RECORD REMITTANCES
The Philippines is one of the leading exporters of labour. According to the World Bank, the Philippines had the world’s fourth-highest remittance inflows in 2021. The following year, remittances broke records by making up 8.9 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, Saudi Arabi is the number one destination for Filipino workers. Combined with its neighbours, the Gulf countries host almost half of all 1.83 million overseas Filipino workers. The numbers are so many that the abbreviation OFWs is common parlance in Philippines.
Marcos has spent much of his time abroad since winning office, courting foreign investment from 13 countries in the last 12 months, with many of the Gulf states clearly in his sights. In January, he eyed breakthrough trade deals, admitting that the huge presence of Filipino labour would be crucial to his negotiating strategy.
Marcos can’t afford to lose the revenue from overseas workers. This is crucial to his claim in his speech of the Philippines having the “highest growth rate in 46 years”.
But without the US$32.5 billion in remittances Marcos claims to the economy from overseas Filipino workers, attention would fall on the dark side of the national accounts – the country holds top spot for inflation in Southeast Asia, as well as the region’s highest unemployment rate and largest food trade deficit.
Without the contribution of overseas workers, Marcos’ economic competency would be increasingly called into question. He is the first president to oversee the new Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), an entire agency dedicated to fast-tracking labour export. By mid-year, the DMW reported having already exceeded the personnel deployment of 2020 and 2021, much to Marcos’ glee.
Source: CNA
