OPINION
Usec Sarah Arriola
The OFWs and their Ownership of Social Media

Before President Rodrigo Duterte’s election in 2016, politicians did not see social media as an effective political tool. No one saw Facebook as a medium for opinion makers and influencers to sway public opinion. The 2016 presidential elections marked a paradigm shift in the use of social media. It was no longer just the platform of the elite and those who could afford to connect to the internet. Facebook was democratized and it became the ordinary Filipino’s avenue for political expression. This is especially true for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who, in the 2016 elections, showed their political muscle by giving President Duterte more than 74% of their votes and helped catapult him to presidency. Social media became the space where OFWs freely posted about their concerns as overseas Filipinos. This would eventually help shape the turnout of the elections. Today, social media, particularly Facebook, is the most potent and viable tool of the Philippine government to reach our overseas Filipinos and vice versa. Facebook is now the voice of OFWs.

After 2016, the Philippine government quickly adapted to the changing social media landscape. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), for instance, had its foreign service posts maintain Facebook pages where it can be easily reached. For countries that do not allow Facebook, social media platforms like WeChat were set up. Heads of Posts also learned how to use social media to reach the Filipino community. Consequently, the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs in September 2019 decided to create an official Facebook page, “OFW Help”, which is dedicated to the emergencies of overseas Filipinos. It has a messaging function which is attended to 24/7 where OFWs can relay their concerns. In fact, several overseas Filipinos have been repatriated after simply messaging the page.

OFW Help is the fastest and most direct way for OFWs to reach the Philippine government during their most urgent need. Many Facebook Live videos of OFWs asking for assistance have become viral and have found their way to OFW Help and to mainstream media. Most of these videos show overseas Filipinos asking to be repatriated. Some videos, however, additionally showed tales of abuse. The calls are usually addressed to Tatay Digong (President Duterte’s sobriquet) asking for immediate help. Whether it is a quest for justice, a plea for help or a request for repatriation, Facebook has been the tool of communication between the Philippine government and the OFWs.

Town hall meetings with overseas Filipinos have also become possible because of video conferencing applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Webex. These OFW Town Halls have become venues for overseas Filipinos to engage in dialogues with their embassies and consulates as well as with the DFA home office in Manila. This has become a way for the Philippine government to check in on the current situation of OFWs and to attend to their major concerns.

Recently, stranded OFWs in Uzbekistan were able to come home after posting their requests for repatriation through social media. The Philippine Embassy in Tehran, Iran did something that was thought to be impossible – it was able to mount a chartered flight in a country without a Philippine embassy, consulate, or honorary consul and which was also on lockdown. The OFWs themselves organized and martialed their ranks to make the repatriation a success.

It is worth noting that it is not only the executive department which uses social media to reach out to the OFW community. In fact, in one of the hearings in the House of Representatives (House) last June, several OFWs from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were invited to inquire on the whole-of-government approach of agencies to the COVID pandemic. As a result of that inquiry, Congress granted DFA a budget augmentation of 820 million as part of the Bayanihan 2 Act, to be used for its repatriation and COVID-19 response programs.

As of this writing, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano announced that the 2021 House Budget hearing will involve public participation. Given these recent developments, it is not unlikely that OFWs from all around the world will be made to participate in matters that involve their sectors.

In this age of COVID-19, physical distancing is the key to fight the virus. Distancing, however, has the net effect of drawing people apart. Luckily, social media is here to bridge the gap. No matter how far apart we are, no matter where we are, and in spite of the lockdowns, social media allows us to connect with each other and it enables us to be closer to our migrant workers. Social media brings our people closer to home, and it makes the government and its services just a click away.

To date, Facebook is the social media platform of choice for Filipinos. As of 2019, it is estimated that some 75 million Filipinos are Facebook users. Worldwide, there are an estimated 2.60 billion monthly active users of Facebook, around 1.73 billion of whom are visiting the social networking site on a daily basis. Among those active users are our OFWs who continually reach out to each other, to their embassies and consulates, to their families and friends back home and to the Philippine government. If there is any consolation in this pandemic, it is that it thankfully happened at a time where we have a safe and efficient platform to reach each other in lieu of face-to-face communication.

As the Philippines, being a country of origin, remains the gold standard in migrant protection, it in turn continues to lead the way in leveraging technology to empower its migrants. The Philippines not only adjusted to this new method of communication; it fully embraced social media as a vital means of communication.

Many Filipinos have lost so much during this pandemic. The Filipino migrant community, however, gained something: it found a stronger link to its government, thereby making it closer and more responsive to their needs.

Indeed, OFWs own social media. Much like any owner, it is, therefore, up to them on how they will maximize it. On the flipside, the challenge to the government is how it will be able to continue to leverage social media in serving the sector that is one of the closest, if not the closest, to every Filipino’s heart.

Usec Sarah Arriola
Department of Foreign Affairs Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA)
https://www.facebook.com/OFWHelpPH
Sep 2, 2020
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