According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, OFW’s remitted US$22.76 billion in 2013, which is a new record high. And because of their valiant efforts that they have put in order to achieve this record, these guys should deserve better services from the government.
But exactly how big is this money being remitted by our OFW?
If you convert the total amount of remittances in that year alone into P100 bills you will need 102 dump trucks to load them all up at ten tons load each truck. That is a lot of money and they have been sending truckloads upon truckloads for over ten years now.
An ordinary OFW may appreciate better if they can picture what they can buy out of the money they send in every year. In order to illustrate this, we created a table below showing just how much this vast amount of wealth could benefit our country.
22.76 billion US Dollars would approximately be equivalent to 1.024 Trillion Pesos at a 45 Pesos per Dollar exchange rate. With that amount of money, you could buy:
| 102,420,000 | cell phones |
| 34,140,000 | computers |
| 3,414,000 | Houses |
| 1,707,000 | passenger cars |
| 1,024,200 | firetrucks |
| 15 | Burj Khalifas (tallest building in the world) |
| 9 | Air Force Ones (US President’s airplane) |
| 1 | year supply of rice to 97M Filipinos |
And here’s the clincher: 1.024 Trillion Pesos is equivalent to one half of the country’s yearly budget.
So, the next time you see progress in the form of malls opening, subdivisions sprouting, a condominium rising, new model cell phone launching, a new restaurant opening, and airplane flying, think of the OFWs for it is no easy task to take the sacrifices of working hard in a foreign country that they may lend a hand in our country’s progress. Considering the great debt that our economy owes them, they truly deserve more than what we are giving them.
-http://philmoney.blogspot.com/2010/01/measuring-weight-of-banknote.html
http://www.worldpopulationstatistics.com/philippines-population-2013/
http://www.aaphilippines.org/roadsafety/files/Road%20Infrastructure%20Development%20in%20the%20Philippines.ppt%20Decem.pdf
http://www.gov.ph/2012/07/24/2013-budget-message-of-president-aquino/
https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=ctrl&ei=CYAqU_aOKOyeiAfR04FY&gws_rd=cr#q=exchange+rate
http://hlurb.gov.ph/faqs/what-are-the-latest-price-ceilings/
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/advocacies_ofw.asp
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/tables/2014_02/news-02172014a1.htm