26
In addition to being a solution to the educated unemployment problem, the benefits of
overseas employment came from the foreign currency that was coming back to the country as
remittances. Figure 12 shows the amount of remittances coming from OFWs from 1975-2000.
Figure 12. Remittances of Overseas Filipino Workers, 1975-2000.
Year
Remittances
Export
Earnings
Export
Earnings (%)
GNP %
1975
103
2294
4.5
0.7
1976
111
2574
4.3
0.6
1977
213
3150
6.8
1.0
1978
291
3425
8.5
1.2
1979
365
4601
7.9
1.2
1980
421
5788
7.2
1.2
1981
545
5720
9.5
1.4
1982
810
5021
16.1
2.1
1983
944
5005
18.9
2.8
1984
659
5391
12.2
2.1
1985
687
4629
14.8
2.3
1986
680
4842
14.0
2.4
1987
792
5720
13.8
2.4
1988
857
7074
12.1
2.3
1989
973
7821
12.4
2.3
1990
1181
8186
14.4
2.7
1991
1500
8840
17.0
3.3
1992
2202
9824
22.4
4.1
1993
2230
11375
19.6
3.9
1994
2940
13483
21.8
4.4
1995
4878
17447
28.0
6.4
1996
4307
20542
21.0
5.0
1997
5742
25228
22.8
6.5
1998
4926
29496
16.7
6.2
1999
6795
8.7
2000
6050
Ratio of Remittances to:
Source: Central Bank of the Philippines as reported by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
It shows that remittances from OFWs became a large proportion of export earnings from 4.5
percent in 1975 to 28 percent by 1995. Given the large debt incurred by the Philippine
government, remittances became an important source of foreign currency for the central
government.