"We should treat everyone with dignity."
"We should treat everyone with dignity."
For many years, our overseas workers and business process outsource companies have been key contributors to the country’s economic growth. Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, there were 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers during the period of April to September 2019. In that same year, OFW remittances hit a record high of $33.5 billion, comprising 9.3 percent of the gross domestic product, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Meanwhile, from January to September 2019, revenues from the BPO industry reportedly amounted to $16.4 billion. The BPO sector has also provided sources of income to more than a million Filipinos for the past years and has helped many Filipinos ease away from extreme poverty.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected not only the economic performance, but also the general welfare of these two sectors. The government has already repatriated around 56,000 OFWs since the pandemic began. There are still thousands of OFWs that are anticipated to arrive in the country in the next few months. The returning OFWs will then have to face the struggle of finding employment here in the country. Sadly, before that happens, these OFWs already had to endure the tedious and nebulous process for the mandatory COVID-19 testing and quarantine. To add salt to the wound, after the quarantine, many of them were stranded in airports for days due to cancelled flights, leaving them worried and uncertain about when they will get home. They were also anxious about the risks of COVID-19 transmission. In the past weeks, we have seen news reports showing stranded OFWs who slept on the streets and under flyovers. They have exhausted all their money for food since their arrival.
On the other hand, many BPO employees have been put on floating status, with no work and no pay since the start of the enhanced community quarantine. Despite the easing of restrictions under the general community quarantine, not all employees can afford to physically report to work due to limitations in public transport and the ongoing threat of COVID-19. Some resort to a work-from-home arrangement. However, not all are capable of doing so due to lack of access to stable internet connection and lack of computers and other needed equipment. With this, BPO employees fear possible retrenchment due to the continued low productivity of their companies.
As the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot lose sight of the valid and urgent concerns of our overseas workers and BPO employees. What is happening today is discouraging as we fail to address their immediate needs and deliver reliable services and information. Now is the time to remind ourselves of their hard work and sacrifices, and pay them back for saving the country from financial distress.
The national government should review the protocols for returning OFWs in order to improve screening for COVID-19 and ensure that disease transmission to and among returning OFWs is rigorously and diligently prevented. There remains the need to ensure that these returnees will strictly adhere to the mandatory testing and quarantine to accurately rule out the risks to their families and communities once they get home. There must also be adequate facilities in and out of Manila as well as transport services that will cater to these returning heroes while observing proper social distancing and other health and safety measures.
Furthermore, let us give proper respect to our OFWs who died from COVID-19 by allowing them to be buried here, in their home country. The government should also be ready to give assistance to OFWs who are afflicted with COVID-19 abroad.
For the BPO sector, companies should provide the necessary support to their employees the best way they can in the midst of this pandemic. Proper transport services should be provided by the company to bring employees safely to the offices and back home should the employees be required to physically report to work. The government should also look into the plight of workers who experience labor-related abuses and are victims of unfair labor practices.
We are all under distress. The situation calls for a more considerate and humane environment, given the struggles many of us face as we survive day to day. Everyone must extend help to those who need it and remember to treat everyone with dignity as we, as a nation, conquer this pandemic.