GLIMPSES
By Jose Ma. Montelibano
Does anyone know how much money Filipino-Americans send to their families in the Philippines? I am told it is $8 billion annually or about P340 billion. I am not sure if Filipino-Canadians are included in this amount. Either way, the amount is staggering.
Does anyone know how many Filipino-Americans remit money home? Well, the latest available study of Asian-Americans pinpoint Filipinos somewhere at the top with 52% of them sending money to the Philippines.
Does anyone know how many balikbayan boxes are sent to the Philippines by Filipino-Americans? I don’t, I simply do not have the data. But the Bureau of Customs may, and, of course, the forwarders doing business in the US if they can consolidate their business volumes. And then, there are more balikbayan boxes sent whenever disaster strikes.
Does anyone know how much Filipino-Americans earn in the United States? I don’t, but I have a good idea. Using the per capita income of Americans, and knowing Filipino-Americans earn just as much if not more, then we can safely assume that it is upwards of $160 billion.
Does anyone know how much Filipino-Americans spend to live in the US? In the year 2000 or 2001, a marketing study mentioned that Filipino-Americans spend $50 billion a year. That figure is estimated to be between $60-70 billion today.
Does anyone know how much the IMF, the World Bank, the ADB, and the US Exim Bank lend to the Philippines every year on the average? I don’t, but anyone can ask the Central Bank or get the figures from government reports. I am willing to conclude, though, that it cannot be more than $2 billion annually.
What’s the point of all these questions?
We have our own people, Filipino-Americans, who left in search of a dream they could not see becoming true in the motherland. They struggled as strangers in another land, as minorities competing against a powerful mainstream, and decades later finally making it.
The cost was steep – separation, homesickness, cold winters, and often enduring being regarded as less than equal. Beyond the cars and houses and modern way of life, we often do not see the pain and loneliness.
And too often, too, we do not understand the longing they bear quietly for their people, their homeland. We see the material trappings but not what we take for granted – being where we are, the natural belonging with one another and the only land Filipinos can call their own.
Why don’t we make it easy for them to have their reunion? Why don’t we court them to visit, to stay, maybe even live out the rest of their lives here? Why don’t we roll out the red carpet so they can invest here, or give outright grants to the poor we do not know how to take care of anyway? Why not serve the needy and weak with their time, talent and treasures?
Why do we bow and curtsy to financial institutions whom we do not wish to be submissive to anymore? Why don’t we reach out to our own people in America and explain how a few billion dollars a year, as investment in our own people, land and future, can change history with them as the heroes they can be?
We spend so much effort and resources to reach out to other peoples and nations, yet give nowhere enough appreciation and importance to sons and daughters of our motherland. Ask the Central Bank and our Finance officials what $8 billion does to our economy? Ask the Secretary of Tourism what millions of Filipino-American tourists can mean, not just with their visits and expenses here, but more so with their promoting the Philippines. Ask the Secretary of Foreign Affairs just how an awakened Fil-Am sector can facilitate a truly friendly relationship with the US?
We can go down the line of departments and ask them how 4 million Filipino-Americans who earn more than $160 billion a year and send $8 billion of that to their families in the Philippines can do to make them achieve their goals faster and better. These are our flesh and blood, patriots in exile, comrades in the war against poverty, fellow dreamers for the future generations.
While we are at it, we can ask the Professional Regulatory Commission and the Department of Health why they are not rolling out the red carpet for Filipino-American doctors, nurses and volunteers who spend their own money and time to care for the poor through their medical missions that the PRC and the DOH cannot serve. We have to ask these agencies what they have done, and plan to do, with maybe twenty million Filipinos begging for medical treatment because they never had it.
The most important question that must be answered before the nation – why are Commissioners of PRC making it difficult for Filipino-Americans to help? If they cannot anymore attend to the poorest for lack of funds, the DOH should beg Filipino-American doctors to please arrange for more medical missions.
I plead to our brothers and sisters in America not to give up on our people, especially the poor. I plead for them to remember how they, too, stayed faithful to their dream against all odds. They must subordinate their distaste and revulsion for a bureaucratic attitude and give the welfare of the sick among the needy higher priority. They must not allow the poor to suffer by letting the PRC get away with the worst kind of behavior in a moment of great change in our country.
I ask Filipino-Americans to let their love for the motherland and the common good to be their highest motives and greatest joy to serve. If officials in the PRC can betray the public trust so casually, Filipino-Americans can teach them about generosity, humaneness and patriotism. Please prepare for thousands of medical missions and defy the selfishness of regulatory officials with your determination to care and share. If you can find the heart for the poorest among our race, and show it, many more among us may yet learn to do the same.
You are a beautiful dreamer, Mr. Montelibano. Do you think we have carefree life here in America?
As I grow old here in america, my dream of coming back home is so intense. My children knows nothing of my homeland. They are Americanized. The upbringing here is so much different than we have at home. Here they lack respect and very independent. So I felt going back home to be at peace.
Congratulations on your well thought out article. I am truly deeply touched. I honestly looked to heaven and recited one very taimtim na taimtim na dal para sa ating mg naghihirap na kababayan. More power to you. and Cheers!
Please make sure that the people of PRC and DOH get to read this beautiful piece. They really do need to keep an open mind and let their sights and visions not blurred by ulterior motives. Medical and surgical missionaries not only bring help to those in need but also add to the nation’s revenue from the dollars that they spent. Wake up, people!
Well said…but there’s more to life overseas than you can imagine, the good and the bad.But the best thing really is the Filipino spirit of love and concern/care to send money back home even if it means sacrificing some perks/luxuries on oneself but bringing smiles and hope for loved ones.Yes, I agree that gov’t should be more appreciative and reciprocal to expats’efforts towards a better country.
Dear Mr. Perry Diaz,
May I share some of my thoughts with you …
Have a GREAT day.
Sincerely
Arturo R. Carlos
arcarlos34@yahoo.com
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On our Government’s Financial policies on FX rate and Inward Remittances
Our Inward remittances this year has increased to beyond $20 Billion[i]. These remittances are funds sent by most of the Filipinos who went abroad because we did not have jobs and opportunities for them here. This decision was at tremendous personal sacrifices. They send these funds back home, because in the same spirit of sharing and caring, they find those whom they left behind, still in dire poverty. We were not able to lift-up their families and improve their living condition.
Because of the origin and purpose of these funds, I believe that these funds have unique immutable moral rights imputed in them: “buhat sa hirap ng pinag sapalaran sa ibang bansa”. Those charged with the responsibilities to choose the applicable FX rate to use when converting their remittances from US Dollars to Philippine Pesos, must do so cognizant of the moral values therein.
Since mid 2005 to date, those in our Government responsible for determining the FX rate, have chosen to appreciate the Peso/US$ FX rate by almost 25%.
Instead of giving them more for their dollars, have we short changed our remitters and their beneficiaries out of more than Php 260 Billion this year alone? These are taken from the direct “poverty generators” and spent by the Government. How effective are they in directing these against POVERTY?
In Mexico they have a 3×1 program[i] where each of their Municipal, State and Federal governments effectively triples [3x] the amount of money sent by hometown associations (HTAs) i.e. their $1 translates to $4,[or if the FX rate was say, Php42/$, then the peso value would have been 42x4 = Php168/$.] IF Mexico could do that, why did our Government do the exact opposite? Why don’t we have similar programs as Mexico does? Or have we ran out of innovate ways to “level the playing field”?
It is not enough to say that we use the most favorable foreign conversion rate when the question should be; how did we determine the FX rate to begin with?
· Purchasing power parity can never and will never be able to capture the essential elements of a true parity since it does not incorporate the social and ethical dimensions when comparing the economies.
· The BSP reported that they have incurred tremendous losses in preventing the appreciation of the pesos[ii]. There are other ways to maintain stability and growth as mandated in the new BSP charter. They reported huge losses in their reserves in preventing the appreciation of the peso. These again only show how, even in the accounting treatment of profit and loss, it is meaningless in judging performance. Why not simply ask if our choice is morally just? Take the high ground; use the Rotarian 4-way test. Who are the “winners”? and who are the “losers”?
There is No edict that could possibly justify the decision to use an exchange rate that is so disadvantageous to our POOR. There can be NO justifications for choosing to revalue our currency FX rate to today’s rates on the excuse that we were merely abiding by some agreements that we have with the IMF, or the World Bank or following whatever economic theories. We are vested with rights to determine the FX rate. The FX rate we chose placed the remitter and his beneficiary at a great loss to the benefit of the rich and affluent members of our society.
Are these not the very same institutions, with all their high sounding economic theories, the very same ones that are now responsible for the very world’s financial crisis that we face today?
The FX we receive from remittances differs from those from our export industries; the manufacturing, BOP service providers, mining and tourism industries. These are the direct and net personal earnings from our indigents.
Forget about the approbation we receive from foreign communities and institutions. When we gave up the Gold Standard and accepted the mandate to manage our currency [choosing the FX rate included], it was suppose to be for the greater good, and not for the moneyed few. We must not betray this trust, for by the choice of the FX rate, we legitimize the exchange of their FX money with fiat money. Legitimized short-changing the remitters & their beneficiaries.
By allowing our FX to appreciate, we have also penalized ALL our Exporters and dollar earners?
· Without that appreciation of the peso, would they not have captured a larger export market, increased their profitability, and likely has increased the salaries of their employees?
· Our Tourism Industry, that alone benefits the widest and remotest Filipinos, would have grown faster. They would have captured and competed more aggressively with our Asian neighbors.
· Our GDP and employment would have increased.
· The appreciation of the Peso is simply ANTI-EMPLOYMENT, ANTI-INDUSTRIALIZATION and ANTI-FILIPINO. Why do we do it?
We are not advocating “beggar your neighbor” policy. All we are asking is for them to be more morally critical and sensitive of their mandated duties. Always ask who benefits and who loses as a result of their decision?
Even if all imported goods and services, like food, fuel, and raw materials, now cost much less due to the appreciated Peso FX rate;
· still and all, how much of these imports went only for the exclusive benefits of our more affluent society members?
· For their excessive conspicuous consumption – with impunity, they flaunt publicly their luxury, in stark view of the informal settlers whenever they drive pass the slums of our cities.
· They were able to buy FX at favorable rates. They made personal investments abroad. Unfortunately these investments contributed nothing to increase our GDP, or to our future FX earnings, much less generated local employment.
· There are many other ways to achieve a lower cost of imported essential food and fuel, for the use by our indigents.
How can it make sense to invest in IMF bonds[iii] when we have several millions in dire state of poverty? Why can we not give our POOR access to those funds at the yields [?] they expect from these foreign bonds? How much would those bonds earn us, in interest/year? If the Peso continues to appreciate and the US $ weakens further, what then happens to our investment in those bonds? How much would those bonds be worth at maturity? How much would it be worth in Pesos? Cam we afford those losses?
[i] http://www.sedesol.gob.mx/
These financed their local development projects (electrification, water, road paving and maintenance, housing infrastructure, educational and health projects, and town beautification, among others).