“Lugao” on board the QV

(OFWs were half of the crew of a thousand)

Talking to Filipinos working in the Queen Victoria, a cruise ship out of Southampton in the UK, reminds the writer of the number of Filipinos contributing to keep the US health care industry functioning: together they are among those sending home $17 billion or so annually that keeps our economy going. (The writer’s son-in-law was all praise for the Filipina nurse who took care of him, a couple of years ago when he was in hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut.)

While we say we acknowledge OFWs as true and present-day heroes, it is about time we get past lip service? We can at our peril continue to put on their shoulders the task of keeping us afloat. In the first place, they are doing what they are doing because of necessity, not choice. They are away from family: “We’re not here to sightsee; we don’t have the luxury of time, all we are focused on is work – because back home we can’t find jobs that would pay for our needs, so that we had to take on work unrelated to our formal education. I went to nautical school but I am making more money as a waiter in this ship.” (This is not an exception: we have teachers that have become maids and doctors opting to be nurses.)

In the bigger scheme of things – or where we are in global competition – we are competing for lower value-added labor as opposed to higher value-added products and services. This explains the woes of OFWs – or why as a union they wrote a manifesto criticizing the country’s economic model.

There is a clear, vast disconnect between what these OFWs are going through and the positive feelings we have about the foreign exchange they generate – that likewise stabilizes the peso and benefits all of us via the wider economy. What is appalling is politicians have the gall to take credit – and economic managers too?

These OFWs are out in the open, competing in the global arena – and are world-beaters. On the other hand, our industry does not see the need to compete: they are rewarded albeit confined to the safety of our four walls, thus making us the least competitive in the region and effectively risking the future – a disease we have yet to realize like the Dutch before us, i.e., nations need a strong, sustainable industry base, of higher value-added products and services.

In the final analysis, our OFWs will continue to toil overseas because our current economic model does not generate local jobs to come home to: We are not truly gearing up to become globally competitive – which is the way to lift our GDP substantially to make a difference. And to get there we have to aggressively step up efforts to raise our revenues; and to do so we must seek more input/investment including foreign, and cast our nets wider beyond our shores – because local marginal enterprises (as Spain learned but Latin American countries and we, have yet to learn?) won’t cover our revenue/GDP-gap or why the ADB prognosis re our development is not encouraging.

The Filipino crew in the QV was well-liked: they could work with varied nationalities, including the Brits that comprised 83% of the passengers – and for their Filipino-couple passengers, they prepared “lugao” or chicken rice porridge for breakfast. They received kind words and in some cases generous tips (and recognition from their company) for their demonstrated dedication and skills – from the engine room to the staterooms to the dining rooms and beyond.

We ought to provide them a better economic playing field lest these assets remain marginalized at our peril.