The true value of OFWs

Willy Arcilla is the image of the consummate Filipino executive OFW. He speaks with a neutral accent-slash-zero twang, is always in a suit (at least during the last couple of times I saw him in a public event), attentive all the time, and hands out his calling cards in that endearing Asian way (holding the lower left and right corners with forefinger and index finger).

I first met him at a press conference raving about Vietnam’s economic miracle. Here was yet another Filipino who had the skills this country needed, but loved another country other than his own, I thought. I was wrong.

Willy is one of the growing number of Filipinos who have gone against the tide of migration at a time thousands move out on a daily basis. And as regional manager of executive search firm ZMG Ward Howell, he is now helping other professional OFWs find well paying and challenging jobs right here in the country.

He wrote this in an article he submitted to the Inquirer about the true value of the OFW:

The value of OFWs is not $12 billion per year, which translates to a paltry $100 per month assuming a combined 10 million OFWs & émigrés. Rather, the REAL economic value of our OFWs is reflected in the National Income Accounts of their host countries, not to mention tax revenues they pay diligently. This holds true whether they render services in medical health in North America or in architecture and construction in the Middle East; whether they pilot the world’s jetliners or ocean-going vessels; and whether they are investment bankers in Singapore or care for the children of investment bankers in Hong Kong. Arguably, the real economic value of OFWs and émigrés is vastly more substantial than the monthly remittance of $100. Imagine therefore if the country can benefit directly from OFW contributions to their host nations. The value of our GDP must be easily double if not nearing triple our official records.

These 10 million are obviously among the best and the brightest Filipinos for them to compete globally – all of whom have come to realize that they can fetch higher compensation for their world-class skills and talent that go unrewarded locally. Those who claim that local companies cannot afford to pay higher salaries must remember the consolidated net income of the country’s top 1,000 corporations reached P500B in 2005 alone – not to mention the cumulative earnings in the years before and the average 25% growth for the past 2 years. By attrition therefore, the country has been left with 2nd-tier talent, which, coupled with the deterioration in the quality of education that produces unqualified and unemployable college graduates, is resulting in a loss of competitiveness. It may not be presumptuous to say that OFWs and émigrés may also possess stronger values in terms of work ethic and competitiveness, discipline and perseverance, integrity and accountability – by virtue of the demands of working in a foreign land amidst an increasingly competitive global marketplace – and therefore, we have not only been suffering a serious brain drain, but perhaps more worrisome is a Values Vacuum.

As a result, what we have been left with is a nation of consumers because our productive workers drive the wheels of industry of their host countries (instead of ours), remitting enough only for their families’ domestic consumption. Therefore, while most developing countries are enhancing the intellectual capital of their people like high-tech India (not just call center agents); achieving surpluses in food production and becoming a global agricultural powerhouse like Vietnam; or strengthening their manufacturing muscle like China, the “superfactory” of the world, the Philippines has become the “supermarket of the planet”, content with buying virtually everything from the world in shop-till-you-drop mall sales or amusing ourselves with being the world’s leading cellphone texters.

When I met blogger Reyna Elena late last year, she told me how she longed to come back home. She missed the camaraderie here, the sounds of Manila, the lifestyle, the food and definitely the proximity to family. But her plans to come back for good have not materialized because of lack of opportunities here. The problem of reintegration is very real, and very much a personal financial concern. But Willy, a headhunter by profession, insists that the jobs here are waiting and companies have the capacity to pay comparable rates.

Does this mean it’s time to come home? The government’s incentive system encourages Filipinos to seek opportunities abroad, but from what Willy is saying, it seems there may be merit in,at the very least, considering coming home. I have never been an OFW because I chose to raise my children here. I can’t say that I know how it feels or that I know what OFWs should do. But the message from people like Willy is, that certainly, it may be time to let the Philippines enjoy the true value of the world-class OFW, right here in our very own shores.

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