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[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | Better opportunities at home’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017
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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has returned to the country from his Middle East state visits. Around 150 repatriated overseas Filipino workers arrived with him. Each of these OFWs was given P10,000 in assistance.
This is a good time for the government and our policymakers to reexamine what leads Filipinos to seek better opportunities abroad. We must look into the circumstances that have brought about the situation.
It was unclear as of this writing if the President’s plan to bring home some OFWs on Middle East death rows was achieved.
Let’s be honest: Filipinos seek better employment opportunities abroad because there are a few in the country. They brave all the inconveniences and dangers in foreign lands with strange cultures so they could send money to their families back home. Others are fortunate to have good employers.
But others are not as unlucky. They are abused and exploited. Others figure in crimes or framed up for crimes they did not commit such as trafficking illegal drugs. Poverty and lack of economic opportunities expose our countrymen to dangers here and abroad. These are the bigger issues facing us.
Let this be our motivation to give our people what they truly deserve: a just and progressive economy. No Filipino would dare leave the country only to become a criminal abroad. Their primary goal in working in foreign lands is to uplift their families’ living condition.
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