FORTY-EIGHT Filipinos are waiting to be executed in Malaysia for various offenses, it was reported last month. Many more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are on the list for execution in other nations around the world.
In a country that has millions of its population working abroad, many undocumented, a rise on the number of OFWs to be executed for one crime or another is a glaring reality, as the global economic crisis aggravates job uncertainty abroad.
At least a thousand OFWs leave daily to work abroad because of unemployment here. For every OFW, it is not a choice but a requisite to leave the Philippines for their family to survive. It’s an adjustment to the inability of the government to create jobs for the millions unemployed. Many more are to add to this number this graduation season. Compounding the problem is the steady stream of OFWs fleeing the violence in the volatile Middle East. What is the government doing to help them find employment here? They may end up in low-paying and temporary jobs, or suffer from having no jobs at all, thereby bloating the already huge unemployment figures. Quite tragically, the poor employment opportunities at home which push them to seek decent livelihood in other countries will still be their final destination.
The government’s domestic job generation must be enhanced for sure. But according to the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, what the government has been doing is create informal jobs.
For as long as no domestic jobs are available, the government’s main recourse is to once again seek markets abroad despite the ongoing global economic crisis that continues to displace thousands of OFWs or place them in imminent danger or war.
Unless the government addresses the bigger issue of unemployment, more Filipinos are expected to be executed abroad, or suffer the brutality of being outside the country. It’s a never-ending vicious cycle that will only end if fundamental economic reforms are in place.
