The reluctant balikbayan

DESPITE the Philippine government’s efforts and appropriated contingency funds for repatriation, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Libya have given Aquino’s administration the cold shoulder on their last call and have vehemently decided to stay put in war-stricken Libya.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), only a few of the estimated 3,500 Pinoys in Libya have responded to the government’s last call, with only less than a hundred signifying their intentions to return to the homeland.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert Del Rosario has already made a second trip in less than a month to Tripoli, overland from Tunisia, on March 22. He stayed there for several hours to convince Filipinos to come home and to remind them about the deadline of the government’s voluntary repatriation program, which ended on March 23.
DFA spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said that Del Rosario learned that “many preferred putting their lives at risk over the prospects of non-employment and economic hardship in the Philippines.” There are also those who may want to go home, but are hesitant because of the lack of job opportunities in the country.
A text message sent by Del Rosario to Pres. Aquino reads: “A very large group of leaders was at the embassy to express thanks to the Aquino government for protecting them by encouraging repatriation. But placing their lives at risk was … preferred by many over the prospects of no employment and economic hopelessness.”
The president found it distressing that Pinoys “see hope in a place where there is conflict rather than in our country which is peaceful.” However, he could not blame them for prioritizing the needs of their family over their own personal safety.
According to the Philippine Embassy, the OFWs in Libya “are actually more concerned about the difficulty in remitting money to their families in the Philippines than the air strikes in Libya. They asked the government how it could help them in sending their remittances.”
To which Del Rosario could only give a promise of “arriving at a mechanism for sending remittances through the embassy.” He has directed Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis to remain in Tripoli for a couple more days “to take care of the remittance issue and the last-minute repatriates.”
The embassy staff is committed to remain in Tripoli “to take care of our country’s interests and ensure the safety of the Filipinos who chose to remain for personal reasons,” said Malaya.
While most would criticize this seemingly stubborn and unwise decision, one cannot help but see it as a very telling sign of how economic hardships have shaped the overall psyche of the modern-day Pinoy.
In this ever-changing world of variables, one thing has remained constant in the Pinoy’s value system – the family’s welfare takes precedence over anything else.
In a society that has been shaped, shifted and altered by years of war, hunger, economic struggles and hardships, the Pinoy’s family values have managed to remain intact. But methods of survival to address the family’s needs are ever-evolving. And at this age of globalization, the only viable choice – it seems – is for a family member to work overseas.
Our OFWs have already been deemed as modern-day heroes because they fuel the country’s economy with much-needed remittances. But beyond that, they are warriors – fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters who have waged an endless war against what they reckon to be more painful and enduring than Libya’s conflict: POVERTY.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend Mar 26-29, 2011 Sec A pg. 12)