The term, "Overseas Filipino Worker" (OFW), is a broad term used to signify Filipinos who work overseas. While advertisements in the Philippines and some of the destination countries don't mention it, a Filipino (non-US citizen) serving with the US military would also be classified as an overseas Filipino worker.

According to the Wikipedia page on Overseas Filipino, there are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, equivalent to about 11% of the total population of the Philippines. The reason that number is so high can be attributed to the high unemployment rate here in the Philippines.

Overseas Filipino Workers in the US Military

At my first US Marine Corps duty station, MCRD San Diego, California, I worked with an OFW. That was in 1979 and 1980. His name was Juanchito Ugalde. I spoke to him over the phone when I was serving at the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1996 — he was serving as a personnel chief at the same duty station again. I'm pretty sure he retired a few months before I did and returned to his home in the Visayas.

In 1984, I worked with another OFW, at Marine Corps Base Hawaii (it was called "Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe" back then). His name was Cornell Munalem. I don't remember what part of the Philippines he was from, but he spoke Tagalog. I haven't been in contact with him since I left the island of Oahu.

The vast majority of Filipinos serving with the US military serve in the US Navy. Filipinos were recruited out of the Subic Bay Naval Station before it closed in the 90s. They're currently being recruited out of Guam and other areas outside of the Philippines. I don't know how it's being done here in the Philippines now since there aren't any US bases anymore.

Overseas Filipino Workers in Various Countries

There are Filipinos working as contract workers in the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Singapore and a whole slew of places I can't name off the top of my head right now. When I was in Saudi Arabia in 1990 and 1991 (operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Desert Calm as part of the first gulf war), I came into contact with several OFWs. They were working as cooks and store clerks.

One of my sisters-in-law has a fiancé (Alex) working at an Internet cafe in Qatar. Alex pointed the home pages on all the computer browsers at the cafe to the home page of this blog a couple of days ago. I then redirected them (from here) to my "Google Search - Qatar" page, created specifically for that reason. You can see it (currently) in my upper right sidebar. When Alex's contract is over in Qatar, he'll be moving to Dubai. I'm sure the person who takes his place will remove the blog from the home pages for the computer browsers in Qatar, but if Alex works at another Internet cafe in Dubai, he'll do the same thing there.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I didn't ask or pay Alex to do anything. We just happen to be friends. Next year, he'll be a relative, somewhat removed.

I have a nephew (Michael), who finished a caregivers course last year. He currently works at a place called "Ocampos" in Olongapo City, but he'll be working somewhere overseas (probably Canada) when he gets contracted as a caregiver. He lives with my mother-in-law, his grandmother, right now and he's about the same as my son (Jonathan). They often "hang out" together here in the neighborhood.

Returning Overseas Filipino Workers

In November of 2006, I met a neighbor (Joel) who served with the US Seabees (the US Navy Construction Battalions). I didn't know, until then, that his daughter (Candy) was one of Jonathan's college classmates. In fact, she stopped by here just an hour or so ago to check out my blog. Anyway, Joel and his family speak very good English.

Joel is going to a different college for a second career in nursing and will return to the US when he gets his degree, and it'll probably happen before Candy gets her degree.

Filipinos come and go as overseas contract workers and I don't foresee it slowing down at all. I'm sure I'm going to be involved, over time, with more Filipinos seeking employment elsewhere. I can't predict the future, but I plan to live here for a long, long time. The amazing thing, right now, is that I can remember names from more than 12 years ago. Not bad for someone who has CRS (can't remember Shiitake) disease.