Filipinos are synonymously being referred to as Transnationals with 3,000 Filipinos leaving their homeland, the Philippines a year. That’s equivalent to more than one million Filipinos leaving the country a year.
Why do they leave?
Majority of Filipinos who leave the Philippines are not tourists, rather they leave the country to seek opportunities. Very few opportunities for employment exist in the Philippines. 7 out of 10 students who graduate are unemployed. 3 out of 10 generally compete with the rest of the labor market and previous unemployed out-of-school students. Most do not get a job related to their field of study. When the intellectuals and workers can’t find jobs in their homeland, they seek work outside.
Modern Day Heroes
The former president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says its a sacrifice that must be recognized as Modern Day Heroes. The Filipino migrants are known as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The Philippine economy is held together by the hard work of these migrants. Yet, these very same migrants are taxed heavily for the application and testing process prior to leaving, they are taxed in the airport, and their remittances are taxed as well. More often then naught, they have been modern day slaves.
Many migrant Filipinos also suffer from discrimination and violence from being abroad on top of being homesick. Pinays get sexually molested. The U.S. military is partially to blame for some of those incidents. Adam Corolla’s comments about the Philippines’ doesn’t exactly help. In the Mid-East, some Filipinos are enslaved inside of their employers house. Sometimes the Filipino gets executed without the help of the consulate general.
With the rise of Ethnic Tensions in the United States since 9/11 to current day Juan Crow laws (see Arizona’s recent anti-immigration, anti Ethnic Studies ban) should Filipinos really leave their country in midst of danger?
Indeed these Modern Day Heroes should be recognized as the former president mentioned, how can we protect them from the dangers of a foreign land?
What is Solution?
The Philippines owes it to their people to nationalize their job industries to provide quality jobs. There are so many brilliant and hard working people forced to leave to provide for their families, this doesn’t have to be the case. The newly elect, President Aquino should use his mandate to win the hearts of the people.
There are so many raw and natural resources that the Filipino people can enjoy. The dams have enough power to power the whole Philippines so why charge ridiculous power rates. At times, the power bill at the Philippines is more expensive then the ones here in the United States. With so many poor people, who can afford it? Drop the profits? Profits only benefit the manager. Spread the cost savings to the people or use that money to invest in better infrastructures and jobs instead of paying the executives. Invest in solar clean power. This one is a no brainer, when there are droughts, solar power should replace the energy lost from the energy garner from dams.
Roads needs to start from the farthest communities inward. These are the most poverish areas that suffer the most. Education needs to also be nationalize as well as the language. The former president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, made english the national language. Okay, this isn’t America and it shouldn’t be a colony of America. The people have their right to speak their native dialect with a national language being developed (Filipino).
Last but not least, the majority of the Filipino Population are land tillers, Peasants, but they’re landless. They work the land and pay land owner’s “rent”. Sometimes rent can be as high as 50% of all your work. Today, we know that as stealing. The President elect, Noy Noy promised to go after thieves. He’s going to have a tough time bringing down his own family who are responsible for the Hacienda Lucieta Massacre in 1995. Once land is redistributed out, the feudal practices of the past should fade away with time as culture starts changing. Migrants won’t be forced to leave and society will progress
My little book 
Leave a comment