Government answer on OFW Exchange Rate Campaign

Last week I received an online petition / open letter to President Arroyo recommending to have a special exhange rate (Php50=$1) for OFW’s. The campaign was circulated via e-mail encouraging OFW recipient to sign online petition as a show of support. Sir Bong of OFWempowerment had already made a post about this open letter to GMA. The OFW Task Force Special Exchange Rate letter was also posted by AnaFilibini in support for the said movement. (I recommend to read the OFWempowerment & Anafilibini post link so you can read the whole concern about this issue)

The task force special exchange rate enumerates the following proposals in lieu to the continued appreciation of peso which hurts the income of OFWs:

  • Special exchange rate for OFW remittances:
  • Peg the Peso - Dollar exchange rate at P50 to $1;
  • Creation of an OFW Stabilization Fund, like the one proposed for the export sector;
  • Provision of incentives or rewards based on the amount of OFW remittance, in order to encourage OFWs to continue remitting the same amount to their families.


While OFW’s around the world are united to push for the approval of the abovementioned proposals, DOLE issued a statement ruling out the possibility of setting a fixed exchange rate for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reeling from the continued depreciation of the dollar. Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said “OFWs are already exempted from paying taxes so it’s no longer possible to provide them a special exchange rate at this time,” - read to full report here.

I think this leaves me a choice to schedule my money remittance to Philippines once every two month just to save for the money transmittal charge . Gov’t officials, you said that special exchange rate is no longer possible, could you atleast device a way to help us OFW cope up or break-even with the depreciation of dollar :(

For those OFW who havn’t signed the petition yet please visit http://petition.patnubay.com and let your sign be counted for this movement..

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Comments
Comment by rieaane on August 12, 2007 @ 10:55 am
I’ve been following this issue since few days ago, this is too bad already, I felt that my salary was reduced to 35KD for this past few months, so you’re right the best thing to do is keep our earnings here and send it at least every 2 months :( BTW thanks for posting, I hope the Phil. Gov’t will have a heart to understand our situation!
Comment by Lestat on August 12, 2007 @ 6:59 pm
when I first arrive here and signed the contract.. the offer is at 181php=1jkd… now the average rate is around 159php=1kd.. that was around 12.1% reduction of our actual salary :(…

so kelangang higpit sinturon muna..

Comment by Ana Filibini on August 18, 2007 @ 9:22 am
When I arrived it was around 190php=1KD!! Although deep down I know from the start that it’s highly unlikely that they’ll aprove, it’s still good to let them know and get our little voices heard. Thanks lestat!
Comment by Edward on September 1, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
My suggestion is to save your money in dollar account if you are not really using it. I know it will goes up like what happened before. The problem in the Philippines is irreversible like population boom, so the more people are born, the lower the job opportunities and more crime that will result to bad economy in the Philippines and will devalue the money in favor of dollars.

Let me give you an example when I arrived here in Saudi the money is P23=$1 that was when ramos is new in the government then it reached to P36=$1 and then to P55=$1 so base on the history, it is still wise to park your money in dollars if you are not using it for business. A health investment should at least earn 10% or more.

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