A year ago, US$400 a month was enough to support Amer Manalo’s wife and two children back in the Philippines. He left his family to work in a manufacturing company in Saudi Arabia to be able to afford to put a decent roof over their heads and send his children to a good school. Today, though, $400 is insufficient for him to do this.
In 2007 the Philippines registered its strongest economic growth in over 30 years, with the country’s gross domestic product registering a higher than expected 7.3 percent. The Philippine peso emerged from 2007 as Asia’s best performing currency, gaining 18.8 percent against the US dollar. For many Filipinos, this is good news. But for most of the eight million Filipinos working overseas, like Manalo, it is a financial blow. The Philippines has an estimated population of 91 million.
Manalo’s $400 monthly remittance - once equivalent to about P20,000 when the exchange rate hovered at P50 to the US dollar - now converts to just a few pesos over P16,000.
“We had no choice but to transfer our kids to a cheaper school,” Manalo told IRIN. “We had to cut down on so many things.”
Each day around 3,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas in the hope of improving their family’s standard of living. The past year, however, has seen the quality of life of these families deteriorate.
Migrant workers feel the pinch
Fe Nicodemus, executive director of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that looks after the families of migrant Filipinos, told IRIN that Manalo is better off than others. She said many Filipinos working abroad, such as domestic helpers, earn only $200-300 a month - below the minimum wage for overseas workers but slightly higher than the P362 daily minimum wage in the Philippines, especially when the exchange rate was still at P50 to the dollar.
 Their $200 used to be equivalent to P10,000. Now, it’s just P8,000. The P2,000 difference means a lot for a family with three to five children, especially with prices going up. |
Many migrant workers’ families have had to transfer their children to government schools. Dining out or shopping for new clothes is out of the question. Houses being constructed - a common dream among those who go abroad to work - are left unfinished. With the money they receive from abroad now barely enough to cover the basics, there is nothing left for medical or other emergencies.
Some forced into prostitution
“We even know of some overseas workers who have been forced into prostitution to meet their families’ financial needs back home,” said Nicodemus.
Over 65 percent of remittances from overseas Filipino workers are denominated in US dollars and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, estimates that Filipinos dependent on remittances from relatives abroad lost about P24.3 billion (about $600 million at today’s exchange rate) in the first nine months of 2007 due to the strengthening peso. To make matters worse, the losses are most severely felt by the lowest earners among migrant workers.
The government says the economy is improving, but many overseas Filipinos do not see it this way. To them, all they see are their shrinking salaries and the continued rise in prices. “I don’t understand it. If the government says the economy is getting better, why can’t we feel it? Everything in the Philippines is getting more expensive,” Manalo said.
In August 2007, when the exchange rate was still at around P45 to the dollar, an online petition was launched by a group of overseas Filipino workers to establish a special exchange rate of P50 to the dollar for them. While the petition garnered almost 14,000 signatures, nothing became of it.
 Photo: Google Maps  |
| A map of the Philippines and surrounding countries |
Therese Serquina Dar Juan, a marketing coordinator in the United Arab Emirates, is now looking for a better job to be able to continue supporting her family in the Philippines. Others, locked in contracts with their employers, have no other options. Nicodemus told IRIN some are contemplating going back home, but worry about the lack of jobs available.
“One of my objectives in working here in Jeddah is to be able to buy a house for my family back in the Philippines,” said Manalo. “Now, I don’t think it’s possible anymore. With the current situation, we overseas Filipinos are suffering.”
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
