KIKO BATS TO REVIEW LABOR EXPORT POLICY

Senate Majority Leader and independent re-electionist Kiko Pangilinan today urged the government to review its labor export policy targets and begin working on translating the improved economy to more and better domestic jobs.

"The government should reconsider its labor export policy and its ultimately unrealistic targets," Kiko said.

"We know that working abroad has been the best economic option for many families for almost 20 years now and its benefits should have already spawned a robust domestic economy which could provide more jobs locally. That is the case of India and China," Kiko explained.

"In the 70's and 80's, South Korea and Thailand also had a labor export policy, but because their governments were bent on a long-term plan to create a rapid and sustained growth path out of it, look at where they are now also?" Kiko lamented.

"We send out thousands of workers abroad every quarter, as part of the government's labor export policy. When accumulated, this number is potentially more than the number deployed by South Korea and Thailand in the 70's and 80's. It should not take us another 20 years to say that we are ready to develop a strong domestic economy," Kiko said, noting that the total amount of OFW remittances last year was recorded at $12.8B, 10 percent above the GDP. The Philippines is the third remittance-recipient country, after India and Mexico, but posed as the highest when remittances are measured as ratio to population, GDP and exports.

"Government projection on developing a robust domestic economy should be hastened. Even with pronouncements that our economy is improving, we cannot convince Filipinos that this is the case if many of them are still below the poverty line. This disconnection heavily suggests that the government should work more on translating these economic benefits to both social services and domestic investments," Kiko ended.