Poverty and Filipino Drug Mules - 3094 Words

Poverty and the Filipino Drug Mules Introduction Among the most admired Filipinos today are the Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs. They have been dubbed as New Heroes or Bagong Bayani by no less than the late Corazon â€Å"Cory† Aquino because of the way they willingly leave their families and the comforts of home to pursue high-earning jobs abroad. An estimated 8.2 to 11 million Filipinos or 11% of the total Filipino population work in other countries to support their families and to make their dreams of a better life into a reality. But today, the honor and reputation of OFWs have become marred because of controversial drug mules among them who have been arrested in various countries, with a number sentenced to die in China (â€Å"Overseas†,†¦show more content†¦Internal characteristics of the economy also cause poverty. These included lack of adequate resources; inefficient use of resources; low levels of savings; lack of discipline, diligence and entrepreneurship; lack of integration among productive sec tors; sociocultural reasons; and unequal distribution of income. Graft and corruption among national leaders and the presence of multinational and foreign interests that sapped the countrys resources also added to the poverty problem in our country (Tullao, 1993). Facts and Figures As we all know, the Philippines is a third world country with many people living in extreme poverty and want. The poverty problem has been here for a long, long time (â€Å"Overseas†) and it is due to such extreme poverty that many Filipinos have been driven to seek work abroad, only to be tempted to do things such as knowingly or unknowingly becoming drug mules. According to 2011 figures, there were 630 Filipinos who have become involved in drug-related cases worldwide. Derrick Arnold Carreon of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said that 250 Filipinos are in Chinese prisons alone, with 75 of them in death row (Drug mules†, 2011). The number of Filipinos who are in prison for acting as drug mules seem to indicate that too many Filipinos have been tempted to get much-needed money from international drug syndicates due to poverty. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs revealed numerous cases involving Filipino drugShow MoreRelatedProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 Pageslimited to the private sector. Project management is also a vehicle for doing good deeds and solving social problems. Endeavors such as providing emergency aid to the Gulf Coast devastated by hurricane Katrina, devising a strategy for reducing crime and drug abuse within a city, or organizing a community effort to renovate a public playground would and do benefit from the application of modern project management skills and techniques. Perhaps the best indicator of demand for project management can be seen