Philippines-Nation of Servants

Philippines- Nation of Servants
On a column published in HK magazine online dated March 27, 2009, a Hong Kong journalist by the name of Chip Tsao showed his protest after President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo signed the controversial baselines bill into law which asserted the Philippines claimed over Spratly Islands. In his article entitled “The War at Home, Tsao said, “As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter”.
Though the cause of the article is mainly because of Tsao’s objection over Philippines claim of Spratly Islands, still calling the Philippines as a “nation of servants” in his article cause a nation being humiliated and had elicited ill-disposed reactions from people especially Filipinos globally. But his article is really something to be ponder- Is Philippines really a “nation of servants?”
According to POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration), a total of 165,737 Filipinos left for work abroad in January 2009 as compared to 132,285 in January 2008 that shows an increase of 25.3 percent. Also POEA’s deployment target is one million that accounts to 16.6% and is already been achieved. It added that about 5,346 Filipinos are being sent to work abroad daily.
Also according to the results of the LFS (Labor Force Survey), an estimated total of 2.9 million persons are unemployed as of July 2009 and is 6.3% higher compared to last year results of the same period survey which has an estimated total of only 2.7 million persons.
About 2.9 million persons- that’s a big number of unemployed individuals. No wonder that as years went by, many and many Filipinos went abroad to search for job opportunities because they couldn’t find any here in the Philippines and many went overseas to become domestic helpers even those with College degrees because of the scarcity of employment opportunities. That’s why we couldn’t blame Filipinos if many went abroad and express their desires to migrate to other countries because they find the Philippines’ economical and political situations hopeless.
According to an online article, it’s the lack of employment opportunities, low salary, poor benefits and discrimination that causes Filipinos to work overseas. There’s no employment opportunity in the country and if ever a Filipino could find a job here in the Philippines, his salary is not enough to commensurate the money he paid for his education. Also, a foreign-based company could give a lot of benefits like housing, health or dental care, paid leave and even educational benefits for the children of the employees but local companies in the Philippines can afford to pay their workers but would not invest more or give additional benefits to their employees. Discrimination is also one of the major problems why Filipinos prefer to work abroad. In the Philippines, to get a job you need to have a College degree even for blue-collar jobs. An applicant should be at least 5 feet tall and those who are 30 years old and above, married, disabled or those who belong to an ethnic or tribal group is denied with the application. In other countries like the U.S. and Canada, you could get a job regardless of your age, if you are married or unmarried, gay or lesbian etc. as long as you could do the job. They accept applicants based on education and/or working experience. And even though you are not a College degree holder as long as you could do the job like a College degree holder can do, then you can still get a job. But usually, these things only applies to their people, immigrants suffer discrimination. Also according to an article titled “Understanding International Labor Migration in the East," published in the May-June 2007 Newsletter of the Philippine Institute for Development by Maruja Asis, director for Research and Publications of the Scalabrini Migration Center, one of the factors why Filipinos migrate is because of the “institutionalization of migration”. Asis said that the Philippine government is always straightforward in expressing its desires for deploying more Filipinos abroad. In fact, Asis said that working abroad is an accepted fate to most Filipinos even though they are face with the fact that abroad is not a haven for the unemployed.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, United Opposition President said that Filipinos must demand an apology from the Philippine government for they are the one responsible of creating such an image of the Philippines being a “nation of servants” because of those export labor policies and unemployment. Binay said, ““Because of the administration’s failed employment policies, a record number of Filipino women have been forced to seek jobs abroad to make ends meet”. Binay said that a program by TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) called “Super Maids”- a program made to produce world- class and professional domestic helpers only worsened the country’s image as a nation of servants.
Sad but true. Philippines is indeed a nation of servants. Chip Tsao’s article only serves as a mirror for as Filipinos to face the reality that we are indeed a nation of servants. We are the number one exporter of domestic helpers and that’s an undeniable fact. But we should not be ashamed as long as we are earning an honest living without stepping on the dignity of others. But these should not go on forever. The only way to face those who called us a “nation of servants” is not by criticizing them or demanding for any apology for seriously, what’s written on Tsao’s article is a sad fact. Even without that article, foreigners have low regards on Filipinos whether they are OFW or staying in the Philippines because with millions of Filipino working abroad as servants, what other perception can they have from us? The only way is to work and study ten times as harder than the rest so we could beat them not just once or twice but for the next 50, 60, 70 ….years.
As Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to become the United States Secretary of State said, “I was going to be so well prepared, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in white society so well, that I would be armored somehow from racism. I would be able to confront white society on its own terms.”