PH sailors set record in 2011 remittances

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino sailors aboard foreign merchant ships sent home via bank wire a record $4.34 billion in remittances in 2011, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) announced in a statement Sunday.

According to the TUCP, the sailors’ remittances rose 14% from the $3.806 billion remitted in 2010.

The top 10 sources of remittances from Filipino sailors in 2011 were: the United States ($2.437 billion); Norway ($294.076 million); the United Kingdom ($285.754 million); Japan ($268.414 million); Germany ($211.916 million); Greece ($192.527 million); Singapore ($175.312 million); Hong Kong ($72.341 million); Cyprus ($53.294 million); and the Netherlands ($44.889 million).

The remittances from Filipino sailors advanced nearly three times faster compared to cash inflows from land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2011, according TUCP president and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.

“The remittance growth was due to increased deployment, coupled with the dollar’s decline,” Herrera said.

With the depreciation of the United States currency, every dollar sent home by Filipino sailors produced fewer pesos.

“Sailors had to send more dollars to their families here just to provide them the same amount of pesos they were receiving the prior year for living expenses,” Herrera explained.

The Philippines has been the world’s chief supplier of sailors since 1987, and some 375,000 Filipinos make up one-fourth of the estimated 1.5 million merchant mariners worldwide.

The $534-million jump in remittances from sailors accounted for 40% of the cumulative increase in cash transfers from all Filipino workers abroad, based both on land and sea, last year.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, remittances from all OFWs hit $20.116 billion in 2011, up from the $18.762 billion they sent home in 2010.

Land-based OFWs sent home $15.776 billion, an increase of $820 million from the $14.956 billion they remitted in 2010. –ABS-CBNnews.com