MANILA - A senior official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) encourages Filipino migrants to volunteer and “give back” to their adoptive communities, especially during times of crises and natural calamities.
In a migration forum held in Manila, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo De Vega said on Monday that the diaspora volunteerism can be “the Philippines’ leverage and diplomatic force-multiplier” given the presence of Filipinos in various countries around the world.
"We hope to encourage and train Filipinos into giving back to their host communities, including possibly contributing as volunteers during local calamities, disasters, and other crises," De Vega said.
"In such manner, our diaspora becomes not only a group of Filipinos who seek employment abroad, but more than that: they are a great gift of the Filipino nation to all peoples on earth, and our contribution to world peace and harmony," De Vega added.
De Vega also said that the country we are living now is no longer the Philippines of the past. “Our diaspora is our soft power”.
Proof of this is the growing number of Filipinos abroad reaching an estimated total of 10,854,592 as reported by the DFA to Congress. This shows that Filipinos living and working abroad comprise of “a population greater than many European countries combined,“ De Vega said.
With disasters and tragedies happening everywhere, De Vega said Filipinos "can be the rescuers, instead of needing rescue."
He added that the DFA can organize Filipinos into a voluntary global response team, noting that with more than 10 million Filipinos abroad, the department can be "overwhelmed."
When asked how to go about this, De Vega said that “integration of Filipinos in volunteer work and their mainstreaming with their host governments worldwide is key.”
De Vega added that integrating each Foreign Service Post's contingency plans, together with their Filipino community umbrella groups, is a challenge, particularly in times of national disasters.
To address this, he said Philippine embassies and consulates have been issued circulars to submit a master list of Filipino community organizations and contact persons in all the countries under their jurisdiction, for the purpose of creating an international list of Filipino organizations worldwide. Ideally, each country falling within a Philippine Foreign Service post's jurisdiction must have a national coordinating umbrella organization or “Council of Filipino Community organizations”, De Vega explained.
Once these umbrella councils worldwide are catalogued and documented, De Vega said the next step is to train their volunteers, in the spirit of Republic Act 9148 or the "Volunteer Act of 2007" - this time for implementation abroad - to conduct rescue and rehabilitation work in their respective countries.
“Through the process, Filipinos abroad can get accredited by the volunteer or state-sanctioned volunteer and relief/rescue organizations of their host governments,” De Vega added.
"Disasters, calamities, famines, war and pandemics are part of the new normal, worldwide. Instead of burying our heads in the sand, Filipinos must stand up, rise up and become a global common good, providing voluntary relief and rehabilitation services, for free, in the spirit of such groups as the Salvation Army, Médecins Sans Frontières, or the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies," De Vega said.
