"A Motherless Generation"..Indeed!

The latest Time magazine issue of Nov. 24th has featured the Philippines in its Society section with an article titled "The Motherless Generation", in reference to the thousands of Filipino women leaving their homes, family and children for better work opportunities abroad. Around 10 percent of the country's 87 million population are overseas workers and remitting much-needed hard currency back home. Last year alone, the total remittance was USD 17 billion is cash, a hugely significant contribution to an oil-dependent country like the Philippines.

Without the remittances, Philippines will collapse instantly a University of the Philippines professor was quoted as saying and everybody knows this, not just in the country but internationally. The country is surviving at the social cost of 9 million motherless or fatherless Filipino children and even if the Philippine government regularly commends the contribution of the Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs while it pays lip service to the moral vacuum it creates, the government is powerless to stop the trend. Exporting cheap Filipino labour force has become the country's only viable industry.

It is without forgetting that aside from a growing motherless generation, the trail of broken homes is as long as the distance between Manila and Madrid. The old traditions of family and marriage have been forced aside in favour of job opportunities one can find, anywhere in the world. A majority of Filipinos going abroad for work are women and the untold stories of failures and tragedies outnumber those of success. It is indeed a very high price to pay but the Philippine government is not complaining. It is only the little children who are crying for their mothers, who are growing up with an education in beautiful homes that have all but mother's love."