Commentary
OFW Corner: “Modern Heroes or Modern Slaves?”
By: Hensie Tumbagahan
Overseas Filipino Workers keep moving up the numbers from 2020 to 2024. Partida, may Covid-19 pa and lockdowns in between.
2020 – 1.77 million (rsso01.psa.gov.ph) 2023 – 2.16 million (arcsea.org) 2024 – 2.47 million (http://www.statistica.com/…/phillipines-deployed…/)I was deployed in the year 2021 as a household worker in Qatar. It’s too hard living in those times. I don’t like seeing myself, standing and waiting for “ayuda” just because we’re jobless.
I (we) tried to look for other source of income. I’m used to earning my own penny so I can’t stay and sit down on the bench and wait for my name to be called, sign some papers, and get some thousands. Phew! In one splurge, it’s gone!
I decided to go. I applied and binaba ang pride. Mas kaya kong lunukin ang pride na magtrabaho as domestic worker kesa maghintay sa tinatawag nilang “INDIGENT BENEFITS”.
For four years, I was curious how do OFW remittances help the Philippines?
Masusuka ka kapag nalaman mo ang katotohanan. Mapapamura ka talaga sa totoo lang. Kaso, why should I be concerned when most of us don’t care at all? 
We love to be called HEROES denying the fact that we are also slaves not just one… but two and may be three countries. Alam mo ang pinaka-masakit?
Pagkatapos ng sakripisyo mo sa ibang bansa, “SINO KA?”
Mas bagay yata tayong tawagin na “OFWs are pawns in the game of power by authoritarians.”
