Belittling the Overseas Filipinos

During the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed the strengthening of the peso against the dollar. Whether this strengthening is real or artificial does not matter. The fact is that the pesos’ strengthening has adversely affected the Overseas Filipinos and their families.

In school we were taught that a strong peso means higher purchasing power. In layman’s term it simply means that with a strong peso we should be able to buy more goods and services. If that statement is true, the decrease in the dollar’s exchange rate should therefore not worry the families of Overseas Filipinos in the Philippines since the decrease will be cancelled out by an equivalent decrease in the prices of goods and services.

However the laws of economics do not seem to apply in the Philippines. While the government has continuously announced that the economy is improving, this is not being felt at all by the consumer sector. In fact, instead of prices going down, prices of prime commodities continue to rise. The failure of the ‘strong peso’ to provide better purchasing power has caused a double edged problem to the Overseas Filipinos and their families.

To maintain the present peso equivalent of their dollar remittances, Overseas Filipinos have to tighten their belts to be able to remit more dollars to their families back home. In the Philippines, the families of Overseas Filipinos also have to tighten their belts to make the best of what they received from family members abroad.

But to Secretary Neri, Overseas Filipinos should even be thankful because they are not being taxed anyway, obviously referring to the aborted plan to tax the Overseas Filipinos’ income. To him it is more important for government to provide a peso-dollar protection for the Filipino exporters because their peso earnings are getting smaller, unlike the overseas Filipinos whose remittances are, according to him, getting higher due to better quality jobs they land into. Neri sees the diminishing income of the export sector, but his eyes are closed to the Overseas Filipinos’ dilemma. He thinks that the remittances are getting higher because Overseas Filipinos get higher pay for better jobs, but fails to see that Overseas Filipinos have to send more dollars to maintain the peso equivalent of what families back home are receiving.

I wonder what could be the reason why it is too easy for cabinet members like Neri to belittle us Overseas Filipinos. They are aware that there are millions of us spread all over the globe; they know that if we want we can bring down the economy, and make the government officials fall to their knees; they know that if we cut our remittances by half for three consecutive months we can bring back the exchange rate to 56 pesos to the dollar or even higher and make the members of the Makati Business Club cry; they know that at any point in time we can make or break a sitting President. Yet why are they so brave to give us so little importance, if any?

My history teacher in high school once told us that there is power in numbers. I believe him because I have seen it worked in several occasions, most recent of which are the two impeachment cases filed against GMA. Those two cases did not prosper because the opposition in the lower house did not have the number of votes needed.

How about us Overseas Filipinos, do we have the strength in number that would make Malacanang tremble? The latest estimate places the number of Overseas Filipinos to about eight million. If on the average there are three voting members in each Overseas Filipino family, the eight million will easily translate to twenty four million votes - enough to send a presidential candidate to Malacanang. Do we have the number? The answer of course is yes. Yes we have the number, but we do not have the strength!

I know it is sad to admit that while we Overseas Filipinos have all the power in our hands, we have not been able to use it. The reason is because up to now, we are still so disorganized; we are just like broomsticks scattered on the floor – sometimes stepped on, sometimes kicked to the corners, sometimes picked up and broken into pieces. And for as long as we remain scattered, the high and mighty, the Neris and his kind, will continue to step on us, kick us to the corners, or even break us into pieces. I can only hope and pray, that one day one of those kicks will be strong enough to awaken the sleeping giant in us. ###