Pinoys in US to continue sending dollars to RP

Overseas Filipinos are expected to continue sending dollars to the Philippines despite the current financial turmoil in the US, the research arm of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) said yesterday.

 “Remittances have been growing very steadily. I doubt that this crisis will have any impact on the remittances,” said Josef Yap, president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in a conference yesterday on Managing the Development Impact of International Migration.

Over the weekend, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while Merill Lynch has been bailed out by the Bank of America.

Fernando Aldaba, chairman of the Economics Department of the Ateneo de Manila University said that overseas Filipinos tend to send more dollars home when times are difficult.

As such, he believes that dollar remittances will easily reach the $17-billion target for this year, revised from an earlier target of $16.4 billion.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that dollar remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose to $9.6 billion from January to July, 18.2 percent higher than the $8.13 billion recorded in the same period last year.

In July alone, remittances rose to 24.6 percent to $1.4 billion from $1.09 billion recorded a year ago. The latest figure, however, is five percent lower than the P1.45 billion recorded in June.

Higher deployment of Filipinos abroad led to the increase in remittances, the BSP has said.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that during this period, the number of Filipinos that left for employment overseas reached 761,836, an increase of 28.2 percent from last year’s 594,445.

During yesterday’s conference, Aldaba said there was a need to manage the development impact of international migration.

Aldaba said that one possible measure is to use the money for social and philantrophic ends.

“There should also be incentives for migrants to be attracted back to the Philippines,” he said.

Yap, for his part, said the government should have programs for reintegration of migrants so they would be encouraged to go back to the Philippines.