Marcos invokes bayanihan spirit, meaningful change

NEW JERSEY – Invoking the bayanihan spirit, President Marcos on Sunday called on overseas Filipinos to help achieve “meaningful change” back home, saying the nation needs them as it strives to attain economic development.

“Even if you are very far from the Philippines, I am telling you this. Your beloved Philippines still needs you, especially now,” Marcos said during a meeting with the Filipino community at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

“Our beloved motherland needs you. I stand here before you today to invoke the quintessential Filipino spirit, the spirit of bayanihan and to challenge each and every one of you to contribute to meaningful change back home,” he added.

Marcos urged overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to invest in the Philippines and to undertake projects that would benefit their countrymen. He encouraged them to buy condominium units and other real estate properties in the Philippines and to start their own businesses.

Marcos called on agriculturists abroad to assist in efforts to achieve food security, citing the need to prepare the Philippines for crises that may affect food supply like armed conflicts and pandemics.

Overseas workers can encourage their young relatives back home to take agriculture-related college courses, ask their families to take care of their idle lands and develop them for agriculture and plant ube (yam) and calamansi (Philippine lemon), which are in demand abroad but supply of which is very limited, the President added.

“Attaining food sovereignty is not impossible with your help. I count on our agriculturists, our specialists abroad to contribute to this endeavor. I call on you and other Filipinos overseas to invest in agribusiness ventures in the Philippines and become what they call now agripreneurs, yourselves, to help revitalize our countryside,” Marcos said.

The President likewise appealed to Filipino scientists, engineers and technical experts to return to the Philippines under the Balik Scientist program of the science department.

“Let us reverse the brain drain. Ibalik natin ang galing ng Pilipino sa Pilipinas (Let us bring back the talents of Filipinos to the Philippines). And help bring the Philippines to heights it has not reached before,” he said.

Marcos also urged teachers, doctors, nurses and other professionals in the US to continue sharing what they have learned when they come home.

Call for unity

Marcos also asked Filipinos to identify the things they can do for the Philippines as he reiterated his call for unity, one of his key messages during the 2022 presidential campaign.

“When you get home after this gathering, I would like for you to list down three things that you can do for your country and commit yourself to make them happen. We have a long and bumpy road, full of risks and perils ahead of us as we face this turbulent time in global history,” Marcos said.

“But as your President, I remain confident that with your three things, no matter how small they are, those three things will make us succeed if we all agree to unite and to work together... We cannot commit progress in our motherland if we are divided,” he added.

Marcos cited the key role of OFWs in the economy, saying their remittances helped support post-pandemic recovery efforts. Money sent home by expatriate Filipinos totaled $34.88 billion in 2021 from $33.19 billion two years ago, surpassing the previous record of $33.47 billion in 2019. About 40 percent of the remittances came from the US.

He also paid tribute to the Filipino nurses in New York who died taking care of COVID-19 patients.

According to Marcos, Filipino nurses make up four percent of all registered nurses in the US. A third of the more than 200 nurses who died from the virus were Filipinos. In New York City alone, at least 30 Filipino health care workers succumbed to the virus, Marcos said. – Delon Porcalla