We Are A Nation Of Servants

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There are almost nine million Filipinos abroad – half of whom are overseas Filipino workers (OFW), yet we deny that we are a “nation of servants."

It was Hong Kong writer Chip Tsao who wrote in his March 27 column that the Philippines is “a nation of servants" who shouldn’t “flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

Many migrant groups, including the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), Kanlungan Center Foundation, and Migrante International, have bashed Tsao for spouting this "racial slur." Nevertheless, the groups admit that the Philippines has indeed become a country of overseas domestics because of the government's labor export policy that should have never been a policy at all.


Kanlungan resource and advocacy assistant Alladin Diega did say, however, that the Philippines being called such is not a new thing.

“Tsao is not the first and will not be the last. [The] Philippines being a nation of servants is not a new thing," he told GMANews.TV on Thursday.

He said Merriam-Webster has even previously defined a Filipina as domestic help.

But both CMA and Kanlungan questioned why Filipinos are so keen on denying the fact that we do have large a number of Filipinos doing domestic work abroad.

“We react because we have too many domestic workers abroad? But we do," CMA executive director Ellene Sana told GMANews.TV in an e-mail.

This, Diega said, is what we get by letting the government deploy thousands of Filipinos everyday to other countries instead of focusing on creating jobs locally.

Indeed, the very best thing that each and one of us, Filipinos, can do is not to overreact with this situation but instead make it a reminder of the challenge that we are faced today. The Filipino challenge that we, too, can stand up to the world and do what we need to do in uplifting our way of life. "We are a nation of servants", now that is an excellent compliment. To serve means to give up something for something greater in return. Even if it means leaving the comfort of family, children growing up or oneself in order to create hope, a better future of what one leaves behind his or her motherland. Because we know who we are as Filipinos and we don't need anyone or any country telling us what we need to do in fulfilling what we , as a people, are created to do or to become. In the final analysis, we can look at it in two ways: as another excuse to pity ourselves and do nothing or as a challenge to do what we need to do in our small but monumental ways in creating an expanding future for our Filipino children and the world's.