Immigration Laws: January, 1997 - Number #24

There are an estimated 4.2 to 4.5 million Filipinos from a population of 70 million working abroad. Most of them are women, including 95 percent of the 131,165 Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. According to the Philippines' Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, at least 700 Filipino migrants died in foreign countries 1996.

Several Philippine politicians have proposed new programs, financed by fees charged to migrants, to better protect them overseas. However, many Filipino migrants say that they already pay too many fees.

Filipino domestics abroad already pay, for example, monetary insurance of HK$32 once every two years; a lifetime welfare fee of HK$200 to cover legal aid, counseling, medical assistance, repatriation and burial fees, a repatriation fee of $ 120 once every two years and a yearly Medicare levy of $300. Each contract renewal costs $200 plus authentication fees of $425. Income tax of $132 is paid to the Philippine government on the $3,750 minimum wage.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas estimated in October 1996 that 42 percent of remittances to the Philippines went through banks, and announced plans to compete more effectively with the padala (courier) system for transferring money home. According to BSP, some 4.2 million Filipinos send home an average $350 per month, or a total of $12 billion per year, but only $7 billion is reflected in bank and balance of trade data.

In 1982, President Marcos said the Overseas Contract Workers (OCW's) Program would be a temporary measure to alleviate unemployment while the country moved towards an industrial economy.

About 45 percent of the Filipino labor force are employed in agriculture, but agriculture generates only about 25 percent of Philippine GDP. The 16,000 Philippine sugar growers employ about 500,000 workers to produce two million tons of sugar each year. However, the Philippine sugar industry is not efficient; in 1995, the Philippines was a net importer of sugar.

The 1,500 Vietnamese boat people on the western island of Palawan who were permitted to stay in the Philippines after the Catholic church promised to care for them are seeking renewable six-month special work permits. Many want to move to Manila.

"Vietnamese boat people seek work permits in the Philippines," Agence France Presse, December 16, 1996. Keith B. Richburg, "Philippine Economy Reviving," Washington Post, November 22 1996. "Domestics face the home truth," South China Morning Post, November 11, 1996.