Banks account for 76% of remittances

Banks facilitated only about 76 percent of total cash remittances sent by Filipino workers overseas to the Philippines last year, according to the 2008 Survey on Overseas Filipinos.

The National Statistics Office, which conducted the survey, reported that in the period April-September 2008, Filipino workers overseas sent P141.9 billion to their relatives in the country, up by P32.1 billion from P110 billion in 2007.

Transmitted cash represented 73.2 percent while money brought home accounted for 21.5 percent. Remittances in kind contributed 5.2 percent.

“Of the total cash remittances sent, 76.1 percent were through banks, 11.8 percent through door-to-door, 7.5 percent through other means, and the rest [4.6 percent] through the agency or local office and friends or co-workers.

Workers sent an average of P83,000 in cash and kind during the six-month period last year, or more than P13,800 a month. This was up from P75,000 in the April-September period, or P12,500 a month in 2007.

The NSO survey derived the national estimates on the number of migrant Filipino workers, their socio-economic characteristics and the amount and mode of remittances, in cash and in kind, received by their families. It covered workers who were working abroad during the period April 1 to Sept. 30, 2008.

Bangko Sentral, meanwhile, based its data on remittances captured by the banking channels,

Migrant workers include those who were presently and temporarily out of the country during the survey period to fulfill an overseas contract for a specific length of time or who were presently at home on vacation during the reference period but had an existing contract to work abroad, and other Filipino workers abroad with valid working visa or work permits. –Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today