The morning schedule was allotted for registration of delegates. The conference organizers provided  a kit containing various materials and brochures about the conference, its organizers and its sponsors. (See Annex 4 for the conference kit’s contents)

Opening Ceremonies

The conference was opened to the beating of gongs and an indigenous welcome ritual performed by Kaliwat Theatre Collective, a Mindanao-based theatre group.    As a way to introduce the conference participants, a short action song called was sung as the participants stood up to be acknowledged.

Kumusta ka kaibigan, Bumati ka, Madayaw!,

Hello everyone – welcome to Davao

Araw ay masaya, Tayo ay masigla

Pumalakpak, pumalakpak, Lahat ay masaya

Participants from the NGO groups in Luzon and  the National Capital Region (NCR), were presented and recognized.  Participants from the NGOs in Visayas and Mindanao, the POs and the Seafarers groups were also presented.   International participants from Europe,  Asia, Middle East and other countries, and from the banking/micro-finance sector, government and the technical working staff comprised of the facilitators, documentors and the secretariat were acknowledged by the facilitators.  

Welcome Remarks

Atty. Ildefonso Bagasao, chairperson of ERCOF, officially welcomed the participants to the conference.   Dignitaries, partners, fellow workers, staff, volunteers and friends and their corresponding development efforts were acknowledged prior to his address.    He urged the delegates to maximize the conference for full dialogue . He stressed that although not all questions about the economic concerns of migrants could be answered during the three-day conference , he wished that  it could  be the  venue for a substantial exchange of ideas among the delegates that may lead to concrete mechanisms for economic linkaging.   He presented a brief history of ERCOF as a relatively new organization, which was set up only in 1999 and started off with only four (4) volunteers.  He shared the thought that after more than two years of research and consultations, a conference of this nature was conceived, to provide the opportunity for ERCOF’s theories, assumptions and vision on economic empowerment for overseas Filipinos to   be validated.  He also emphasized that including a migrant socio-economic agenda  into community building efforts, offer  new grounds to break for the development of local economies.  He was confident that the objectives of the conference as indicated in the theme will be met because of the acknowledged  presence of many of the best and the brightest people not only among overseas Filipino groups but also from the development world.    (See Annex 5 for the opening remarks)

Mr. Damaso Vertido, the Executive Director of MLF gave a short welcome speech as the Philippine host.  He welcomed all the participants to Davao and emphasized that the conference should be a venue for an open dialogue.    He urged the delegates to explore and come up with novel ideas on how to optimize the resources, both human and financial that can be offered by the overseas Filipinos sector.  He also wished that some solutions to pressing migrants’ issues could be discussed during the conference.  A dynamic and fruitful conference was what he wished for all the participants, conference convenors and resource persons.

Presentation of Conference Rationale

Ms. Cristina Liamzon, Secretary of ERCOF provided the context for the conference. She also acknowledged the presence of participants who represented the different sectors of civil society and went on to say that Davao was just the right venue for the conference given the abundant resources and especially human and cultural diversity that could be made available to the participants.  She discussed the rather long title and expressed the wish that the rural and urban linkage will be made  part of the workshop discussions.  The long title of the conference, she said, emphasized the  direction that ERCOF aims to pursue.  She stressed that it is high time to really examine the economic aspect of migration and how these can be maximized to be of assistance to the development of local communities.

Ms. Liamzon highlighted  the  objectives of the conference :

1.      Identify problems, issues and concerns related to overseas Filipino workers most especially on economic issues and remittances;

2.      Conduct an environmental scanning on the state of government policies and accompanying programs and private sector initiatives related to migrant workers and migrant economic initiatives;

3.      Come up with concrete recommendations and suggestions that will respond to the identified issues and concerns;

4.      Establish mechanisms that will consolidate the different initiatives as well as support and ensure continuity of advocacies.

She explained that the goals for the three-day conference may sound ambitious but she hoped for more synergy and more collaboration between the participants.  Part of ERCOF’s wish list was to get better ideas on what other groups are doing, to gather much more regularly together for new activities and to see this affair as moving towards and directing most of the groups to the theme. 

Keynote Address

Mr. Andres G. Panganiban

President, New Rural Bank of San Leonardo(Nueva Ecija)

President,  Federation of Central Luzon Rural Banks and

Convenor, Luzon  Rural Bankers  Conference on Standards, Micro finance and Local Economies (SMILES)

Mr. Ed Caharian, Executive Director of Managing Alternative Groups, Inc. and one of the conference facilitators, introduced the keynote speaker, Mr. Andres “Boypee”Panganiban.  (See Annex 6 for details of the speaker’s background)

Mr. Panganiban recounted his morning activities, which included sampling some of the native products of Davao, which was one of the reasons why he enjoys coming to Mindanao.   His topic was on “Overseas Filipino Investments for the Development of Local Economies”. He defined Overseas Filipinos (OFs) to include citizens, immigrants, refugees in Sabah and all other Filipino people abroad.  His discussion points were divided into five aspects as follows:

1.      Filipino Overseas Labor Migration

2.      Remittances (The Culture of Remittance, Channels, Utilization)

3.      The Challenge – Directing Remittances Towards Productive Use (The Cultural Shift, Planned Reintegration, Link with the Other Pillars of the Local Economies, 

4.      The New Rural Bank of San Leonardo – Its Role in OF Reintegration (NRBSL Products with Preventive Perspective, NRBSL Products with Reintegrative Perspective, The Enterprising Perspective for Overseas Filipino Workers)

5.      CERTAIN – Center for Rural Training on Entrepreneurship

Statistical data were provided to support the presentation. The following major issues were highlighted: 

·         The source of RP’s dollar reserves are no longer from export earnings but from OFW remittances. Only P 6 to 7 Billion is recorded as sent through formal channels.  Money inserted  in letters mailed, sent through friends returning home, or tucked into the so- called balikbayan boxes and other informal methods,   are not recorded.

·         These dollar remittances are converted to pesos when sent thru banks.  The banks earn income by maintaining the strong dollar currency and using it for Letters of Credit (LOC) needed by exporters and importers. Although the OFs send the dollars, they are still made to pay  high service charges for it.

·         Working abroad is a forced option in order to earn and survive.  Remittances are utilized to pay debts incurred not only by all members of the immediate family but also  to fulfill  various requests of the extended members of the family.  An OF cannot immediately save from his or her earnings during the first few  years abroad due to this reality.  There is a need for OFs to prepare for and  to seriously consider investing their earnings in anticipation  of  their  retirement and reintegration back  to Philippine society.

·         OFWs use their earnings for the construction of new houses to show that their overseas employment was a success. This is not all that bad, because  increased  construction activities may also translate to or reflect  favorable economic conditions  in some areas.  But it is high time that NGOs should not only focus their guidance and counseling efforts  on OFW legal and political concerns such as rape, illegal termination and others but also to reach out to  economically successful OFWs, of which there are also many,  and advise them to help our economy and invest in enterprise projects. 

·         There are many concrete and tangible ways to help direct OF remittances towards productive use.  One is culture shift:  OFs have no obligation to give money to all members of the extended family.   An OFW should have an investment fund and an investment manager to provide financial  advice.   There is a need to strengthen links with other agencies such as OWWA, DTI, LGUs, etc. which can provide information on new enterprises and possible projects which they can go into.

Mr. Panganiban  proposed the establishment of a rural entrepreneurship training institute which will be known with the acronym CERTAIN,  and gave the information that the NRBSL may launch this in the near future in collaboration with Kanlungan Centre and ERCOF.  Finally, he asked participants to join him in chanting “Move the Economy” which is the suggested slogan (or mantra) for all these endeavors.  (See Annex 7 for his handout)

Open Forum

The floor was opened for questions after the presentation.  Among the questions were as follows:

Pax:     For the information of everybody, there is a program of DTI to assist entrepreneurs.  Private cooperators are continuously implementing this.  I am interested with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and have established linkages with most of them in Mindanao.  Financial institutions play an important role in developing the local economy.  I came across a study on micro-finance.  The result showed that only few rural banks are into micro-finance.

Boy:    I refute that. We are very much into micro-finance, the fact that we are in the countryside.  Every rural bank is a micro-finance practitioner.

Pax:     Is there enough effort from RBAP to provide micro financing?

Boy:    We are very much involved in micro-finance.  We will have a conference on April 17-19 with a theme on micro-finance.

Seafarers:      Most of our months are spent inside ships, thus, we don’t know much about what is happening outside.  We are not in the mainstream.  When our relatives request for a car so that they can operate a taxi, we immediately give it.   We don’t know how to run businesses whether it is a piggery, chicken or tilapia raising.  We have no entrepreneurial skills.  We need a program for integration or an intensive seminar before we can engage in business especially if we have savings of P 1 Million.  This is the very first thing to do for OFWs.

Boy:    If the money is that much – P 1M, don’t hurry and engage in business with a relative.  Do it slowly but surely.  Look at good studies on business ventures, go on study tours, scan the environment, know emerging industries, and link up with NGOs for more information before starting the  business. 

Pax:    Many rural banks are engaged in micro-finance programs.  As  OFs, we are planning to establish an Internet service in our rural area.  We want to borrow money from rural banks but the interest is high, higher than commercial banks.  It is difficult to borrow P 1M but we  want to patronize local banks.

Boy:    If the interest rate is high, you should look for other banks for possible financing.  P 1M for rural banks is already a high-risk venture given their capital.  Despite our high interest rate, we still have many women market vendor clients.  A  cash flow analysis would show that borrowers   can pay off the 20% per month interest because they earn a daily income from their mark-up of 30%.  Interest rate is not the problem.  However, you can still go to commercial banks, which offer lower rates.

Workshop 1

The sectoral caucus followed after the open forum.  The caucus mechanics

were given and the delegates were divided into five groups according to

sectors:

1.      NGOs in the Philippines

2.      POs (those forming self-help or cooperative organizations)

3.      OFS (groups/organizations based aboard and other service organization)

4.      Micro-finance/Banking sector

5.      Seafarers Group

Originally the micro-finance/banking and seafarers sectors were categorized as one group. Upon the strong suggestion of   Fr. Jack Walsh  a separate group for seafarers was formed.  From among the members of the groups, a facilitator, documentor and rapporteur were assigned to handle the workshop:

The following were the  guide questions for  the workshop discussions:

·         What are the problems and issues present in host countries and in the Philippines that hinder Overseas Filipinos’ need to maximize, save or repatriate their earnings, and their natural desire to help their country through philanthropy and the transfer of acquired skills and technology?

 

·         What are the existing programs, services and policies of government and civil society that effectively address the economic needs of Overseas Filipinos and to what extent are migrants’ earnings and remittances geared towards the productive use through employment and livelihood generation and the development of local economies?

Delegates from donor and government agencies were requested to  choose a  group, which they felt they were comfortable to join.  As a reminder, the facilitator suggested that the workshop reports should  have the three S’s,  for “Solid, Sharp and Short”. 

Plenary Session

Order of presentation was done alphabetically; Banking/Micro-finance started which was followed by the NGOs, OFs, POs, and lastly the Seafarers. After each reporting, and to sustain the liveliness of the sessions, the facilitators introduced various and novel kinds of handclaps to acknowledge  the effort of individual workshop groups.  (See Annex 8 for Workshop 1 outputs)