Stephanie (not her real name) looked a bit like a lost little girl, no different from her eight-year old daughter who transferred to my son’s school. Turns out that it was her first time to attend a school activity. She has been at sea on cruise ships for the last 15 years, going home only once a year – one of 230,000 sea-based Filipinos working abroad.
We had a lengthy and very interesting discussion about what it was like at sea for the past 15 years, starting from when she was a fresh graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management from a reputable school here in Metro Manila, up until she decided to get pregnant (but not get married) and now that she is waiting for her call to join the crew of another cruise ship.
Stephanie’s story amazed me, although it was not the first time I had heard of the challenges and experiences of Filipino sea-based workers. She told me how Filipinos earn anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 a month, bulk of which come from tips from passengers. She also described how Filipinos burn their money buying clothes, bags, laptops that they never get to use, mobile phones and other techie gadgets from different ports even when these could also be bought in the country at the same price or even cheaper.
Since Stephanie is an old hand on deck, she said she had seen how Filipino men were second only to the Japanese in generosity when they like women and would buy them anything they want – from diamond rings to laptops – whether or not they were married to someone else back in the Philippines. She also admitted that Filipinas win hands down when it comes to using their charm to get their hands inside men’s wallets, whether or not these were their husbands or boyfriends.
It seemed like a cruel world, but reality is reality. It was an eye-opener about the lives and sacrifices of our sea-based countrymen and their families. I have heard this kind of story told again and again by those who have resigned themselves to the fate of an OFW out at sea.
“Do you think your Filipino crewmates save money?” I asked her.
“They don’t. That’s why they come back year after year. When some of my younger relatives tell me that they want to follow me in my line of work, I don’t allow them. If you are not strong enough, this occupation will destroy you,” she said.
Stephanie says she has been saving money consistently recently, longing for the time when she can come home and attend more parent-teacher conferences and just spend time with her daughter. But she knows that it will be hard to find a job that will pay as much, so she is preparing to start a manning agency with her sister.
There may be others in this line of work whose experiences are different from Stephanie’s. I hope theirs is a story that can prove Stephanie and others like her wrong.
Doris Dumlao wrote an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer entitled “More OFW families save, invest money sent to them” and said that nearly half of households supported by overseas Filipino remittances are now investing for the future.
Based on the second quarter consumer survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine central bank), the number of overseas Filipino-supported households that allotted part of their remittances for various types of financial investments more than doubled to 48.6 percent from 21.9 percent in the first quarter.
One out of three households earmarked money for bank savings–also twice as big as the previous ratio.
This percentage rose to 31.4 percent in the second quarter from 14 percent in the first quarter and 15.7 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
Here are some of the other highlights of that article:
14.3% — now set aside money to buy a house, up from 6.1% in the previous quarter and 2.5% a year ago.
3% – of families now buy financial instruments, up from 1.8% in the previous quarter but lower than 4.5% in the same period last year.
5.1% — families that are saving for a motor vehicle, up from 1.6% a quarter ago and 3.5% a year ago.
The numbers are still very low. Who can tell when something is a trend or if they are just a string of numbers? Will the economist determine trends, or will the families themselves? Save more, spend less, stay grounded and focused. That’s the battlecry that would turn three months of growth in savings and financial consciousness into a trend. Good luck to us all.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I am an OFW working in KSA, Filipinos in Saudi fond to spend more, a jewelry shop attendant learned the pinoy language by interacting pinoy customers on a daily basis. I can say perhaps spending money this is one way coping up loneliness and homesickness.
Pinoy should learn the art of investing rather than spending on unnecessary things.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
[...] Salve. “Are OFW-supported families starting to save and invest?“. 17 June, [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 10:14 am
There’s hope for OFW’s. All they need is guidance in making sure their money works for them instead of them simply earn money.
I am trying in my own little way to help by putting a website where their needs are met. Where they can get the information they need in making investments that will help them retire early in life and help them adjust to life abroad. I hope that we all help our OFW’s because they are our modern day heroes.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:24 am
my first time abroad as a contract worker was in Saudi. In 4 years i worked there, the only investment i had was a 2000 sqm lot which at that time (1987) cost me only ~ P100K. I was young then but my mother was the one who insists on buying the said lot..as a souvenir of my hard work. Since then, i started buying lands (again with my mother’s keen eye on real estate investments), stock investments, contribute the maximum amount in my company’s pension fund, etc. Now the first lot i had is worth P5k/sqm. Not bad isn’t it? The important thing in buying land is location, location location.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Yes it’s true our OFWs have poured in billions of dollars in RP yet our poverty number/incidence in fact worsened even with record high remittances. Economically $$$$ helps but the unintended social consequences are immeasurable. I was not an OFW but had been a student abroad before and it’s true, you get to see how “loved” and popular you are by your relatives and friends, and did I mention, more relatives now that you have foreign money in your hand?They say that our labor market has worsened as well: there are more educated unemployed-probably because of reservation wages, meaning waiting to work abroad than here, or probably just lazy because remittances are coming monthly anyway. Sad to say most OFW families are still into conspicuous and ostentatious consumption up to now. As they say, there’s no place like home, so am staying put here, be with my family and help this country, than someone else’s country w/c is already developed anyway. Unless you already gave up on RP and changed your nationality-it’s an international human right to do so…