Vote 2010 Presidential Series

According to the January 2010 issue of the Current Labor Statistics, a quarterly study published by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration was able to deploy 1.2 million Filipinos from January to November of 2009. About 76.8 percent of them were land-based while the remaining 23.2 percent were sea-based.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that OFWs remitted 14.3 billion US$ from January to October 2009. Of this amount, 80.4 percent or US$ 11.5 billion came from land-based workers while the remaining 19.6 percent or US$ 2.8 billion were sent by sea-based workers. The US remained the top senders with 7.6B US$ followed by those based in Europe and the Middle East.

During the recent Vote 2010 presidential round-up, candidates were asked if they consider OFW deployment a problem or a boon for the economy.