Talking Points for Secretary Arturo D. Brion
2007 POLO Conference
03 January 2006
Heritage Hotel, Pasay City
Policy Directions on Migration
"Enhancing POLO's relevance in Global Labor Affairs,"
1. First of all, let me welcome you home. My warmest greetings of a Happy New Year to everyone. Let me thank you also for the gifts that you sent on my birthday. My 60th natal day is a double first for me – the 1st time that I had a celebration of any kind other than the regular "inuman" among the barkadas, and the 1st time I received so many gifts. Thanks to one and all for all these.
2. Let me also commend the organizers of this Conference as their gathering did not just happen. What you are experiencing now has been the subject of many discussions that went as far back as my first two months in office. Let me tell you that these organizers – and I will not name them one by one for fear that I might omit some- went the extra mile to make this conference a success, even sacrificing most of their Christmas holidays, to put everything in order. So let me formally and expressly thank them.
3. I'm glad to see you all here today in this gathering of the front-liners of our migration operations. Your role has effectively made your Department an international organization with active foreign affairs concerns – a matter that in some cases has caused you some grief and frustration because we do not have the authority commensurate with our responsibilities in acting on our foreign concerns. This was among the things I had in mind when I mentioned yesterday the human relations approach as a modality the DOLE family shall use in undertaking its myriad tasks. You are operating in a foreign environment effectively by tolerance of another government in order to take care if our people who may run afoul of the laws of that government. Before seeking redness through local laws, it may be best to have in mind human relations approach in dealing with the people we are mandated to care for and with the host government. Many times that local laws may not have to be fully applied because we nipped the problem in the bud through the human relations approach. This approach applies as well to your own internal relationships with other DOLE personnel as well as with other Philippine government personnel you have to deal with. I have heard of some horror stories of what you have to out up with to do your jobs at our own embassies. Try the human relations approach as the weapon in our arsenal that others least expect us to use. Last but not the least, I hope that you will always err on the side of “the human touch" when dealing with the most vulnerable of our clientele. This is the underlying rationale for our new policy on domestic helpers.
4. As I announced in my flag raising ceremony message yesterday, this conference will be a fixture during my DOLE watch as I intend to bring as many of you as I can home for Christmas. You can consider this one of the perks of your position and I would suggest that you make the necessary adjustments in your schedules and your routines so that late December is conference time at the home office or in some other location you may pick.
5. Another matter of interest I should bring to your attention is our POLO Manual which I am approving as written subject to two modifications. The first is that POLO deployment will be up to age 60. This means that nobody who has turned 61 can be deployed or can remain at the Post after his three year deployment at age 60 is over. Another innovation is the requirement for psychiatric and physical examinations before deployment in the way that I was subjected to these examinations before I assumed my duties at the Court of Appeals. I take notice that our POLO posts are harder to handle, both physically and in terms of mental stresses, than the courts. Additionally, you shall be actually dealing with human lives and ones who are under stress in your day to day activities at the posts. Thus, you yourselves may oftentimes be under stress. Given these circumstances, I feel it an absolute necessity that you be in their most stable mental and physical conditions when you are deployed.
6. We have adopted a very serious theme for this conference - "Enhancing POLO's relevance in Global Labor Affairs"; it relates .to how you will add pep and effectiveness to an already heavy work load. The seriousness of our theme need not however prevent us from having a good time during this conference. Let me assure everyone that one of our aims for the conference is to de-stress you and make you happy during your home office stay. Hence, we must treat with equal seriousness the after hours distractions we shall enjoy later this evening.
7. Another matter I mentioned in yesterday's flag raising ceremony was the "one-agency" approach that we shall adopt within the DOLE family. I am sure you already know this concept because of the "one country" approach our embassies use. This approach is necessitated by the present structure of the DOLE family where we have a central agency having the main coordinating functions, with other the other functions assigned to and undertaken by attached agencies that operate with various levels of autonomy. The commonality of the DOLE, with these agencies is usually the Secretary of Labor who more often than not operates by delegation to the Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries. Up to this level, synchronization among the agencies may operate well, but the reality is that we have to operate along the lower technical levels to get our acts going. The need for synchronization is most acute at the level of planning; we have only one end result which I determine at the policy level, based on my own perception of the national plan expressed in the Cabinet. To secure this end result directly and efficiently, the various actors within tile DOLE family must have a seamless and coordinated plan that would take into account each one's strengths and weaknesses. In other words, we must consciously complement one another in working for our desired end result.
8. To repeat an example that I cited yesterday, we have repeatedly told ourselves in the past that our policy is "to manage migration", read in the sense of "outflow migration". Thus we have become masters of regulating our out migration to the point that our system is being used as a model and is being copied by other labor sending countries. We have told ourselves as well that our main objective is OFW protection and we have the Angelo de la Cruz experience as our prime but extreme example. Up to a point, we have been successful in carrying out our protective task; no other labor-sending country comes near the results we have achieved, as shown by our recent Lebanon experience.
9. But through these years of out migration, we have not seriously looked at our labor supply. Do we really have an inexhaustible supply that we can always readily draw upon? If the supply is finite, how do we replenish it to ensure the continued viability of our migration program?
10. I point these issues out, not only because these are issues that we have to tackle, but because these are issues that require a "one-agency" approach to address. These are issues that require a good market intelligence feedback to tell us the skills that are available at source, the skills that are in demand at the market, and the efforts we have to undertake to ensure that there is constant replenishment at source. In doing all these the BLE cooperation with the POEA and the OWWA (through their data banks) must be able to give us a good working knowledge of the skills locally available our labatts and weloffs must be able to tell us the skills that are and will be in demand, with time projections on when these skills would be needed; and TESDA, CHED and PRC should be able to ensure us that locally there is continuing training and certification of skills that would ensure the ready supply that the foreign market would require.
11. To point out the obvious, we now know some of the skills that are in demand overseas. We also know that some of these skills are in short supply. But we all know they have become scarce and can no longer be found, not because of any conscious effort to take stock of our inventory of skills; we just woke up one day and found these skills totally lacking. Thus, to avoid the repetition of this situation, we have to sit down and plan together for a viable supply and demand program that would keep our deployment and remittances at the levels our economy requires. To paraphrase Gigette Imperial in her "romanticizing" piece, we have to plan not because our people are migrating but because we have national needs we have to satisfy. I will not myself go into these distinctions. For me, let us just wade in and do the planning for a systematic and effective migration policy. Let us work together as one agency, fully cooperating in planning and in implementation so we can secure the results we need.
12. At the Post, the one-agency approach may not be that simple to implement, knowing as we do that our "one country" approach we have experienced can only be implemented with a lot of feathers ruffled. Thus, I would ask you during your planning to consciously direct your attention to how this approach can be operationalized at the Post, while at the same time synchronizing your activities with the DOLE central agency and with the attached employment agencies.
13. Again to go to the level of examples, you will have to plan what will be the effective structure at the Post for purposes of reporting and allocation of responsibilities. Do not forget that within this year, we will have an extra layer of authority because we will have a supervising labor attaché within every region. Right now, it will be USec. Manny Imson for Europe and the Americas; and USec. Jun Sodusta for Africa and the Middle East. I have yet to designate who will be the supervising labatt for Asia which shall include Australia and New Zealand and New Zealand because we are opening this post within the year.
14. Another aspect of this example is the matter of funding, given the operational thrusts I shall describe to you later. You all have heard USec. Danny mentions the problem with MOOE and the problems we have with the auditors about your clearances. I have a problem myself with some posts because they spend first and ask for MOOE reimbursement later, on the excuse that we shall adversely affect embassy operations unless Manila immediately supplies their needed funds. These are operational details I shall not discuss with you except for the reminder that we have co follow our Manual strictly for 2007 because I will not allow the payment of funds in excess of the budgeted if no prior clearance is secured. What I wish to draw your attention to is that our "one agency" approach shall require that we "pool" our resources to support POLO operations at the level we shall demand from them. There should be planning at the POLO level to determine how the available funds, from whatever sources, can be best used by the POLO team given the task assigned to them, with complementary planning al Cluster level in Manila to determine how the various agencies can help if additional funds are necessary. At the very least, this may require. A member of the POLO team acting as Finance Officer in the field for proper control purposes.
15. At the higher policy level, I will not discuss with you the issues of "brain drain" and "social costs" because these are issues we have lived with from the time we put our migration program into effect in the 70s. Additionally, these are issues that are touched upon as we embark into the level of policy higher than mere regulation and protection -the linkage of migration with development.
16. I say that many current migration issues are subsumed and swallowed up by the issue of migration and development because of the strategic response we are taking -the establishment of a national reintegration center.
17. As we envision this Center, reintegration is the word we use but the real intent is to go beyond "reintegration" as we have known traditionally this term. Then, we had the idea of providing for the OFW who is returning and re-entering the local Philippine scene, and we speak of employing him locally or providing him with entrepreneurial skills for local operations, or otherwise training him or simply helping him secure another foreign deployment. We will still do all these and the OWWA shall continue the reintegration activities it has in place. But OWWA will likewise prepare in a bigger way for the eventual personal reintegration of the OFW through measures that will help ensure that he or she has a properly and economically cared for family to go back to. Largely this will be based on the use of family circles that right now is very effective as practiced in the maritime industry. Entrepreneurial activities can begin for the OFW even before he or she returns through the family he has left behind. The difference in approach this time is in the matter of constituting the family circles. In the past, enrolment had been at the Philippine end by getting the families themselves to enroll. This time, we shall complement this approach by getting the OFWs themselves at the foreign workplace to register his or her family. This registration will be sent back to OWWA who now has provincial offices who will handle the established family circles. Of course, registration at the workplace is a matter for the labatts and weloffs to undertake.
18. Another possible aspect of personal reintegration that we have not fully discussed in Manila but which Labatt Rey Conferido has started in Japan is the use of entrepreneurial OFW activities, not in the Philippines, but overseas. In other words, the OFW need not bodily come back to the Philippines. We will help him out at the host country, not as a worker or employee, but as an entrepreneur. I do hope Labatt Conferido can fully document his experiences so that we can fully disseminate these. I see much hope in these as I witness the growing number of small Filipino entrepreneur overseas. It seems to me that the bigger problem may lie in the "know how" on how to start a business – a matter we can provide if we put our mind to it as Labatt Conferido did.
19. Another aspect of reintegration is what we call the community reintegration. The best example is the CGMA Project that you all know. The concept is to have a linkage (again some kind of reintegration) between the OFW and his or her community in the Philippines. Along the lines of the CGMA Project, we can link the OFWs to their provinces or home communities or local NGOs for whatever economically fruitful activities they may contemplate. We can also link up with other government agencies so that their area of expertise may be made available – through the Reintegration Center- to the OFWs. The Retirement Authority and the Department of Tourism are the best examples of these agencies.
20. This is also the area where we may possibly address the matter of “brain drain” through “brain gain”. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) believes that “migrants” who have developed and improved their skills abroad can be actors of the “brain gain” by transferring and infusing knowledge, skills and technology into their countries of origin. Ensuring brain gain, however, still remains to be widely seen in the Philippines.
21. We hear of encouraging stories such as those of the Brain Gain Network or BGN. It helps develop the IT industry in the Philippines by helping IT students find prospective mentors. BGN also maintains a shared-resource laboratory where researches and technology entrepreneurs can create unique technological solutions that may be licensed or spun off into globally competitive corporate ventures. This type of circular migration of Filipinos is where we hope big Philippine business can come in and help us using our Reintegration Center.
22. Another brain gain possibility is what we hope to do in Taiwan where our OFWs can only stay and work in the country for a maximum of six years, after which they could come home. In the next few months we will establish a labor pool and job facilitation services for OFW returnees from Taiwan so that we can offer them local jobs in Taiwanese companies operating in Clark or Subic. Their experiences in Taiwan would thus be a gain we would be using in the Philippines.
23. A last aspect of reintegration is what we call Economic Reintegration. As in the community reintegration, the OFW need not physically return to the Philippines; reintegration is with respect to his remittances and possible investments in the Philippines through formal and informal investment instruments. Again, labatt and weloff intervention is needed here because of the campaign for remittance through the banking channels that we intend to fully support.
24. As of October 2006, remittances from OFWs coursed through banks continued to post double-digit growth from its year-ago level. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that OFW remittances already totaled US$ 8.8 billion, 27.1 percent higher than last year’s US$ 6.9 million. As projected by the BSP, these could surge to as high as US$13.4 billion dollars by year’s end.
25. Aside from direct action on remittances, POLOs can act directly not only by directly encouraging investments in the Philippines but through the advocacy of encouraging OFWs to save. The virtue of saving can be applied, not only on the sums directly remitted to the Philippines, but through that part of the OFW income that is not remitted to their families. These funds, held by the migrant worker, are often times spent only on consumer goods abroad. This is about 20 to 30 percent of the OFW earnings (or roughly US$2.5-3.5 billion per annum), which constitute a huge amount of idle funds just hanging around out there.
26. There are therefore two challenges facing the POLOs with regards to remittances: First, how could we encourage the OFWs to remit through the formal channels, the banking system? Of course, you have all the help you could get from commercial banks on site in this regard. But a little more push would help make the picture of OFW contribution to the economy more complete. Second, how could we encourage the OFWs to save and invest their idle incomes for more productive endeavors, rather than just spending them on consumer goods? We need a special advocacy campaign to help them realize the power of their earnings if spent wisely.
27. From another perspective, one of our aims is to bring the cost of remittance to the lowest level for the benefit of the OFW, at the same time that we ensure that the remittances find their way back to the Philippines through our banking channels. We will act on this at the Philippine end through the increasing volume of remittance generated through your efforts.
28. The use of formal investment instruments is a matter outside of our immediate competence although we have among our ranks labatt who have banking experience. For these instruments, we shall rely on the intervention of the DOF and DTI who are in the better position to act on the matter. But we are assigning a labatt with banking experience -Labatt Vic Ablan - to handle this end for the Reintegration Center. OFW investments of course need not only be in formal instruments but in lands, realities and Philippine businesses as well. All these shall be within Vic Ablan's area of operation.
29. This, in brief, is how we shall attempt to link migration and development to ensure that our country secures the maximum benefits from its migration program. What our plan does not contain is how OFW funds will be used. This of course is another matter outside of DOLE family jurisdiction to act and decide upon, and will be left to the appropriate handling agencies of government.
30. Turning now to our deployment strategy, I am working on the assumption that out there is a demand for Filipino workers. You are in the best position to validate this assumption as you know the population and demand situation in your respective countries, as well the advantages a Filipino workforce offers.
Given the demand situation in the markets we serve, I believe that it is high time for us to move into the higher levels of skills in our traditional markets like the Middle East, at the same time that we try to create newer and higher paying markets in Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
This means that we should be ready to abandon demands for unskilled labor and for women domestic helpers if the rates of pay for these workers do not meet our expectations. As I mentioned earlier we should have a good feel for our most vulnerable sectors and act in favor of their protection when called upon to exercise our discretion. These limitations will not be easy to do in our traditional markets for domestic helpers who expectedly will pressure us into continuing with our old ways. There will be pressure for us also coming from the recruitment agencies who have found our old ways very profitable. These pressures will be compounded if we insist, as a measure of protection, that no placement fees be charged for domestic helpers as we have long practiced since the 70s.
This line of thought and course of action mean that we need a very close coordination in evaluating and locating the available skills and in marketing these skills for efficient deployment. From the POLO side, these mean that you will have to give the home office good intelligence feedback on the market potentials you have, and in aggressive marketing to beat any opposition in the higher skills category. Whether deployment is through the recruitment agencies or through government-to-government placement is a matter we have to decide on a case-to-case basis, but we should be ready to act as national interest demands. Whichever way recruitment may go, the bottom-line is that intelligence gathering and feedback + marketing are the major POLO for 2007.
An intelligence feedback that we need at the home office is on the matter of illegal recruitment, both for being unlicensed and for violation of our rules. Our anti-recruitment activities can be helped in no small measure if we have feedback on who are the illegally operating entities and at what rates the licensed agencies are operating. Be aware that our move against the violators need not only be through outright cancellation which requires substantial evidence, but can be through other regulatory moves that will make their lives difficult. Trust to deliver from our end in implementing this central measure
31. Welfare is an area of POLO task that we cannot compromise on. An OFW in need always takes precedence over other tasks. This is a lesson we have all learned from the past. Hence, our strategy is to lessen the need for welfare cases. At the Philippine end, we will act on the PDOS within the 1st half of the year in order to put back some order into what is now a chaotic and ineffective system. Many of you will agree that PDOS as currently administered by the present providers may not be very meaningful. In the meantime, you will have to recognize this as a reality that you can address by doing your own counseling at the host country for the most vulnerable OFWs. In the absence of a formal regulation on this matter, you can do this as part of our "human touch" for our most vulnerable clientele.
32. I believe that with the implementation of our new policy on domestic helpers, the legal deployment of domestic helpers in some countries will temporarily but significantly decrease. This does not however necessarily translate to lesser welfare cases because a rise in undocumented domestic helpers may follow. As you are aware, our undocumented workers are more vulnerable to abuse; hence, their presence will signify an upward trend in 'lime spent on welfare. The trick then is for us to stop the flow from the Philippine end – a matter that is not for DOLE to solely act upon. Nevertheless, good intelligence reports on the responsible entities at the Philippine end will help us, as we shall proceed not only under the basis of our migration charter but with the use of anti human-trafficking laws as well
33. Thus, the bottom-line for 2007 is that welfare concerns in welfare intensive countries will not see any respite for the year. Our POLOs will have to bear the dual burden of welfare cases, while doing aggressive higher-end marketing and relaying intelligence, information to us in Manila.
34. For the newly developing higher-end countries, marketing and intelligence gathering and reporting are the premium activities. These will no less stressful that the handling of cases in welfare intensive countries because of expectations from Manila. You will have to compensate for the slack that our DH and other policies will create in other areas. What may further complicate your lives will be the entry of recruitment agencies who may engage in cutthroat competition to gain ascendancy. We must resist them in every way possible because one, of their insidious effects is to teach employers that our systems can be corrupted. Thus, reports from you on illegal recruitment activities will be very critical.
35. Hopefully, the points I mentioned would help you polish the formulation and implementation of your action plans in your respective posts. My points are in no way exhaustive; they only touch the highlights of what I feel you need to be aware of and to do. Additionally, you are the real experts in what you are doing and I do not intend to deny you your creativity in crafting programs and services to address the issues and projected developments I raised. Hence, use your wise discretion as you proceed with your planning.
36. As my last point, let me remind you that we should keep our integrity intact as we act on our duties, particularly in helping our recruitment agencies who undeniably need our assistance as primary movers in the area of marketing. The migration community is a very small one and nothing is kept secret for long. Hence, any undue favoritism, indicative of an under-the-table arrangement, will sooner or later come to light. Let us avoid these unpleasant situations for the good of everyone. I assure you I will not hesitate to act when called for, as I have acted in the recent past, to defend our good names, the good name of our institutions and our national interest.
37. I look forward to listening to your action plans later in the Conference and to an enjoyable after hours with all of you. Maraming Salamat!
