DUBAI: Did you know that broken relationships among OFW families have become almost all too common?
Social Welfare Attaché Judith Yadan Bacwaden said that many Filipino families cannot survive the distance when one of the parents goes abroad to work.
“Maraming ganyang problema,” said Bacwaden, who provides marital crisis counselling to OFWs at the Philippine Consulate General’s Office (PCGO).
“Yung mga nag-a-abroad, majority sa kanila naa-apektuhan ang pamilya. Family breakdown is one of the social costs of migration. Yung mga pumupunta dito sa akin, ‘yan ang problema. May iba pa na hindi na raw nagbibigay ng (financial) support,” Bacwaden added.
(Families of the majority of those who go abroad for work are affected. Family breakdown is one of the social costs of migration. Those who visit are usually beset with such problems. There are those who, according to their spouses, don’t anymore provide (financial) support.)
Even a retired family court judge recently said that 75 percent – that’s three of every four – overseas Filipino worker (OFW) couples in Baguio and Benguet, his jurisdiction, resort to annulment so they could move on with their lives.
Judge Francis Buliyat Sr. said his pronouncement was based on 16 years of experience in the judiciary.
“It should be made known that while the OFW is really good for the economy of the country, I think it is not good for the families of our country,” Buliyat said.
Bacwaden said she refers cases to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the Philippines to assist in working out a solution to the break-up.
