The answer to your question is simple. These cabinet officials DO NOT KNOW how it is to work in a foreign country. It is beyond their experience. They have comfortable lives here, own their houses in gated communities and send their kids to exclusive elitist schools.

Not even a million of their junkets can equate to the experience of living and working overseas.

I should know. I have experienced it.

Ang dugo at pawis at hirap na dinadanas natin ay mapunyaging nakaimbak sa sinapupunan ng kinabukasan ng ating bansa - buhay taya dangal ang katumbas suong panganib ‘di alingtana, mahal sa buhay taguyod adhika, gising ang diwa nagmamanman sa sariling bansa.

Our governments officials should heed the statement written on the wall - CHANGE! Signed by the OFW’S blood and Tears.

Bangon bayan ko!

it’s not true that we don’t get taxed. when i earn 100$ here, the government takes away 33$. when i send the money back home, ralph recto’s e-vat gets his own shark bite.the peso’s not strong. it’s just that the green buck’s weak. we don’t get better jobs here. the salary equation ends up good because we work our as$%s off 12 hours a day and sleeps 4 hours a day.

Vox Populi:

I am one of those people who believes that the rise in GDP is really nothing more than all of our consistent remittances (http://reynaelena.com/2007/05/26/is-the-peso-really-gaining-some-strength/).

I also asked my readers what their reaction to this proposed tax on OFW remittances:(http://reynaelena.com/2007/05/28/de-la-salle-university-study-taxation-of-ofw-remittance/).

Sorry for the promotion, but I thought your readers would find it amusing to read what they wrote.

OFW, you don’t deserve a kick in the teeth. Someone very clever found a way to suck your blood. You know what they do to heroes, don’t you?

Diaspora, a blessing or a curse?

It’s disconcerting that Filipino Officials milk the OFW’s like they do most Filipinos who are working hard to put food on the table and send their kids to school. A strong peso means less buying power for the dollar. Besides, the strength of the peso can only be felt among the rich who can buy more houses, cars, etc. Where are the middleclass and the poor in all tasting the strength of the peso “kuno”?
Prices of basic commodities respond to the price of gasoline, not the strength of the peso in the Philippines.

whatever!

i can’t do anything about them politicians. I cant do anything about the exchange rate USD-PHP and the buying power of the PHP, it’s the market forces that are at work–the law of supply and demand, now that’s economics. I’m an OFW. And i can’t do anything if the government will decide to tax my income. Because the law of economics is not only about supply and demand of goods and services but also about government spending. To jump-start a sluggish economy, government plays a very big role, and that is they have to spend. In forms of infrastrucure, basic govrnment services like keeping peace and order, providing basic health services, free primary and secondary public education, roads and bridges, projects, etc. When construction workers, teachers, soldiers and policemen, health workers go to work and recieve their pay, and when suppliers start to deliver goods for projects, then the economy will start to roll. The domino effect will start. And one of the ways for the government to be able to increase its spending is to increase its revenue through taxation.

I’m not against taxation, in fact i’m pro taxation because i understand a bit how macro economics work. The only thing is a lot of workers in the Philippines have their incomes go un-taxed. Like the Big Mall’s salesladies whose status are only temporary for six months. The government can’t tax the income of a temporary worker. Revise the law to protect the employees and revisit the law where an employer has the prerogative to change employees every six months. Then see how the incomes of salesladies in big malls will rise thru the years until they will reach the bracket where they have to pay income tax. Not only that, their employers will have to pay their SSS and PAG-IBIG contributions so as at least they have something, no matter how small it is, when they retire.

Therefore the government must revisit the law. There must be a criteria for a company to appeal to the government to change employees every six months. If a company or corporation is worth in the order of hundreds of millions, then its time for that company or corporaton to give back to its beloved country, in the form of permanent employees and honest tax remittance.

This is only one of the possible examples. There are a lot more, where employers maximize their profit through regular change of employees thus avoiding to give yearly pay increase, bonuses, benefits, pay their SSS and PAG-IBIG contributions, etc etc. The law is deeply flawed. It was written to protect the interest of the business man. It needs to be ammended and have to be re-written to protect the interest of the whole country.

The government also needs to be genuinely fair to all its citizens, whether rich or poor, common worker or an airline owner, in collecting tax. They must collect what lawfully belongs to them, without prejudice to social status or power.

The government also needs to regulate the influx of moneyed foreigners e.g. koreans–settling in the country. Because they have money they can buy anything they want at any cost. Now that’s a big contributor to inflation. Moneyed Koreans, families of OFWs, the rich businessman, the corrupt-thus-moneyed goverment official and the ever-increasing population. That’s where the demand for goods and services come from, which drive up prices to astronomical levels.

As for me, what to do? I’ll just do what a normal citizen would do. Work here abroad. Send money back home. Save and build my capital so that i can invest and take some very little share from the growing economy. I can’t do anything about the country, but i can do something with my own life. If another fellow would think the same, and another, and yet another, and yet still another and so on…who knows our country could get out from the muck it is deeply stuck in.

By the way, I didn’t feel belittled in anyway.

God bless The Philippines!

Of course these cabinet members (Mr. Neri, etc.) should back-up their boss (PGMA), that our economy is improving “daw”. Hope that the strenght/power of OFW would again make the difference, and this time in selecting our future leaders.

Dapat mag sakripisyo!! just send half of your usual remittances in the next 3 months to prop up the peso… Enlist against OFW taxation!!!

1. Leandro Zamora
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
. . .

we need 1M OFW signatures!!!

[...] Vox Populi: Belittling overseas Filipinos [...]

UNITING THE OFWs?

THAT WOULD BE NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE. WE CAN NOT EVEN UNITE THE SENATE OR THE HOUSE THA WORKS UNDER ONE ROOF, NOR ALL OUR COUNTRYMEN LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES.

HOW DO YOU EXPECT ALL THE OFWs SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD TO BE UNITED, HAVE THE NUMBERS, THE POWERS AND GENERATE THE STRENGTH NEEDED TO BE HEARD AND BE A FORCE TO RECKON WITH, OR JUST BE STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

WE ARE NOT DISORGANIZED SIMPLY BECAUSE WE CAN NOT BE ORGANIZED IN THE FIRST PLACE. AND SAD TO SAY, THERE IS NO SLEEPING GIANT IN US THAT COULD BE AWAKEN EVEN BY THE STRONGEST KICK THEY COULD DELIVER.

I MAY SOUND RESIGNED TO THE PRESENT PREDICAMENT OF OUR COUNTRY, BUT I AM JUST BEING REALISTIC. BUT I AM NOT LOSING HOPE THOUGH, SO I MIGHT AS WELL JOIN YOU IN THE WISHFUL THINKING THAT THE OFWs MAY SOON ONE DAY HELP SHAPE NOT ONLY THE ECONOMIC STATUS BUT AS WELL CHANGE THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

LETS KEEP WORKING.

THOSE GOVT. OFFICAL OF OUR COUNTRY DONT HAVE HEART FOR THE OFW LIKE US , THEY JUST TELL ON T.V AND ADS , THAT OFW ARE ( BAGONG BAYANI)THIS IS THE TIME THAT OFW MUST UNITE AGAINST OUR CORRUPT GOVT. OFFICALS,

Its true that our income abroad is tax-free but the truth of the matter is that, service fee also applies to the dollars that we sent home. We don’t really get the full amount of money that we earn.

Local bank abroad will deduct service fee and once it reached our local bank, another service fee applies.

The upper half of this essay was ok. I agree to it. I am an OFW. The lower half is just plain political rhetoric coupled with a “personal economic” impossibility and a retarded one at that. How can you ask us to send just half of what we usually do for the next three months? Families will suffer more. Maybe for single people with not that much obligations back home.

Those figures, the GDP, inflation rates, foreign exchange rates, etc… are but numbers. Nothing has changed, life is still hard. Even for those who have families supporting them from offshore.

I would’ve believed the government’s claim that our economy is doing ok, if only my family has more food on their table.

While the blog entry faithfully narrates realities impacted by the improving peso, it is also good to listen to the other issues deptly espoused by JMY in the comments. Economics, micro and macro, is not only too complicated, but it is rather also an inexact science.

Thus, let’s allow the serious economists to make do with all the complicated analyses and just focus on what we individually can do. After all, many of the economic activities we now undertake, including being an OFW in a foreign country, were not initiated essentially because of some big purpose, but because we all wanted to provide for our immediate families. To provide them with financial resources so they can go on with their lives and hopefully plan for better lives.

Nice shot Voodzzz but not good enough. A robust currency is indicative of strong business confidence and only assisted by dollar remittances. Your high school teacher may not have been able to explain that. You leave the economics to the economist and just focus on your bank balance its simpler.

ang mga bwaya sa NAIA. nakingingikil din sa mga OFW.

I was once an OFW myself and I have seen for myself that Filipinos do not unite anywhere outside the Philippines. To each his own, very regionalistic, which surprises other nationalities when they come to observe that in a workplace, it is Filipinos against other Filipinos. I cannot forget the line of my Irish boss when he blurted out “what a disorganized minority”. To think that we Filipinos composed 80% of its workforce. So how can we ever unite all OFWs so that they can send a strong message to the government and give them the respect due them and acknowledge their economic contribution rather than paying mere lip service ?

Even more frustrating is listening to government bureaucrats glossing over the difficulty of families of OFWs due to the peso strengthening against the dollar. Perhaps they just want to please Malacanang so they have to sing along. What do they care anyway? You must see these bureaucrats in the consulates of their assignment and how they treat OFWs there with dripping condescension. Maltreated maids who have escaped and sought shelter at consulates never found comfort and protection, instead they were being interrogated in a very high handed manner, never mind when its obvious that the person was already severely traumatized.

Sigh…

Let us leave the taxation to the pro, yet in any angle it affects us, we are taxed 42.5% for every € we earned if it reaches the certain parameters of course. Thus, Filipinoes tend to try to earn more, do overtimes got two or three jobs and usually went home dead tired. These things are normal phenomenon for almost 80% of the so called OFW.

I do not care for whatever Neri says, he is anyway one of the IGNORAMOUS cabinet secretary, one of many who are SENSELESS in the flight of his countrymen overseas. The guy never shed affection to anyone but to himself and to PGMA of course.

Exports had died long time ago in our country since the Americans and Europeans had fully mechanized the production of beet sugar, since Koreans and Chinese prop their production in textiles industry since we became isolated geographically due to proximity even our electronics and other modern exports products are no match in prices due to expensive freight cost since…since…and this is not the barometer now to be used for measuring a county’s GDP. Are we not treated as export commodities?

Sooner or later the world trade will succumb to death in its own doing. The world is evolving, everything is changing, young people globally seems to have no interest in anything but drugs, alcohol, vices, computer games and many others that will give them temporal happiness. The values that were instil to us by our great grandfathers are now extinct, and that I would say happening globally. “Not only in the Philippines”.

We are now in the era of global change and our so called intellectuals in the government cannot even coped with it. We are now using the high speed computers while I think they are still using the slide rule which in fact never computes addition or substraction. It is used primarily in multiplication, logs and roots so forth.

I have only one question, what will happen if the so called OFW’s brings their families out of the Philippines and decided to live there permanently………..?

I think it’s time for overseas worker to think of keeping their money overseas for the meantime. Specially those working in middle east which most of the banks there doesn’t charge taxes, it might just be good to keep the left over rather than keeping it in the Philippines where we have unpredictable currency. I’m pretty sure those who keep US$ in RP doesn’t feel good this time and might be in the coming months ahead. And I suggest to use EU as it’s more stable than any other currency. Some of my friends has started withdrawing money from RP banks actually and minimizing their remittances. I’m not sure what would be the outcome but at least where keeping the value of our money by keeping it locally in the county where working at……

[...] Vox Populi: Belittling overseas Filipinos [...]

OFW salary basically went down by 20% with-in a year, means less buying power to the same $ amount sent home. Another is the prices of commodities (basic) is rising on daily to weekly basis.

An ordinary OFW who risk their life and limbs working away from their family will never understand, even how the government economist sing praises that the economy has indeed improving.

Who really is benefiting from this strong peso phenomenon we are experiencing right now? Im sure not the OFW and its dependents back home and im sure not the Filipino masa working locally since local prices is also souring like skyrockets.

If this is artificial somebody up there must be making bucks while people below is bleeding financially.

sad..

How about us overseas Filipinos, do we have the strength in numbers that would make Malacañang tremble? The latest estimate places the number of overseas Filipinos to about eight million. If on the average there are three voting members in each overseas Filipino family, the eight million will easily translate to twenty four million votes — enough to send a presidential candidate to Malacanang. Do we have the numbers? The answer of course is yes. Yes, we have the numbers, but we do not have the strength! vooodzzzz

====
Yes we do. We are just gathering our strength and checking each other’s stand. But for the common good of all, I am sure we can be united. I am not sending anyone money at home if they are not getting hungry. And if they are, I ask then why. But I will be setting up something that will remain long after I am gone. But on condition, the squatting liar in the Peoples’ palace by the putrid river has got to go. We’ve got to keep on trying that the rule of law is revered by every one and understand why. Otherwise going back to our Mother land is just a dream. And by the way, Fellows…stop spoiling your love ones in the Philippines. Use your savings where ever you are to earn you more money. Buy Microsoft stocks. It is still rising in value and it is paying regular dividends. But a hundred with automatic reinventment program. Then forget that you have it. But make sure you have your beneficiary indicated in your account so that just in case anything happen to you, the account will transfer to your beneficiary. Fidelity investment will notify him/her. But the number of your shares should increase through the years…that is the multiplier. So, get on and learn. Save for the mother country and let the Filipinos at home, specially the young politicians know that we are saving for them…if they will toe the line. Stop spoiling and sending money to loveones who are not using the money you send them to work for them for more income. Ask them to stop patronizing megamalls owned by chinese tycoons in the Philippines. It is not helping the poor. It is only helping the wannabees who are for the mother of all l…… by the putrid river.

Some tips of getting the most of your hard earned dollar.
1. Do your remittances every two months rather than every month. This will save you about 50% of the charges. The fewer times you send the more savings you get. Would be enough for a few beers when you head home for your vacation.
2. Check with your bank at home if it’s affiliated to your bank overseas. This would minimize charges. You normally pay for sending money, and the receiving bank if not affiliated charges as well(I’m not sure why they do it. It looks like one of those “only in the Philippines”.
3. Try also “Western Union”, they only charge the sender & would have your money collected in minutes. And they cost less than “door to door deliveries” & “bank to bank”(well if you’re not sending big amount of course).
4. Keep your excess money abroad rather than sending it home. And just have it at the end of your work contract. It would at least ease unnecessary demand for peso.
5. Have you tried using your ATM (visa & master) cards to withdraw money from your overseas bank? Banks in Philippines charges about 5$(check the bank) for every transaction. PCI bank let do 5,000.00 pesos for every withdrawal. Other banks I think are just 4,000.00. So if you just sending small amount it would be cheaper to use your ATM (so send your ATM rather than your cash…if you trust your other half..LOL).
6. Going home for holiday/vacation? Always buy duty free goods from your country of origin. They are proven to be cheaper than country of destination.

I believe no other people can help us except ourselves. So please do your part.
May god keep us safe & give us strength to keep our sanity intact while working abroad

To Sec. Neri,

Bakit kami pang mag OFWs ang may utang ma loob for not being taxed by the government.

Our hard earned money is derived from the foreign country. I don’t know any justifiable reason if the Philippine government will still tax us OFWs. Ang gobyerno nga ng Pilipinas ang dapat na tumanaw ng utang na loob sa mga OFWs. ang OFWs nga ang backbone of the Philippine economy.

Do I have to mention about the sad tragedies of the OFWs while working abroad. Huwag na at baka magkulang pa ang front page ng Inquirer.net.

The government calls us the heroes of the new generation. Totoo ba ito. Actually we are not heroes. We are victims of ineptitude, corruptions in the government etc. Tapos, kami pa ang may utang na loob for not being taxed.

Utang na loob!

ganyan talaga, ang punong hitik sa bunga, maraming langgam na pula.

marami kaseng tao na porke nasa posisyon, porke hindi nakadanas ng hirap e hindi na isinasaalang-alang ang mga sakripisyo ng iba. kala mo mga estudyanteng biglang binigyan ng suprize quiz na kung ano nalang ang pumasok sa mga kokote e ‘yun na kagad ang isinagot. hindi na nag-isip.

kala ko natapos na dun sa dating “taxing OFW” dilemma, eto na naman ang isa…

I cannot imagine how can this guy (Sec. Neri) said that. I don’t think we OFWs deserve this kind of treatment. After all of our hardwork and diligence only for us to send money back home, I cant see any sign of recognition coming from the government aside from not being taxed which is for sure is unwilling for them to do for us.