Filipinos fuel oil-rich Emirates’ progress, dreams

ABU DHABI—When you arrive at this oil-rich nation’s swanky airports, look up at the massive glass skyscrapers and walk into luxury hotels, you won’t be mistaken if you think Filipino hands helped make all this progress possible.

At Abu Dhabi’s iconic landmark, the majestic $3-billion Emirates Palace Hotel, one is greeted by the friendly smiles and familiar greetings of its Filipino staff.

Even in the royal household of Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Filipinos were visible when the Sheikh hosted a banquet for 91 journalists from all over the world.

The journalists were invited to be part of the UAE’s 38th national day celebration on Dec. 2, a week before the $60-billion Dubai debt crisis erupted.

Top officials of the UAE paid tribute to foreign workers, not least of them Filipinos, as an important pillar of the economic progress that has made it the second biggest Arab economy next to Saudi Arabia.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told the visiting journalists that talks were ongoing to improve the wages and conditions of workers from the Philippines and other countries.

“The issue of labor will be a continuous issue for us for many years,” Dr. Anwar said at a briefing.

Work in progress

With no more than 20 percent of its five million population being locals (or emiratis), the UAE is highly dependent on foreign labor to build its ever-expanding oil-based economy.

The UAE is the eighth top oil producer in the world, with a daily capacity of nearly three million barrels. It is also ranked as the world’s third biggest oil exporter.

“We have a lot of labor from the Philippines and Indonesia, and we are talking to these countries about conditions of labor, how we can improve them. It is a work in progress,” Dr. Anwar said.

Some 529,000 Filipinos live and work in the UAE, according to 2007 data from the Philippines’ Commission on Overseas Filipinos. Most of them are in Dubai, one of the UAE’s seven emirates.

“We’re doing a lot, and I think in many countries, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, there’s more appreciation of what we are doing … because [the workers] are basically living the experience with us,” he said.

‘Nothing will change’

The assurance was made a week before the Dubai debt crisis sent markets tumbling worldwide.

Dubai World, the UAE’s investment arm, sought a 6-month delay in the payment of its $60-billion debt, triggering fears of a debt default across the globe.

But in Manila, UAE Ambassador Mohammed Ebrahim Aljowaid downplayed the debt crisis’ implications on the UAE economy and the fate of Filipino and other foreign workers.

He said his government would honor its commitment to provide better employment terms.

“Nothing will change,” Aljowaid said in an interview during the Manila reception for the 38th national day on Dec. 2.

He denied that Filipinos were being retrenched or were losing jobs as a result of the debt crisis.

“Nothing. Up to now I have not seen anything like that. Don’t worry, everything will be OK,” he said.

Aljowaid said there had even been an increase in the deployment of Filipino workers for the UAE—from 150 a day to 250 in the past weeks.

Most preferred workers

Filipinos are outnumbered by other Asian workers here but they are said to be the most preferred.

“Kasi may utak daw tayo at No. 1 sa English (It’s because we are intelligent and are No. 1 in English),” said Raque Mah, a limousine driver at the Hilton Hotel.
According to Mah, Filipinos are also paid higher than their Indonesian or Pakistani counterparts because of their skills. The minimum wage is 1,500 dirhams (P18,840).

The UAE is a good place to work in, said Mah, who has worked in other countries. She said those employed by private companies, like herself, were enjoying free housing, and those employed by the government, free food provisions.

About the only problem they encounter here is homesickness, Mah said.

She said there was talk about moves to grant foreign workers “equal pay” of about 2,500 to 3,000 dirhams (P31,450 to P37,680).

Not a bubble

Will the UAE remain a desert oasis for Filipino workers despite the crisis?

No less than Sheikh Mohammad assured the visiting journalists that his nation’s economy was sufficiently strong to withstand the global economic recession.

He invited the journalists to tour Abu Dhabi and Dubai to see the furious construction of towering office buildings, luxury hotels, transport systems and entire islands for new residential, commercial and tourism hubs.

He dismissed criticism that everything was a bubble.

“With challenges come opportunities, so you’ll have to take those opportunities now,” he said.

The visionary Dubai ruler recalled how his program to position the UAE as a regional hub for finance, investment and tourism had been met with doubt.

“They said, ‘You, Sheikh Mohammad, have big dreams.’ And now we tell them that we managed to turn our dreams into reality,” he told the journalists.

Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi, UAE Central Bank governor, allayed fears that the massive real estate projects would crash, saying the UAE economy was “dynamic.”

“When they build, they don’t know the future, and when you’re half-way you can’t stop [the projects]. We ended up with excess units but this will be resolved in time,” Nasser told the journalists.

Building boom

Among the developments here is the $40-billion Yas Island built to host the inaugural Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last month. –Juliet Labog-Javellana, Philippine Daily Inquirer