Extracted

With scarce resources and a lot of grit, Secretary Toots Ople and her team managed to extract Filipinos trapped in the civil war in Sudan – at least all of those who wanted to be rescued. In batches, several hundred extracted Filipinos are returning back to Manila aboard chartered PAL flights.

The DMW’s efforts did not stop there. The new government department tasked with looking after the welfare of our migrant workers is going the extra mile, looking for new employment for those fleeing the fighting in Sudan.

According to Ople, who flew to Washington to join the President’s working visit, several companies in the US and Saudi Arabia expressed interest in hiring our displaced workers. Among those expressing interest are employers from the cruise ship industry that is now enjoying a post-pandemic revival.

The interest in hiring our displaced workers is understandable. Our community of migrant workers have made good account of themselves. They have proven to be highly trainable and passionately committed to their jobs.

According to those familiar with the hiring and placement of our workers, Filipinos tend to have a shorter learning curve when they take on new jobs. Their foreign employers remark about their creativity and readiness to share know-how.

Filipino nurses serving the UK’s National Health Service, for instance, have been regularly praised for their competence and dedication. Two Filipinas, in particular, were invited to the coronation ceremonies for King Charles III.

Filipino workers extracted from war-torn Sudan are reported to have highly employable skills, including a number of engineers and finance professionals. That should explain the interest of global employers in our workers.

Quickly transitioning our workers will spare their dependents from the harsh penalties of unemployment. It will also spare the domestic economy from a drop in remittances. Our consumption-driven growth is largely dependent on remittance inflows from our migrant workers.

All-in-all, the process of rescuing Filipino nationals seems to be going well even as the prospects for peace in that troubled nation becomes dimmer by the day. Although several mediation efforts are underway, it does not seem likely the warring factions could be reliably reconciled. While a sequence of ceasefires were announced, they seem to be observed more in the breach. Sudan descends into chaos with little chance of effective governance on the horizon.

The extraction of Filipinos from Sudan is the first real challenge for the newly organized Department of Migrant Workers. The performance of the young department, supported by our dedicated diplomats, convinces us about the correctness of establishing this new agency.

Our migrant workers is a large community contributing invaluably to the domestic economy. They deserve the DMW.

Greater Taguig

After nearly three decades of intense legal battles, the land dispute between Makati and Taguig has finally been settled. The Supreme Court has ruled with finality that the lands once covered by the Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation belong to Taguig by superior legal rights and historic title. No further appeals will be entertained.

Once a backwater community trapped between the lake and Fort Bonifacio, Taguig has now emerged as possibly the most vibrant local economy in the metropolis, helped by a progressive local government. It now has legal jurisdiction over large tracts of some of the most expensive real estate stretching from the Marine headquarters to the Global City to the former residential areas reserved for enlisted personnel.

The legal squabble began in March 1992, after a law was passed creating the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA). The new agency began overseeing the military installations vacated by the US military. With the decision to privatize and commercialize Fort Bonifacio to help fund the modernization of our armed forces, the large military reservation was put under the control of the BCDA. The BCDA entered into a joint venture with private developers to build a new commercial district.

Makati filed suit, contesting the award of the former military reservation to Taguig. The complex legal squabble worked its way up from the trial courts to the Appellate Court and finally to the Supreme Court.

The portions of the sprawling piece of real estate incontestably belonging to Taguig developed very quickly, with the local government offering lower tax rates to attract businesses into the new district. Meanwhile, Makati was prohibited from constructing in the contested portions. This explains the sharp differences between the Global City and the Cembo and Pembo districts Makati was contesting.

With the Supreme Court decision, Taguig can now move ahead with the development of Cembo and Pembo districts. Ironically, Makati’s city university and medical facility are located in areas that now belong to Taguig. We may now expect the formerly contested areas to partake of the frenetic pace of commercial development happening in the Global City.

Even before the land dispute was settled with finality, Taguig benefited from forward-looking local executives that set the standards for local government in the National Capital Region. With full control of the Global City area, Taguig will now benefit from the revenue windfall from this highly developed commercial space.

All these set the stage for the emergence of Taguig as a powerhouse local economy. The local leaders of this city have set very high governance standards for themselves. If the quality of local leadership is sustained, the future looks very bright for residents of this city.

Those who have settled in Taguig’s booming housing developments and those who have moved their businesses in the vibrant growth of Global City expect nothing less.