Outgoing Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. paid tribute to the millions of Filipino migrant workers for their crucial contributions to their families and to the country during the International Day of Family Remittances on Tuesday, June 28.
"Today’s commemoration of the International Day of Family Remittances is a tribute to millions of hardworking and selfless migrant workers who have committed their lives to supporting loved ones back home," Locsin said in his speech.
Locsin stressed that the migrant workers' "hard-earned income is a vital economic lifeline that allows their families to live decent and dignified lives." It is also a "major source of foreign currency that answers the needs by big business at home."
"Remittances do more than address basic human needs. They represent every migrant worker’s dream of a future with hope for a better life," the Philippines' top diplomat said.
He emphasized that their remittances play three "critical roles."
These resources, he said, enable families of migrant workers to weather economic downturns, pandemics, natural and man-made disasters; and recurring recessions and inflations.
"econd, they enable their direct recipients to achieve their aspirations for education and maybe a little business of their own; third, they are the main source of foreign exchange that big business swallows for their transactions and whatever else they feel like doing with their enormous wealth," Locsin said.
He further said that remittances became even more essential during the Covid-19 pandemic as they shielded families, communities, and entire countries from its crippling economic consequences and the economic shocks that followed.
He cited that the remittances "have kept the Philippine economy afloat," prompting the government to make a "conscious effort to create an enabling environment for remittances to flow and grow, and increasingly to benefit those who earned them and need them the most desperately."
At present, at least 50 percent of financial tech companies in the Philippines provide digital payments, e-wallets, and e-remittances.
In his speech, Locsin also assured Filipino migrant workers that they can trust the Department of Foreign Affairs "to be up and up when it comes to helping OFWs (overseas Filipino workers)."
"Let’s hope the new department is, too; Susan Ople is the incoming President’s most outstanding choice," he said.
He also assured OFWs that several institutions are working together to provide financial literacy to migrant workers across the Philippines' foreign service posts.