-fanatic. From the time I laid my eyes on the launching until the big night of the big four.”

BEATRIZ deserves to be a winner. Beatriz Saw emerged the big winner lbecause of overseas Filipino workers around the world and their families throughout the country. She has been an epitome of our modern society where members of several families are far from each other basically because of lack of job opportunities this country can offer.

Seeing Bea in the boob tube reminds me one serious and often taken for granted issue- our OFW’s. They have collectively emerged as ”the goose that lays the golden egg,” bringing into the country some P7 billion in earnings per year.

The unstable economic and political situation in the Philippines is one of the major causes why most educated and highly skilled Filipinos prefer to work abroad. Bea’s father is one of our million OFWs.

For pessimists, Filipino workers do not see any hope from their leaders to achieve prosperity for the country. Most of our leaders in the Philippines are horsing around in dealing with the country’s economic development and growth.

Working abroad does not always give full beneficial returns for each of the Overseas Filipino Workers. Some may be very lucky to have kind employers but some may not. Some can get the perfect job that they really wanted, others cannot. Some gets high paying jobs, some do not. Some Overseas Filipino Workers have the opportunity to bring their families with them but some do not. Despite having an absent dad, an OFW in Taiwan, Bea seems to have grown into a good person — something the eight million OFWs all desperately hope for their own children even in their absence.

Rising to be a successful OFW could be by chance or by “Divine Intervention.” Most of the time, applicants would have to pay for exorbitant placement fees and other unnecessary fees prior to his departure for work abroad. Recruitment agencies, licensed or unlicensed, take advantage of poor job applicants who want to work overseas. Although our Labor Code has provisions on recruitment, placement agencies could still get away with it leaving these “hopefuls” take-it-or-leave it deals.

But the Philippine government insists that most Filipino migrants are matched with overseas jobs by agents, who charge the migrants fees that are regulated by the government. There were 960 licensed recruitment agencies "in good standing" in 1998, up from 884 in 1997. In some cases, employees of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation operate recruitment and travel agencies.

But such is a known fact that our qualifications and experiences are oftentimes not recognized abroad. You may be an engineer in the Philippines but abroad you’d just be a cable man, a warehouse man or a laborer. You may still be in a construction or building environment, but your job is not what you wished for. Even our doctors are nurses abroad.

The Department of Labor and Employment reported that 755, 684 land and sea based Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) were sent to 182 destinations worldwide in 1998, up from 747,696 in 1997. The number of land-based workers was 562,384 in 1998, up from 559,227 in 1997, while the number of sailors rose to 193,300 in 1998, up from 188,469 in 1997. Most of the land-based migrants were rehires: 223,589 were going abroad for the first time.

Bea’s father and the million OFWs have bailed their families and the country out of economic difficulties and greatly boosted our gross national product (GNP). And for that feat, the government has officially called overseas Filipino workers (OFW) as "modern heroes." Such recognition is heartwarming. But many OFWs still live in harsh realities and not in fantasy world. Hence, our government needs to give them more protection and assistance. Better working conditions and more social legislation benefits, amnesty and speedy repatriation should be worked out in appropriate cases.

Greater protection and assistance should be extended by our embassies and consulates abroad, as allowed by international law, especially when our OFWs end up victims of illegal recruitment, maltreatment, other forms of abuses and worse, rape or murder. We should not allow another Flor Contemplacion, Sarah Balabagan and similar tragedies to happen without raising a questioning voice or a protesting finger.

Watching Pinoy Big Brother brought a lot of realizations for my part. I have come to distinguish reel from real. Indeed, Bea represented a grateful child of an OFW, gave justice to the hard work of his parents and manifested genuineness in character fitted to be a role model to every Filipino youth.

Reality television shows such as PBB, wasn’t bad after all, It is not just the plight of Bea this country has made us realize but the numerous “Bea’s” who are still with high hopes that through his father and the many OFWs, this country will rise from poverty.

Sources: www.ofw-connect.com

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