MANILA — A NEW Executive Order that will give a cabinet-level unit power to control how overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) send and use their money is awaiting President Gloria Arroyo’s signature.

But groups say the EO forwarded by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to the Office of the President via the Presidential Management Staff is an old hat not fit for wearing. Likewise, it is a failed bid under President Ferdinand Marcos who, under a foreign reserve crisis in his time, trashed the idea, a migrant advocate said.

MANILA — WHILE the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was said to have submitted an order for a “Big Brother” type of managing Filipino labor migration, it proposed the Labor Secretary to take the lead in a draft executive order influencing overseas Filipino workers and their families on managing remittances.

The EO dated February 2005 cited that the cabinet level inter-agency committee on overseas Filipino workers will be chaired by Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas with Trade Secretary Peter Favila as her vice-chair. Other members of the proposed body that the EO named include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Finance Secretary Gary Teves, Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. and Vice President Noli de Castro Jr. The country’s Vice-President, notably, is also Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Communities.

MANILA — FOR passing off a chance to migrate to the United States to get to Cologne, Germany, for the World Youth Day, Ester Alvarez may have felt cheated by fate: the German Embassy denied her visa application.

Alvarez’s experience is now shared by hundred other applicants younger than her who were also denied visa and now waiting refund of dollar payments to her group Alab ng Kabataang Pilipino or Akap.

MANILA – EVEN before Japan tightened her immigration rules that affected the entry of more overseas performing artists (OPAs) from the Philippines, total remittances from Filipinos there have reached a five-year low.

Remittances from Japan-based Pinoys amounted to US$308.128 million in 2004, a three-year low compared to the 2002 figure of US$490.435 million, and the 2003 figure of US$346.057. That same 2004 figure was lower than what the country got in the years 2000 (US$370.097 million) and 2001 (US$391.871 million) from Japan-based Filipino workers.