'strong Peso Hurting Ofw Families

[Travis]

it is also making me rethink moving back to the Philippines between that & the ever rising cost of electric therehttp://www.abs-cbnnews.com/ofw/08/07/11/strong-peso-hurting-ofw-familiesMANILA, Philippines – The rise of the peso against against the US dollar is gravely affecting the lives of Filipino families who depend on remittances sent by their spouses or children working abroad, 2 recruitment consultants said.In a statement released on Sunday, Loreto Soriano and Manny Geslani said families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have to resort to "extreme measures," such as reducing expenses on food and electricity, to cope with the decreasing amount of money sent by their loved ones.In some cases, children had to stop going to school, they said.The peso currently stands at P42.27 against the US dollar. The recruitment consultants said OFW families have been receiving P3 less for every dollar exchanged from banks or remittance companies since August last year."Around P4 billion has been lost by OFW families due to the decline of the dollar and a strong peso which is now a matter of concern to the Aquino administration," they said.Filipinos working and living overseas sent home $1.69 billion in May, matching the highest monthly level reached in December. The May figure was up 6.9% from last year's $1.58 billion.For the first 5 months of 2011, remittances reached $9.7 billion, up by an annual 6.2%. The central bank said this was due to the steady deployment of Filipino workers abroad.Remittances provide support to the peso and the balance of payments, and drive consumption in the economy.Meanwhile, Soriano criticized Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, who said that not all OFWs are earning dollars and are thus not affected by the stronger peso.He explained that all OFWs go to banks or remittance centers to exchange their hard-earned money for dollars which they remit to the country