Banker says fixed forex rate for OFWs is doable

A Filipino banker has expressed support to the petition of Jeddah-based overseas Filipino workers for the Philippine government to peg the peso-dollar exchange rate at P50:$1 by putting up a buffer fund. Reacting to arguments that setting up a buffer fund is undoable, Usman Navarro, manager of the Philippine National Bank, Riyadh branch, thinks otherwise. “They [government financial managers] can always find the funds. It is all a matter of budget allocation. It’s doable kung gustong gawin at seryoso ang gobyerno sa pagtulong," an article posted on Hong Kong-based filglobe.com quoted Navarro as saying. “If they can do it to the exporters, why not to OFWs?" Navarro said. “Pag-aralan lang kung ano ang mechanics. [The] problem is, hindi talaga seryoso ang gobyerno when it comes to interests and welfare of OFWs," Navarro added. The Jeddah group of Filipinos (called the V-Team) initiated the petition on August 1, 2007, amid the strengthening peso against the dollar that effectively resulted in a 20-percent drop in OFW income remittances. Some groups of OFWs are thinking of staging a “partial boycott on remittances" as alternative action to buoy up the sinking dollar. In his article on filglobe.com, Chito Manuel from Jeddah has quoted an e-mail message that has been making rounds on the Internet saying: “Let’s do this [remittance boycott]. …if we cut our remittances by half for three consecutive months, we can bring back the exchange rate to P56 to a dollar or even higher…. Ano pa ang hinihintay niyo ... action na." Navarro, however, thinks that setting up a buffer fund is more attainable than the boycott on remittances. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV