MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
As a first, PBBM’s first engagement with the Filipino community in Jakarta was a screaming success. Quite a love fest it was, so much joyfulness and happy feelings, all that giggling and cheering, a sea of smiles and hands reaching out to touch and be touched, the speaker and his audience clapping, singing, flag-waving and back-and-forth-ing together, as if it was a victory party, a noisy one.
Why not? As President Marcos told them, what fun to replay the campaign all over again, recalling how Filipino expats gave him a big slice of the votes for president last May. Right on cue, another explosion of “BBM! BBM!” with their smartphones raised like an emblem, a magic wand. He acknowledged their work and sacrifices, and thanked them for keeping and promoting the good name of the Philippines and Filipinos in Indonesia.
It would’ve been the perfect moment for the President of the Philippines, their highly photographable and telegenic idol, to address them as expatriates or expats, no longer as OFW’s, “the new heroes;” but it was not to be. Secretary Toots Ople of the Department of Migrant Workers missed the chance when the new position was created for her (“I have an Ople in my cabinet,” as PBBM proudly pointed out).
Thus the appellation “OFW” stays. As a brand or nickname spelled in three letters for the convenience of headline writers?
But why brand people at all? In Indonesia, 70 percent of Filipinos there are professionals – accountants, teachers, lawyers, bankers, engineers, technical consultants – who wouldn’t mind being called expats, should a poll be taken to gauge their feelings. Does a construction worker or a nanny or a salesgirl deserve to be called an expat? Why not? What separates an OFW from an expat? The dictionary simply defines expatriate as someone who leaves their country to work in another.
Jun Palafox, the prominent and preeminent urban planner whose credits include globalized cities, considers himself an ex-expat; at one time he was quite taken with the idea of changing that OFW label. If he could watch a television replay of BBM interacting so warmly with a roomful of Filipino expats in Jakarta last Sunday, Jun might be reminded of that old passion that has seemingly grown cold.