MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) went beyond its targets and was even able collect an all time high of $17.348 billion in Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) remittances in 2009.
The Commission on Audit (COA), in a report, also noted a significant increase in the deployment of OFWs last year despite the global financial crisis.
State auditors said the POEA managed to remain stable and afloat last year even in the midst of financial difficulties faced by the world.
The COA report highlighted that average deployment grew to 3,897 OFWs daily thereby generating an increase of 10.5 percent in deployed new hires as well as a 15 percent increase in rehires which is “the highest in OFW history.”
It added that the shares of Filipino seafarers also moved up to 23 percent which is a two percent increase from that of 2008 “thus reinforcing Philippine domination on ocean going vessels.”
“OFW remittances totaled an unprecedented $17.348 billion for the year and contributed 9.5 percent for the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” COA said.
“Thus, we noted that POEA either exceeded or closely met their targets for 2009,” state auditors said in citing the agency’s accomplishments.
Records show that for 2009, POEA reported an income of P392.85 million from the issuance of On-site Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) for the Balik Manggagawa (BM) Processing Services and from miscellaneous sources amounting to P12.511 million. - By Michael Punongbayan
