ShareThisAt the 9thNaFFAA Empowerment Conference
“Building the Next Generation of Community Advocates”
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, California
November 19-21, 2010
Mga mahal kong kababayan,
It gives me great pleasure to be with you today – to personally thank you for the overwhelming support that the Filipino overseas community has given to President Noynoy Aquino and for the tireless efforts and dedication shown by our ‘partners for good governance’ during the Presidential campaign.
Imelda Nicholas
Your familiar faces are most reassuring and endearing especially now that we have been given the mandate by our new President to spearhead his administration’s initiatives on behalf of our overseas Filipinos under the aegis of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas or CFO for short.
And I sincerely thank all of you who have sent warm congratulatory messages upon my appointment early this month as its Chairperson–-your words of encouragement and pledges of commitment are the best energy boosters that propel me to ’hit the ground running’.
To borrow a catch-phrase from President Noynoy – “YOU ARE MY BOSS. Kayo ang boss ko.”
And now — where do we go from here?
As we celebrate this December, the 30th year of CFO I begin to fully appreciate our awesome responsibility for and accountability to our estimated 8.54 million overseas Filipinos in about 214 countries, with 47 percent of permanent residents in these countries, 45 percent of temporary workers and 8 percent of “irregulars”.
So it is with great enthusiasm that I immediately report to you on the innovative ways that we are strengthening our connectivity with the Filipino diaspora.
Allow me to excite you—by sharing with you our newly crafted Vision and Mission:
CFO’S NEW VISION
CFO envisions a community of well-respected and proudly competitive Filipinos overseas who contribute significantly to the productivity and well-being of their countries
of residence while maintaining strong political, economic, and cultural ties with the Philippines.
CFO’S NEW MISSION
To be the Philippines’ premier institution in promoting policies, programs, and projects with Migration and Development as a framework for the strengthening and empowerment of the Filipino overseas community.
In other words—we are looking forward to the days when overseas Filipino workers are no longer portrayed as the ever-suffering victims in the world’s telenovelas; when working abroad is a matter of choice and not a “kapit-sa-patalim” kind of situation; when trafficked Filipino women, children, and mail-order brides are but a dim memory of the past.
Instead, what we see is a dynamic Filipino overseas communities—who are partners in Philippine development— colleagues in nation-building—pillars of excellence—sources of know-how and technology.
As we say in Pilipino terms of endearment – “….sapagkat kayo ay kabayan, kaibigan, kapuso, kapamilya, kabalikat….saan ka man naroon at magpakailanman!”
And as President Noynoy himself has repeatedly said: “…Ang Republika ng Pilipinas ay nandirito para sa inyo…kasama ho namin kayo sa pagtahak tungo sa matuwid na daan…”
Therefore, as YOUR Commission, CFO is poised to serve and collaborate with you in many and diverse ways according to your circumstance, your commitment, and capability. And since no two overseas Filipinos are alike in interests and needs, and because of the characteristic multiplicity even of our alliances – we will connect with you on various fronts and customize our partnerships in ways mutually beneficial and doable.
We would like to highlight some of our priorities which we crafted in our recent CFO strategic planning workshop and which will be validated futher in a forthcoming multi-sectoral conference in Manila
on December 8-9:
1) Shaping the Future by Strategizing in the Present – We believe that CFO is a catalyst that can draw all stakeholders together to provide solutions to the challenges presented by the migration phenomenon which will result in development for all
2) The Cost/Benefit Dimension of Migration – We believe that CFO is a vehicle for mitigating the cost of migration (e.g., transforming brain drain to brain gain) and an instrument for maximizing its corresponding benefits (e.g., purposive utilization of remittances in long-term instruments like the Bayan Ko bonds)
3) Mainstreaming the Migration and Development agenda – We believe that CFO plays a significant role in mainstreaming the Migration and Development agenda in other government agencies’ respective policies, programs and plans of action
To effectively serve in this capacity, the CFO must ‘walk-the-talk’ by wasting no time in translating its own goals into a workable action agenda.
To name some of these action points:
1) Accessibility – a 24/7 CFO “hotline” for victims as well as development partners; and a link to Malacanang through its Chairperson who is a member of the Cabinet with the rank of Secretary
2) Connectivity and inter-activity through on-line access to the CFO and its various program divisions
3) Knowledge Resource Management & Transparency – the timely construction of a user-friendly integrated database on Filipinos overseas in cooperation with other government agencies
4) Policy Reform – continuous advocacy/lobbying for issues & concerns of overseas Filipinos (e.g., portability of medicare, amendment to the absentee voting law, tax privileges for donors and investors who happen to be overseas Filipinos)
5) Facilitation of Processes – minimize, if not do away with red tape especially those involving donations
6) Technology Transfer – effective matching of expertise w/ beneficiaries; donors with donees
7) Programs for the Seamless Integration in the Host Country and Reintegration in the Motherland
8) Protection of Human Rights – continuous advocacy on behalf of our kababayans especially those who are victims of trafficking or those have been lured as mail-order brides
One cannot overemphasize that at the heart of all these should be: TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PARTICIPATION.
Our calls for you to increasingly participate in the Philippines hinge on our ability back home to earn your trust and gain your confidence.
This is the commitment of your new government!!
Before I close—allow me to reiterate that it is not our government’s policy to send our labor offshore and use labor migration as the basis of the country’s economic development. We see migration as one of the opportunities for self-improvement with the fortunate consequence of improving the lives of families, villages, and the entire economy.
We are not closing our eyes to the downside risks and social costs of migration. Our government is here for overseas Filipinos–-be they victims or benefactors. Migration is only one of our many options for growth and development, and we endeavor to keep it a matter of CHOICE and certainly not a matter of