Billions of OFW Remittance Destroy RP�s Basic Industries

By Isagani dela Paz
OFW Journalism Consortium

MANILA � The sparkle of billions of dollars of money sent by Filipinos temporarily or permanently earning abroad is blinding government and the overseas labor deployment industry, a lawmaker warned recently.

�The immediate windfall from the foreign currency remittances of our countrymen overseas makes it so easy to gloss over the reality that the diaspora of our skilled labor exacts a painful toll on the basic industries that should form the building block of a strong Philippine economy,� Congressman Roseller Barinaga said in a privilege speech recently.

Representative Barinaga of Zamboanga del Norte spoke at the Lower House seeking measures to check what he said was the unregulated outflow of critical skills and talents affecting the country�s strategic industries: aviation, electronics, shipping, steel, petrochemical, and telecommunications.

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One Comment to “Billions of OFW Remittance Destroy RP�s Basic Industries”

1. The Unlawyer says:

   April 8, 2006 at 11:31 am

   [...] Corrosive: More articles from Davao Today regarding the hidden cost of the Filipino diaspora: Overseas Workers Benefit Least from �Strong� Peso and Billions of OFW Remittance Destroy RP�s Basic Industries. [...]