OFW experience: At what cost to family?

The bishops’ synod that opened in Rome Sunday is a Catholic event. But its results could sway secular governments and institutions. Two hundred hierarchs, catechists, and plain laymen are to tackle family-related issues in changing times. Not only hot items like birth control or same-sex marriage will be tabled, but also the role of families as building blocks of society. Pope Francis broke taboo three weeks ago in marrying 20 live-in couples, one with children. It hinted the direction of the two-week synod.

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Filipinos too can reflect on the OFW phenomenon in relation to the family. There are 11 million overseas Filipino workers – over a tenth of the population. In any family gathering of ten, one member is bound to be absent because working abroad. They supposedly boost the economy with the money they send home – a record $25.2 billion last year. But at what social cost – in incomplete or broken families?

The figures above show that OFWs on average each remitted $2,291 or P103,100 in 2013. That’s only P8,600 a month – barely enough for dorm, food, and transport fare of one OFW kid off to college in the big city. Un-included are the tuition and outlays for the OFW’s other children.

They leave the love of family for years, to serve foreign masters, likely cruel, in strange lands, likely war-torn, for that puny send-home?

Not all OFWs are penurious, some would say. Like, very gainfully employed are the 366,865 Filipino seafarers, one in every four worldwide, who remitted $4 billion last year. That’s $10,903 or P490,650 on average from each. The monthly P40,890 bought their families better food, clothing, shelter, health care, and schooling. Too, there are those who leave simply for independence and wanderlust.

Still, most OFWs work abroad because of no jobs in the homeland. They aim to buy the children happiness and the best education. Statistics tend to negate them, though. Years ago as head of a national association of colleges, Jose Rizal University president Vicente K. Fabella studied the impact of OFWs’ family separation. It appeared that one in every four OFW spouses separate. And up to two in five OFW children drop out of college because of lack of parental guidance.

The effect of parents’ departures on toddlers and pre-teens are worse. Moppet Cenizal Gonzales of Ugat Foundation says many teary mothers depart for overseas jobs without proper goodbyes. Some leave while the children are in bed, or promise to be back by dusk. Emotionally traumatized, the youngsters grow afraid of sleeping, or wait long hours every day by the house gate. There are those who, because simplistically told that mom or dad works abroad “for you,” blame themselves if the parents separate.

Cenizal-Gonzales’s group has a program called Panatag (tranquil, secure) helping a few hundred OFW families cope. But the number of those needing psychological soothing grows faster. About 190 OFWs depart every hour for overseas posting.

Success stories always warm the heart. Last week two Filipinas passed the Frankfurt state board, earning them licenses to high-pay work as registered nurses. The first to notch such merit, they actually hold bachelor’s degrees in nursing in the Philippines, but were first hired in Germany as orderlies. Last month 300 Filipina domestics in Hong Kong passed the Philippine licensing for teacher, their true profession. They can now return to work at newly hiked pay in public schools. But they’re only a wee fraction of the 170,000 struggling OFWs in the Chinese island.

Some OFWs never return. About 800 die abroad per year. Around 3,000 are languishing in prison – their lives and family dreams shattered.

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NBI Director Virgilio Mendez reacts to my piece the other week. I reported the agency’s leak of an unusually quick investigation of new NFA head Arthur Juan. This, while the predecessor’s alleged plundering and MRT-3 crimes by Liberal Party officers remain untouched. Excerpted due to wordiness:

“The President, through the Secretary of Justice, tasked the NBI to probe. So it comes as a shock to be accused of selective time frame in releasing the result. The Bureau strictly adheres to non-disclosure of any information to the public regarding matters pending investigation.

“The cases cited in your article are testament to what we have been doing all along. Here are the facts in the conduct of our investigation of the MRT and NFA (both alleging extortion): First, both involved public officials, necessitating their statements. Second, the MRT case involved several issues, not only of extortion but probable violation of other laws; thus, the need to secure and authenticate several documents. (Juan’s) case initially was whether there was bribery or solicitation but later was complicated by supposed transactions recorded by cellular phones. These matters along with other issues had burdened the investigations. This should not be interpreted as us delaying the release of our probes. The NBI concluded its investigation on the MRT case and forwarded its findings on 26 May 2014 to the SOJ and awaiting official release. Most of the questions raised in your column are addressed in the report. That the respondents were ‘cleared’ is inaccurate. With regard to the NFA case, the probe is far from over, contrary to the reported ‘preempted release’.”

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Mendez actually confirms my column: that the NBI probe of NFA’s Juan was surprisingly fast, only one month, and the report was leaked. In contrast, unfinished is the probe of Juan’s predecessor for bribery in mid-2013. Too, the probe of the $30-million extortion at MRT-3 took ten long months. So what’s his beef? I wish my uncle, NBI director Epi Velasco, were alive to tell Mendez of the agency’s heyday.

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