OFWs as Catalysts for Change

More than 2,000 Filipinos leave the country everyday. That's 730,000 Pinoys every year, including Gloria's holidays. Foreigners, like that Israeli expert whose name escaped my mind, would see it as a disadvantage. I see the opposite.

The more Filipinos going abroad, the more the country benefits. Why?

We benefit not solely on the $ 10 billion they fork up to support their families here. We benefit because each and every one of them could be potential revolutionists.

Think about it--we are an isolated people. Our country lies strategically distant from mainland Asia. There's no steady flow of other races mixing into ours. Unlike Malaysia and Singapore where peoples integrate into their cultures and refine it, we remain terribly backward because of our location.

My Singaporean friend describe the Philippines as looking Asian but doing everything Western (or should I say eclectic Westernism). We're a melting pot of differing world cultures that contributes in the dissolution of our own culture. Reason why we're so fucked up as a people is the fact that we don't really know who we are but we sure know everything new about the West (and slowly, even the East).

That's why I'm glad that Pinoys are leaving this country. That's one way of comparing our interpretation of systems with that of other countries.

When I was in Singapore, I studied that island-state and found many things that could be applied here. My friends would say that the reason why the Singaporean model could never be replicated here is the fact that its so small and contiguous while the Philippines is many times larger. But no.

That model can be applied anywhere. That systems model can be applied even in larger constituency structures such as ours. The main idea of this model is efficiency. Period. We can apply efficiency in all areas of governance, no sweat, provided we have the political will to break the chain of inefficiency and lackluster government.

Those who go to Western countries such as Canada and the States could very well study their systems and apply it here when they come back. They can experience how democracy works and see if these things could lead to a modification of what we interpret democracy here.

Overseas Pinoys are now being exposed to differing cultures, differing governance models and differing ideologies that we can study and apply to our advantage. What we lack is a venue to be able to ventilate these thoughts and put it into an agenda for change.

Every Pinoy returning to our country should be debriefed and interviewed. That way we'll know his thoughts about systems and structures. These data should be collated and sent to a government think-tank for study.

By the way, this May, there's a gathering of Pinoys at the University of Makati. Called the Global Filipino Nation, it urges Global-minded Pinoys to gather in one place and talk about change. I think this is the call of the times. We should participate.