PRESS RELEASE NO. 2

            Ayala Foundation co-vice chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala today exhorts all Filipinos to be proud that the Philippines is hosting the second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) since the issue of migration is of great importance and relevance to the country.

            In his welcome remarks during the Opening of  the GFMD – Civil Society Days, Zobel said Filipinos have been seeking opportunities in other countries for more than a century. “Today, it is estimated that around eight to ten million Filipinos or about 10% of our population live outside our country.”

            The Forum, according to Zobel,  gives the Philippines  a chance to fortify the long term plan to maximize the benefits of migration while at the same time minimizing its social and economic costs.

            “We all realize that each of us has a role to play in planning, implementing, managing and monitoring such a plan, and that it must encompass all the factors that impact on migration and development.  We need to cover all bases,” Zobel said.

            He stressed that together (the participants and the host country), we can all develop the best possible solutions to the highly complex, and often emotion-laden issues that surround migration.

            “We therefore look forward to engaging all of you in searching for our own country’s long term plan,” he said. He cited how Ayala Foundation spearheaded the organizing of local, regional, and national consultations with the various sectors of Philippine society to think through and discuss how everyone can all work together with the Philippine government to craft such a plan.

            The government has tapped the Ayala Foundation to spearhead the organizing of the GFMD-Civil Society Days because of the Foundation’s experience in bringing together business competitors, political adversaries, and groups with differing ideologies and encouraging them to work together for the common good.

“In a sense we at the Ayala Foundation, are in a unique position to help as we stand in the nexus between migration and development. We work intimately with the Filipino diaspora community, both here and abroad, in our businesses and in our corporate responsibility programs,” Zobel said.

            Zobel noted that all Filipinos must work together in realizing the critical importance of the Forum to the future of the country.