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Maybe the answer is not bringing down the OFW, but maybe we as a society should start celebrating the different kinds of heroes in our midst. There’s an argument that OFW are not heroes, because that would entail a sense of heroism for doing something that is meant for them and their families alone. But, I have to disagree, on a certain the level, because what is so wrong about doing something good for yourself, doing something good for your family, and ultimately helping your nation at the same time.

I mean, tell me if these things are mutually exclusive, then maybe I will concede my point, but I highly doubt that these three individual positive points in the name of overseas Filipino workers are not interwoven together.

That said, let me also make it clear, that heroes are all around us, but sometimes there is a need to focus, on certain individuals, or maybe even groups, not because they are the only heroes, but that they embody something inspiring that we can all look up to. In this case, self sacrifice for the good of family, and maybe even without intending it to be so, for the good of the nation.

In a perfect world, we would not have so many OFWs outside this nation, but this is as real as the conflict in Mindanao, we just can’t get away from that fact. And yes, the fact is that many Overseas Filipino Workers do not want to be away from their family, many OFWs do not consider it a choice by working abroad, but a neccessary evil that one must endure in order to provide for their family.

Now, it is these OFWs that my concern lies towards. That if life in our nation has forced them to be away, has forced them to separate, then that is a big problem. And yes, we do realize this problem, but there is no solution in the near future. The only way to have such a solution in place, is to finally uplift the local economy to a point that it will be competitive enough for our workers to stay in The Philippines.

That calls for a drastic change in which industries we focus on, a drastic change in many government policies that call for an isolationist point of view in terms of foreign investment policy, it calls for leaders to make unselfish and sometimes unpopular decisions, and finally it calls upon many in the public and private sector to mobilize such policies into implementation.

Much to do, the devil is in the detail, and even in such a general article as this, the complexity can be seen. But I digress, the point has been made, The OFWs deserve to be called heroes, and so do many other Filipinos, but in a time where there is so many things that we can be down about, sometimes the inspirational lives of our OFWs, through their sacrifice, reminds us that if they are willing to sacrifice, shouldn’t we.. The importance of our OFWs is immense, they provide such economic power to our turbulent economy, that it would bring such a delusional kind of disrespect to think of them otherwise.