As delivered November 20, Saturday (Opening Ceremonies)

SPEECH OF SECRETARY IMELDA M. NICOLAS

OF THE COMMISSION ON FILIPINOS OVERSEAS (CFO)
9thNaFFAA Empowerment Conference
“Building the Next Generation of Community Advocates”
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, California
November 19-21, 2010

Mga mahal kong kababayan,

It gives me great pleasure to be with you today – to personally thank

you for the overwhelming support that the Filipino overseas community
has given to President Noynoy Aquino and for the tireless efforts and
dedication shown by our ‘partners for good governance’ during the
Presidential campaign.

Your familiar faces are most reassuring and endearing especially

now that we have been given the mandate by our new President to
spearhead his administration’s initiatives on behalf of our overseas
Filipinos under the aegis of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas or CFO
for short.

And I sincerely thank all of you who have sent warm congratulatory
messages upon my appointment early this month as its Chairperson–-your
words of encouragement and pledges of commitment are the best energy
boosters that propel me to ’hit the ground running’.

To borrow a catch-phrase from President Noynoy – “YOU ARE MY

BOSS. Kayo ang boss ko.”

And now -- where do we go from here?

As we celebrate this December, the 30th year of CFO I begin to fully

appreciate our awesome responsibility for and accountability to our
estimated 8.54 million overseas Filipinos in about 214 countries, with 47
percent of permanent residents in these countries, 45 percent of temporary
workers and 8 percent of “irregulars”.

So it is with great enthusiasm that I immediately report to you on

the innovative ways that we are strengthening our connectivity with the
Filipino diaspora.

Allow me to excite you--by sharing with you our newly crafted Vision

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and Mission:

CFO’S NEW VISION

CFO envisions a community of well-respected

and proudly competitive Filipinos overseas
who contribute significantly
to the productivity and well-being of their
countries of residence while
maintaining strong political, economic,
and cultural ties with the Philippines.

CFO’S NEW MISSION

To be the Philippines’ premier institution in promoting policies,

programs, and projects with Migration and Development as a
framework for the strengthening and empowerment
of the Filipino overseas community.

In other words—we are looking forward to the days when overseas

Filipino workers are no longer portrayed as the ever-suffering victims in the
world’s telenovelas; when working abroad is a matter of choice and not a
“kapit-sa-patalim” kind of situation; when trafficked Filipino women,
children, and mail-order brides are but a dim memory of the past.

Instead, what we see is a dynamic Filipino overseas communities—

who are partners in Philippine development— colleagues in nation-building
—pillars of excellence—sources of know-how and technology.

As we say in Pilipino terms of endearment – “….sapagkat kayo ay

kabayan, kaibigan, kapuso, kapamilya, kabalikat….saan ka man naroon at
magpakailanman!”

And as President Noynoy himself has repeatedly said: “…Ang

Republika ng Pilipinas ay nandirito para sa inyo…kasama ho namin kayo
sa pagtahak tungo sa matuwid na daan...”

Therefore, as YOUR Commission, CFO is poised to serve and

collaborate with you in many and diverse ways according to your
circumstance, your commitment, and capability. And since no two
overseas Filipinos are alike in interests and needs, and because of the
characteristic multiplicity even of our alliances – we will connect with you
on various fronts and customize our partnerships in ways mutually
beneficial and doable.
 We would like to highlight some of our priorities which we crafted in
our recent CFO strategic planning workshop and which will be validated
futher in a forthcoming multi-sectoral conference in Manila
on December 8-9:

1) Shaping the Future by Strategizing in the Present – We believe

that CFO is a catalyst that can draw all stakeholders together to
provide solutions to the challenges presented by the migration
phenomenon which will result in development for all

2) The Cost/Benefit Dimension of Migration – We believe that CFO

is a vehicle for mitigating the cost of migration (e.g., transforming
brain drain to brain gain) and an instrument for maximizing its
corresponding benefits (e.g., purposive utilization of remittances
in long-term instruments like the Bayan Ko bonds)

3) Mainstreaming the Migration and Development agenda – We

believe that CFO plays a significant role in mainstreaming the
Migration and Development agenda in other government
agencies’ respective policies, programs and plans of action

To effectively serve in this capacity, the CFO must ‘walk-the-talk’ by

wasting no time in translating its own goals into a workable action agenda.
To name some of these action points:

1) Accessibility – a 24/7 CFO “hotline” for victims as well as

development partners; and a link to Malacanang through its
Chairperson who is a member of the Cabinet with the rank of
Secretary

2) Connectivity and inter-activity through on-line access to the

CFO and its various program divisions

3) Knowledge Resource Management & Transparency – the

timely construction of a user-friendly integrated database on
Filipinos overseas in cooperation with other government
agencies

4) Policy Reform – continuous advocacy/lobbying for issues &

concerns of overseas Filipinos (e.g., portability of medicare,
amendment to the absentee voting law, tax privileges for
donors and investors who happen to be overseas Filipinos)

5) Facilitation of Processes – minimize, if not do away with red

tape especially those involving donations

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 6) Technology Transfer – effective matching of expertise w/
beneficiaries; donors with donees

7) Programs for the Seamless Integration in the Host Country

and Reintegration in the Motherland

8) Protection of Human Rights – continuous advocacy on behalf

of our kababayans especially those who are victims of
trafficking or those have been lured as mail-order brides

One cannot overemphasize that at the heart of all these should be:
TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PARTICIPATION.

Our calls for you to increasingly participate in Philippine hinge on

our ability back home to earn your trust and gain your confidence.

This is the commitment of your new government!!

Before I close--allow me to reiterate that it is not our government’s

policy to send our labor offshore and use labor migration as the basis of
the country’s economic development. We see migration as one of the
opportunities for self-improvement with the fortunate consequence of
improving the lives of families, villages, and the entire economy.

We are not closing our eyes to the downside risks and social costs
of migration. Our government is here for overseas Filipinos–-be they
victims or benefactors. Migration is only one of our many options for
growth and development, and we endeavor to keep it a matter of CHOICE
and certainly not a matter of necessity.

To quote then Presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino during the

campaign: “I envision a government that creates jobs at home so that
working abroad will be a choice rather a necessity, and when its citizens do
choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will be the
government’s priority.”

In the meantime, your P-NOY government is giving its all to spur the
development of our country’s economy, improve the quality of lives of all
our kababayans, decrease the gap between the rich and the poor, and
protect the most vulnerable and marginalized of our people.

Once more….MARAMING MARAMING SALAMAT PO SA INYONG

PAGHAMON SA AKIN AT SA CFO. NAGAGALAK KAMI SA INYONG
WALANG SAWANG PAGSUBAYBAY SA MGA PANGYAYARI SA ATING
BAYAN, SA LARANGAN MAN NG PULITIKA O KAHIT NA SA TELE-SERYE,
SA FACE BOOK OR SA TWITTER.

TALAGANG KAHIT NA MAY-AMERICAN ACCENT NA KAYO –

PILIPINO PA RIN KAYO…NGAYON AT KAILANMAN!!

MABUHAY KAYONG LAHAT…God Bless! Maraming salamat po!