Ople’s mission

 There are so few decent and dedicated public servants in this country, and it’s too bad that one of them has gone back too early to her Maker.

It was no secret that Susan Ople’s battle with cancer made her hesitate to accept the appointment as the first migrant workers secretary. She leaves big shoes to fill in that new department.

Toots Ople said she would consider the department’s mission accomplished if there would be no more need for it, and Filipinos would seek employment overseas not out of necessity but because of free lifestyle choices.

As many of the tributes to her have pointed out, Toots dedicated her life to labor issues, particularly the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) phenomenon.

Filipinos have been working in other countries since the days of the Spanish galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico from 1565 to 1815. Some years ago when I visited Mexico, people told me that many of the Filipinos who worked in the galleons settled in that country. They said some of those Filipinos taught the Mexicans the distillation process that was later applied to make tequila and mezcal from the succulent agave. There’s a lot of Mexican influence in our culture, such as the annual Day of the Dead celebration. There are Mexican words in our national language (palengke is not Spanish but derived from the Mexican palenque).

When the Spaniards left, Filipinos went in droves to the new colonial power, the US. Many became farm workers in Hawaii and did not return to the Philippines.

Because of our colonial ties, Filipinos were able to study in the US and work there as professionals. Many opted for US citizenship, later petitioning their families, but many others also returned to the Philippines to practice their profession here. So this is not quite like the OFW phenomenon that we know.

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The OFW phenomenon as we know it has always sprung from lack of opportunities. It started when the first Marcos administration, which Ople’s father served as labor secretary, was running the economy to the ground.

Those were lost years when the Philippines plummeted from its standing as Asia’s second most progressive economy after Japan and became the regional basket case. The first OFW batches were construction teams deployed to the Middle East, which was rapidly developing thanks to the mighty petrodollar.

Filipinos eventually branched out to other jobs overseas, banking on skills, English proficiency and a level of literacy that at the time was not yet tanking along with the Philippine economy under the kleptocratic authoritarian rule of Marcos 1.0.

Later, even Filipinos with limited education and skills discovered a high demand in many countries for househelp. Even our teachers worked as maids in Hong Kong because the pay was higher.

This was also when reports of abuses began increasing. Toots Ople told us about some of the horror stories.

Dealing with such stories regularly undoubtedly shaped her belief that the end of the OFW phenomenon would mean that the country has become developed enough  to provide decent employment opportunities to its own people in their own land.

Creating that environment is not the task of the Department of Migrant Workers. Its mandate is to promote the welfare of OFWs, from recruitment to deployment to their proper treatment in the host countries.

Ironically, the OFW phenomenon has contributed to the entrenchment of the rotten status quo. The massive OFW remittances fuel consumption-driven growth and keep the economy afloat even during global slowdowns.

Those who benefit from the structural weaknesses and rent-seeking point to those rosy economy figures to argue against long overdue reforms.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it? OFWs’ significant contributions to the economy reinforce the circumstances that make the country unattractive for open competition and investments that generate meaningful employment, forcing Filipinos to seek decent jobs abroad.

Until this sorry state of the nation changes, leaving the Philippines for better opportunities overseas will continue to be The Filipino Dream.

And the job of the Department of Migrant Workers will never be done.

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THE BEST JUSTICE: The vanguard of opaqueness in government, the Office of the Ombudsman, has struck again, dismissing from public service with impressive haste, based on an anonymous complaint, Cesar Chiong as general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority and deputy GM Irene Montalbo, for trying to reorganize the anomaly-ridden MIAA.

Yesterday, the ombudsman also filed a watered down complaint of graft instead of plunder over three contracts for RT-PCR test kits worth P4.165 billion, which were awarded to Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp. at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

At least those indicted who are still in government were ordered sacked, including Warren Rex Liong, who was even promoted by Rodrigo Duterte from the graft-ridden Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management to overall deputy ombudsman. Also sacked was former PS-DBM head Lloyd Christopher Lao.

A graft complaint is bailable even after conviction by a trial court, as we have seen in the case of Imelda Marcos. (OK, so is plunder, if you have the right connections. Just look at Juan Ponce Enrile, who even sits as Marcos 2.0’s chief presidential legal counsel.)

Bail probably no longer matters at this point for several of the Pharmally personalities, who have long left the Philippines, according to former senator Richard Gordon.

Moral of these stories: if you’re going to steal in this country, you better steal big – big enough to afford the best justice that money can buy.

It’s one of the reasons why many Pinoys prefer to leave the country.