Filipino seamen’s remittances up by 5.5%—TUCP

RP sailors on foreign ships to hit .5M in 5 years

INQUIRER.net
Posted date: May 26, 2009

MANILA, Philippines—Remittances from Filipino sailors increased by 5.52 percent (or $41.851 million) to $800.535 million in the first quarter versus $758.684 million in the same period in 2008, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said Tuesday.

TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said this is higher than the cash wired home by land-based migrant Filipino workers which grew by only 2.03 percent (or $64.697 million) to $3.256 billion in the first quarter compared to $3.191 billion in the same period in 2008.

"The rate of increase in remittances from sea-based Filipino workers abroad continues to outpace considerably the growth rate in money transfers from land-based laborers," he noted in a statement.

And Herrera attributed the continued growth in remittances from sea-based Filipino workers increased deployment on account of global demographics.

“Despite the severe global recession, compared to a decade ago, the world’s economy and population today are much larger, thus requiring more ships to move all sorts of commodities faster across continents,” he pointed out.

He also said a growing number of American, European, and Japanese sailors are fast approaching retirement age, and are being replaced wholesale by younger Filipinos.

"Western and Japanese sailors are also increasingly shunning jobs on board ships, preferring shipping desk or port-related jobs instead," he added.

Remittances from sea-based workers are also partly being propped up by Filipino hospitality workers on cruise ships, according to Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment, and human resources development.

The global economic crisis raised the specter of thousands of Filipino sailors returning home jobless as shipping slows down with trade.

Barring a catastrophic global economic depression, he said the over 350,000 Filipino sailors on foreign vessels at any given time could easily rise to 500,000 in five years.

In the first quarter, the top 10 sources of remittances from Filipinos sailors were the United States ($399.912 million); Japan ($75.057 million); Norway ($70.351 million); Great Britain ($56.323 million); Germany ($50.82 million); Singapore ($32.178 million); Greece ($29.342 million); Cyprus ($15.773 million); the Netherlands ($12.233 million); and Denmark ($11.054 million).

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas earlier reported that total remittances from migrant Filipino workers (based on both land and sea) expanded by 2.7 percent (or $106.548 million) to $4.057 billion in the first quarter versus $3.950 billion in the same period in 2008.

Of the $106.548 million year-on-year net increase in remittances, 40 percent was from sea-based workers, while 60 percent was from those based on land.

Herrera, meanwhile, urged the government to step up pressure on shipping firms and their staffing agencies to secure the release of the last 44 Filipino sailors still being held captives at sea by Somali pirates on board four vessels.