APEC: Filipino Americans contributed $15 billion to Philippine economy

AP

Protestors at the APEC Summit targeted Philippine President Marcos, son of the dictator.

As Filipino American demonstrators protested Philippine President Bong Bong Marcos' presence at the Asian-Pacific Edconomic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, he praised Filipino Americans for contributing $15 billion to the Philippine economy, remittances to their family.

During a meeting at the at the South San Francisco Conference Center, Monday, Marcos acknowledged the contributions of Filipinos and Filipino Americans, particularly healthcare workers, during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that one in every five nurses in California is from the Philippines.

“(During the COVID-19 pandemic), Americans experienced first hand the Filipino way of caring and acting on the needs of others,” Marcos said. “Our Filipino nurses, doctors, our first responders, essential workers have all demonstrated the timeless Filipino virtues of malasakit, pakikipagkapwa, and bayanihan (concern, companionship and heroism).”

“We recognize the hard work of Overseas Filipinos in the US. In 2022, the workers, health workers, injected  $14.89 billion to the Philippine economy in cash remittances—making the United States the Philippines’ biggest single source of remittances.”

“We are all grateful for your selfless service to humanity, and we look up to you as role models for future generations of Filipinos and Filipino Americans,” he said.

The remittances to the Philippines is the result of the Philippine economy. The lack of well-paying employment is driving Filipino nurses, seafarers, construction workers and home care workers to seek opportunities outside of their home country.  The money Filipino workers send money back to their families made up almost 9% of the Philippines Gross Domestic Product in 2022. 

Not all Filipino Americans welcomed Marcos at those at the event organized by the Philippine Consulate.

Anakbayan USA, made up of Filipino and Filipino American students from across the San Francisco Bay Area helped plan protests before and during the APEC Summit.

Among the chants heard during the peaceful demonstrations was, “from Palestine to the Philippines, stop the US war machine!” 

“(APEC is) a tool of big business and the ruling elite to increase their profits at the expense of people and the planet,” Brandon Lee of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines told KQED. “APEC will not be epic. It will be a waste of millions of taxpayer dollars, and it will only result in further worker exploitation and environmental destruction.”

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