Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 17) — The deployment rate of overseas Filipino workers has increased by 20% to 40%, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or OWWA said.
According to OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac, the deployment rate has begun to slowly normalize. But he did not mention a specific time period for the said increase.
“Nakikita natin na nag no-normalize na yung pag alis ng mga kababayan natin slowly but surely. Of course, hindi pa ganap yung dating deployment rate natin as compared to the pre-COVID period.”
[Translation: We see that the deployment of our OFWs has started to normalize, slowly but surely. Of course, it still cannot be compared with the deployment rate before COVID happened.]
Cacdac said during the Laging Handa briefing on Thursday that OFWs are found to continuously send money to their loved ones here in the country despite the global health crisis.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, money sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to grow in October by 2.5%.
The BSP said personal remittances reached $3.044 billion, or around ₱146 billion, compared to last year’s $2.969 billion. This also marks the second month of growth since the previous month.
The jump was attributed to remittances coming from land-based workers which increased 3.3% compared to the same period last year. Cash sent by sea-based workers also grew by 1.2%.
