In 2022, 1.21 million Filipino workers were officially deployed abroad1. These figures do not include undocumented migrant workers. Majority of those deployed were employed in domestic work but there is a growing increase in health workers leaving the country especially during and after the pandemic. Our country is also the number one supplier of seafarers in the world2.
The Philippines has been exporting labor since the 1970’s under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are the perennial savers of the economy. Our country is consistently one of the top five remittance-receiving countries in the world with $34.9 billion in 20203.
Sadly, the same factors that drove Filipinos to look for greener pastures abroad in the 1970’s – massive poverty, unequal distribution of wealth, unregulated and expanding access of multi-national corporations to our natural resources, natural and human-made calamities – still force our people to migrate today under the present dispensation.
The hardships and challenges that Filipino migrant workers experienced then in labor receiving countries such as racism, discrimination and xenophobia, and the inability of the Philippine government to provide adequate protection, still ring true today. Our OFWs still sacrifice their emotional, mental and social well-being just to provide for their families back home.
In our collective study, we are reminded about the role of the NCCP through our former General Secretary, Bp. La Verne D. Mercado, in the establishment of the Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW) in Hong Kong in 1981. The MFMW is an ecumenical organization that provides direct services to migrants, empowering them to organize themselves and accompanying them in their advocacy and lobbying for their rights and welfare. MFMW is also active in the Asia-Pacific Interfaith Network for the Rights of Migrants (AP-INFORM), the expression of the Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM)4 in the region. As a testament to its outstanding work, and an affirmation of NCCP’s prescience and vision, MFMW General Manager Cynthia Abdon-Tellez5 was proclaimed the 2023 HOPE Hero of the Year for her work and commitment to the rights and welfare of migrant workers6.
As we celebrate the 60th anniversary and with our spirits buoyed by NCCP’s legacy in working for the rights and welfare of migrants, we pledge to continue putting up programs and services in our local churches and overseas missions, or a desk for migrant workers and their families’ concerns in the communities they are in, without having to convert them to our faith.
We also commit to further deepen our understanding of forced migration and work for durable and sustainable solutions including those that free our people from poverty and hunger and protect our planet.
We will also continue speaking truth to power with our migrant sisters and brothers, about the systematic export of our people that is further intensified under the administration of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. through the Department of Migrant Workers.
Lastly, we affirm our hope for the day when there will be no need for anyone to leave their families for material gain, inspired by these words from the Holy Scriptures “…hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1243681/philippines-deployed-overseas-workers/
[2] https://unctad.org/press-material/asia-expands-its-lead-maritime-trade-and-business
[3] https://worldmigrationreport.iom.int/wmr-2022-interactive/
[4] The Churches Witnessing With Migrants CWWM is an international tripartite network of grassroots migrants, migrant-serving groups and organizations, and varied religious and faith-based institutions dedicated to the proposition that all human beings have inherent, inviolable human dignity and protected human rights. The NCCP and Migrante International were its originators.
[5] Ms. Abdon-Tellez, who is a member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, was also the featured speaker in the NCCP Gumersindo Garcia Memorial Lecture on Ecumenism on November 23, 2023. In 1980, she was convinced by Bp. Mercado to conduct a study on the conditions of domestic helpers and see what kind of assistance they need.
[6] https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/10/07/hope-hero-awards-heroism-knows-no-age-and-capability/
*This statement was approved unanimously by the delegates of the 26th General Convention of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines on November 24, 2023.
