Many countries depend on Philippine workers

Many countries depend on Philippine workers

Michael L. Tan, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Asia News Network, Manila

Let's imagine the entire world waking up one day to discover
Filipinos have disappeared. I'm talking here about the six or
seven million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries
with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe.
Let's not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared;
in fact, it becomes academic whether it's a day or a week. Just
imagine a world without Filipinos.

Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino
housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as
kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and
Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and
realizing, goodness, there's so much of housework that has to be
handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what's this
strange language they're babbling in?

It's not just the children that are affected. The problems are
even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing
institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much
of the critical services they need.

When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among
non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino
caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra
patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.

Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the
disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health
professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from
children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are
indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech
pathologists, occupational and physical therapists.

Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won't
take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious.
Patients are told to follow their doctors' written orders and, if
they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical
sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new
complaints. The websites aren't working because of missing
Filipino web designers and website managers.

Service establishments throughout the world -- restaurants,
supermarkets, hotels -- all close down because of their missing
key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia, hotels
complain about the missing bands and singers.

In the United States, many commercial establishments have to
close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff
but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices
about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone
into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.

The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency
recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another
crisis: They're running out of supplies of oil for their ships
because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill
without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for
the oil industry.

Frantic presidents and prime ministers call on the United
Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but
Kofi Annan says he can't do that because the UN system itself is
on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical
staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main
headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as their regional
offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services,
especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down
because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.

Annan also explains that he can't convene UN meetings because
the airports in New York, Washington and other major US cities
have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos
included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check
passengers and their baggage.

Annan calls on the World Bank and international private
foundations for assistance but they're crippled, too, because
their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen.
Funds can't be remitted and projects can't run without the
technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.

An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and
pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic
Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the
many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day
activities, as well as missionaries in the frontlines of remote
posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.

As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: The
world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared.
It isn't just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly
handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there's much less laughter now
that the Filipinos aren't around, both the laughter of the
Filipinos and those they served.

I know, I know, I'm exaggerating the contributions of
Filipinos to the world but I'm doing what the producers of A Day
Without Mexicans had in mind: Using a bit of hyperbole to shake
people up. As their blurb for the film goes: "How do you make the
invisible, visible? Make them invisible."

As I wrote this column, I did realize I was doing this not so
much for the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Singaporeans and
Americans who don't appreciate us enough, than for us, who as
Filipinos, are pretty good at putting ourselves down, at making
ourselves invisible.