Almost 10% (approximately 8.3 million) of the 89 million Filipino citizens live or work abroad in 193 countries.

Filipino Senator Manny B. Villar recently commented: "Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are generally regarded as today's heroes for their most valuable contribution to the [Filipino] economy...." The OFW remittance last year was about US$20 billion.

But the story doesn't end there!

The horrendous social cost

Outspoken Catholic Archbishop Oscar Cruz recently lamented that "Despite their 'modern-day hero' status, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to bear the brunt of social costs of the global economic crisis…" (GMA News). According to the prelate, the worst part of the story "is that OFWs experience physical violence and emotional trauma, with some of them returning home in boxes" (ibid.).

An even broader part of that social cost is the effect overseas employment is having on OFW families.

In an article published September 7, 2007 in the Arab News headlined, "OFWs Warned of Family Breakup as a Social cost to Migration," Gloria Esguerra Melencio, reported: "The costs of Filipino overseas migration outweigh the benefits in terms of social, economic, political and individual losses a non-governmental organization in the Philippines warned."

Rhodora Abano, advocacy officer of the Center for Migrant Advocacy explained "that an undetermined number of families are breaking up due to spouses taking on another partner while the husband or wife is away. Likewise, most children of OFWs have become 'materialistic,' asking for more money to compensate for the emotional absence of one or both parents. Some of the OFW children have also dropped out of school...or resorted to early marriages because of teenage promiscuity, or bore children out of wedlock. Worst problem for OFW children is when they fall into drug addiction, gambling or other vices" (ibid.).

Incest has become common

On March 11, 2007 Veronica Uy of INQUIRER.net reported: "As more Filipino mothers leave for work abroad, incest between a daughter and the father who are left behind has become an emerging social problem."

In connection with the International Women's Day, Philippine Senator Pia Cayetano called public attention to "an emerging problem in labor-exporting countries like the Philippines." The senator noted that "older daughters of women OFWs are made to take on the roles left by their mother, sometimes as 'substitute spouses'" (ibid.).

Senator Cayetano also noted that "women now comprise 70 percent of Filipino workers deployed abroad" (ibid.). She described the phenomenon as one of the most damaging social impacts of labor migration, one that can never be measured by any of the government's socio-economic indicators or captured by statistics on labor export.

Advice that would change the nation

Why can't the Philippines provide employment for its own people? The first issue seems to boil down to basic character weaknesses in both the nation's government and its people. That corruption is endemic is widely acknowledged.

So what's the solution?

The first and most obvious need is a change in our national character. And the advice that best fits our nation's crises comes from one of the oldest books in existence, the Bible.

Proverbs 14:34 pinpoints our national problem: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." And Proverbs 29:2 sums up our problem with corrupt officials: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.

Another scripture explains what every citizen should be doing to reduce the corruption that is now rampant in our Filipino culture:

"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

Someone asked the question: Which does more damage to children during their formative years, the lack of cash or the non-presence of a parent who is working overseas? In reply, it's hard to improve on the wisdom of Deuteronomy 6:7 regarding God's biblical instructions and commands: "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

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