If there was anything so patently beneficial to us from the ASEAN summit, it was the agreement to protect migrant workers. While we are the ones, Cordillerans and Filipinos in general, who will most benefit from it as we might have the most number of OFWs working in the ASEAN countries, the other member nations also have workers out of their borders. This is the result of globalization or the shrinking of the world in terms of accessibility.
We Cordillerans might be in the fringes of this country, yet we have a lot of workers in our neighbors off our shores. You could count them by the hundreds of thousands in Malaysia or Indonesia, not even counting our many teachers who are periodically flying to Vietnam and Thailand, to mention just two countries.
With perhaps the exception of those who have to sweat it out in homes in Malaysia or in Indonesia, many of our OFWs in ASEAN areas are in the professions– teachers, engineers, accountants and managers of resorts, hotels, restaurants and other businesses. Others are running their own businesses and a number of them are raking it in as traders (sometimes this is stretched to include smugglers) of all sorts, from electronic goods to precious metals. And even with Operation Double Barrel some are still brave or crazy enough to carry as their stock in trade illegal drugs, inventing shady but ingenious ways of hiding their stuff by swallowing them or pushing these up their as—les.
Such are the ways of the world, and the agreement protects all and sundry. Though it would have been a lot nicer if it was legally binding, it must have been the best we could get from the summit, or in so short a time. A small thing was better than nothing.
For sure, the thing can be pushed a little bit further next time around. It would however be best if we can have something that is legally binding when the ASEAN leaders meet in their next event in Singapore.
So our gnashing of teeth and the boiling of our blood pressure because of the gridlock traffic in Baguio City last week brought about by the sudden influx of local tourists from Metro Manila due to the summit were after all not for naught.**