Local officials now talk about coping with OFWs' return

In the past, local officials just focused their attention on local problems. They never considered overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in terms other than just remitters of foreign earnings that helped transform the countryside with modern-style homes.

Now, it seems they are now aware that they may have a problem with the OFWs when they come home because of the massive layoff and retrenchment of firms and institutions abroad.

Boracay, however, remained the bright light in Western Visayas. The Aklan island-paradise played host to more than 300 Russian visitors who flew into Aklan from two different places in Russia.

And regional tourism director Edwin Trompeta chorled about the new wave of foreign tourists interested in Boracay to take in its impressive ambience.

And Negros Occidental is getting ready to undertake a mass marketing abroad, especially in Korea, Japan and China, for other interesting places or scenic spots on Negros Island. This, after the first international flight here by a Russian plane direct from Kazakhstan last Jan. 1.

Negros Occidental has a lot of developing scenic spots and natural scenic spots from the Mambukal Summer Resort in Murcia and the pristine and white beaches of Cauayan, Hinobaan, and Sipalay to Negros Oriental’s Bayawan City and Sta. Catalina.

But these efforts still have to be fleshed out, although the efforts by Bacolod City Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue to invite more IT firms to put up their call centers here is continuing. Already call centers established here are employing some 5,000 English-proficient employees. But there is talk about some of these losing their clients abroad as major companies in the United States and elsewhere feel the fallout of the global financial crisis.

Another welcome sight is the impending start-up of the San Carlos bioethanol plant that could energize investment in the production of alternative fuel and ease the surplus production of sugar on the island and nearby Iloilo.

But first things first. For Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco, the low sugarcane production has prompted sugar mills to call off milling early. Thus, the tiempo de muerte is coming much earlier this year. But the provincial government alone and the local government units may not ease the situation as readily as in previous years.

This time, Zayco called on the sugar farmers to aid the government in offering their workers mitigating activities to tide them over the crisis for months when work in sugar farms ground to a hall and workers try to find extra work to tide them over the dead season.

The easing up on oil prices and the drop in the cost of fertilizer may have helped sugar farmers cut down on production cost. But prices of sugar remain low. In short, farmers blamed the continued smuggling of sugar from nearby Thailand in doing them in. The Sugar Regulatory Administration had expedited the shipment of “D” sugar, or those intended for the world market, to ease the surplus.

For the time being, the region is readying plans for the celebration of the feast of the Child Jesus (Santo Nino). But preparations are not as extravagant and lavish as in the past, although Iloilo City is bracing for more visitors to Dinag­yang, the city’s major festival that draws yearly records of visitors.

The same with Aklan’s Ati-Atihan festivals, especially the one in Kalibo. Ibajay’s Ati-Ati may still enjoy the spillover of Boracay visitors which have been growing over the years.

Otherwise, the prolonged holidays plus the exhaustion of the bonuses of both government and non-government employees may dampen extra spending for additional holidays and vacations. And there is always the pervading anxiety on the future of the economy which tends to encourage people to save on expenses, except for the most basic.

What caught my attention was last week’s forum in Bacolod on the impact of the global crisis on overseas Filipino workers. That event was attended by James Mendiola of the Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA) and Larry Occeno, provincial chairman of Migrante, Ma. Victorias Mondragon and Vivian Saratan of the labor department, and Councilors Gamboa Jr. and Jocella Batapa-Sigue.

Batapa-Sigue started the assessment to guide local leaders in facing the 2009 challenges to cope with the displacement of OFWs through bankruptcy, retrenchment, redundancy, restructuring and reduction in the mother overseas firms due to the global financial crisis.

It came out that Negros Occidental accounts for 35,000 of Western Visayas’ 95,000 documented OFWs. Sixty percent of them are household and service workers, construction and engineering workers, and seamen. Most of them are in the Middle East.

Mendiola said the government is encouraging the creation of overseas family circles such as those in barangays in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

What came out from the conference was that local government units and NGOs still have to organize multi-disciplinary task forces not to just strategize deployment but to provide alternative sources of livelihood to OFWs.

In short, most LGUs still have to flesh out with the national government concrete coping plans to anticipate the return of OFWs who may lose their jobs abroad.