In Search of A Future: Our Overseas Filipinos (Part II)

The oil exporting countries were awash with oil revenues with the raising of oil prices to unprecedented levels in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and the subsequent oil embargo. This in turned fueled the construction boom and building frenzy in the Middle East which led Filipino workers to the burning deserts of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran.

Libya, an Arab country in North Africa, and a member of the OPEC also greatly increased its oil revenues. Libyan cities such as Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata became familiar to many Filipino workers finding themselves working in the oil fields, construction sites, hospitals, and in the ports and airports of this oil rich nation of a few million, run by a madman who sponsored global terrorism (and who was just recently toppled from power after forty one years of authoritarian rule).

But this did not stop our countrymen from working there and petro dollars were very effective inducements indeed. The politics of Gadhafi (nor the several spelling changes that his name took: he was originally Khadafy then Kaddafi) did not matter to our OFWs as long as they get paid and were able to send their remittances to their families. The assurance of steady and well compensated employment were better reasons to stay in Libya. The unstable mental state of its leader and his dictatorial rule did not really dissuade our Filipino workers from working there. The money was good and that was what mattered. This still holds true even for today’s OFWs in Libya.

When the Libyan uprising took place earlier this year and fighting erupted in many parts of Libya, there were about thirty two thousand Filipinos (DFA estimates are twenty six thousand) according to a Red Cross estimate and the Department of Foreign Affairs reported that it was able to repatriate about 12,000 OFW’s, (meaning if we are to go by Red Cross estimates) two thirds opted to stay in spite of the heavy fighting between rebel and Gadhafi forces. In fact, the DFA in a late bulletin issued a few days ago, stated that there were about 1,400 OFWs still working in the hospitals in Tripoli that needed to be evacuated before the city was captured by rebel forces, spelling the end of Maommar’s long rule.

The oil money just continued to pour in and these countries spent it mostly on construction projects and cities literally rose on sand dunes overnight. Twelve lane highways were laid over deserts seemingly leading nowhere but in a short time, buildings rose to where these roads led. Whole factories and industrial plants were rushed to completion to match the demand of these countries for rapid modernization and progress: airports, highways, hospitals and hotels. Sure enough, Filipino workers played a big role in building the premier cities of the Middle East: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait even Baghdad.

Another country that enjoyed the petro dollar windfall was Nigeria. Nigeria went crazy with the oil bonanza and spent like mad without sound economic planning. Nigeria’s major city of Lagos erupted into a building frenzy and with their oil wealth, Nigeria splurged on luxury goods, expensive cars even yachts that had to come with a foreign crew because of the lack of Nigerian sailors to man these.

Nigeria needed then the services of Filipino professionals: mostly teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers and all kinds of technicians and for the affluent Nigerian, Filipino domestics. Nigeria went on a hiring spree and not just Filipinos but all nationalities with the expertise they needed for their drive to turn Nigeria into a modern and progressive country and though Nigeria was not able to sustain the kind of spending they did in the seventies, still there were about close to 5,000 Filipino workers by 2008 despite a travel ban issued to Filipinos and the stopping of deployment of workers to Nigeria.

The travel ban came a s a result of frequent violence against Filipinos in Nigeria which included the kidnapping for ransom of twenty four Filipino seamen in 2007. But Filipino workers are still to be found in the oil industry and in the capital city of Abuja there are Filipino teachers and nurses. Filipinos also hold skilled construction positions: pipe layers, welders and engineers and may earn as much as $10,000 a month, however they often find themselves the target of violence of local militants. Nonetheless, they continue to stay.

Eventually other non oil producing Arab countries in the Middle East but still beneficiaries of the oil bonanza (through Saudi Arabia financing) were to import Filipino workers for their bid to modernize their cities too, countries like Syria, Jordan and even war torn Lebanon. There was a time in the early eighties that Philippine passports bore a stamp that explicitly stated: “NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL TO LEBANON” but that did not deter workers from getting there through circuitous routes.

Although Lebanon experienced a civil war from 1975 to 1977 and continuing violence throughout the late seventies and well into the nineties, Filipino workers still risked life and limb for the opportunity to work even in the middle of a war. Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon was plagued by constant fighting but there were many Filipino nurses, medical professionals, teachers and domestic helpers employed even though travel there was expressly forbidden to Filipinos.

When the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982 to drive the PLO and Syrian forces out of Lebanon and secure their southern border from attacks, battles raged all over this country especially in its capital city Beirut where over ten thousand Filipinos were working despite the travel ban. Still many chose not to be repatriated back to the Philippines and crossed to Cyprus or to Greece and even Turkey to wait out the war. It seemed that even war torn places are much better than what these workers left behind in the Philippines. Today, Lebanon is host to close to forty thousand Filipino workers.

Even the non-Arab country of Iran (because of her oil revenues) became a labor destination for Filipinos and Teheran the capital city hosted a sizable Filipino community. In fact, Filipino workers have come to Iran as early as the 1960’s. Doctors, nurses, midwifes, technicians in the aircraft industry, UN employees and household workers made up the 15,000 strong Filipino community in 1974, when the Philippine Embassy was first opened in Teheran. This shows that Iran was the first country destination of most OFWs in the Middle East.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 wherein the Shah of Iran was deposed and went to exile and the ayatollahs took control, some Filipinos continued to stay and become permanent residents through marriage. Eventually, many Filipinos found life-time partners and raised good families in Iran. In fact, one of the earliest recorded Filipino-Iranian marriages is that of a Labour Attaché with an Iranian in the mid-70s.

Now, there are more than 800 recorded Filipino-Iranian families, undoubtedly the largest number in the Middle East region. There are currently 1,006 registered Filipinos in Iran who are mostly permanent residents with their family members as well as 50 documented OFWs. In a recent celebration at the Philippine Embassy just this last April, pioneer Filipinos workers were honored and given recognition for their long time employment and contribution to Filipino-Iranian relations.

Imagine, Filipinos finding permanent homes in a far flung corner of the world among an ancient people with a 5,000 year old civilization. Who could have foreseen Filipino-Iranian families, when Filipino workers started to arrive in the sixties in Iran? And as the years pass, there will be more people in Iran who will be the product of two different cultures from two distinct races; they are the children and grandchildren of our countrymen who once searched for a future and found it in Iran.

Even the Iran-Iraq War which lasted eight years (Sept 1980- Aug. 1988) did not deter Filipino workers from braving the dangers of war, just so they could work and support their families. They literally risked their lives so that they could feed and shelter their families; so that their children could go to school; so that they could save a little for their future.

For many of our workers in the Middle East and Africa, where violence and upheavals are frequently experienced, where strange peoples and even stranger cultures have to be tolerated, where loneliness and boredom are serious maladies one suffer; and where lives maybe imperilled and health jeopardized; they will endure because this is the only way they could see some hope for a future.

For some, the cost of this future comes with too high a price. We have seen many broken homes: children growing up without fathers or mothers, sometimes even both. We cannot quantify these costs: failed marriages; failed family relationships; abandonment even alienation. Others suffer mental and emotional breakdowns even to the point of suicide. It is not only the overseas worker that suffer; in a sense his family suffer with him.

Yet no matter the cost, no matter the difficulties and suffering the OFW has to face and endure, he still will chose to seek his future in a country not his own but where there is dignity to his labour because he is justly compensated. Yes, he will chose to go abroad because that is where he finds hope and a chance to dream. This chance to dream is enough to sustain him through whatever hardships he finds.