OF the some 9 million Filipinos working in about 200 countries, many of them mothers, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz raised concern on the rising socially damaging “care drain” affecting their children these working mothers had to leave home.
Baldoz said the government and the private sector should cooperate to give importance to the enormous contribution of migrant workers to the progress of the country and to nation-building, hinting at possible public-private effort to ease the effects of family separation.
Baldoz made the call during the granting of the “Ten Outstanding Children of Overseas Filipino Workers” awards sponsored by the Bank of Philippine Islands.
“The most important thing is that we have given [the migrant workers’ children] the tools of a rewarding life so that they can appreciate the past, understand the present, and lay the foundation of the future; that the achievements of our present and past awardees only show that the social cost of human mobility and migration does not hinder the success of family members left behind, especially the children,” Baldoz said in her speech.
She added children of Filipino migrant workers suffer greater challenges when their parents leave for jobs abroad and had to bear the pain of physical separation.
However, she noted that most Filipino children of overseas workers show resiliency and ability to adapt to a life outside the protective care of their migrant parents.
She added children of migrant workers have the opportunity, and many have acquired the ability, to know the real meaning of sacrifice, accept it with a joyful heart, and not treat it as a difficult obligation.
BPI President Aurelio Montinola III said the awardees, defined by their own experiences of having Filipino expat parents, “have given remarkable insights on initiating change toward the development of our nation, offering a glimpse of hope that our country’s future will be brighter and better.”
Montinola conferred the awards to Anne Dorcas Domingo, a third-year student of the Ateneo de Manila University; Dean Cris Acabo, a fourth-year chemical engineering student of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan;
Jaybhett Andal, a first-year sociology student of the University of Santo Tomas; Johna Pauline Mandac, a first-year medicine student of the University of the Philippines-Manila; Mark Eden Eliaga and Rizaldie A. Zambra Jr., both fourth-year marine transportation students of the John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University-Arevalo;
Randel Bernandino, a fourth-year psychology student of De La Salle University-Lipa; Threscia Grace Robles, a fourth-year Bachelor of Science in Packaging Engineering student of Mapua Institute of Technology; Jo Jan Paul Peñol, a third-year political science and public administration student at the Central Philippine University in Iloilo, and Patrick Maria Unso, a second-year psychology student at the De La Salle University.
