Secretary Marianito Roque of the Department of Labor and Employment said on a statement that foreign employers hire Filipino workers not because they would take on any job for a cheap pay, but because of their unrivaled skills and good characteristics.

“Foreign employers prefer OFWs mainly because of their positive attributes such as their facility with the English language, their industry, flexibility, ability to learn easily, and their happy disposition," Roque said in the statement.

He later disputed a report saying that foreign employers favor OFWs ‘because of their willingness to do any kind of work even for the smallest pay.”

Roque said that OFWs maintain their competitive edge abroad and they are better paid than other nationalities in labor-sending countries.

Under the country’s Migrant Workers Act, a domestic helper should be paid a minimum of US$400 a month for the services he/ she renders.

But other Filipinos often sneak outside the country without proper documents to work abroad. Due to fear of getting arrested, illegal workers accept low paying jobs without proper benefits.

There are an estimated eight million Filipinos abroad, including some six million contract workers. The rest are immigrants, mostly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Overseas Filipinos have been hailed collectively as an important pillar of the Philippine economy, their combined remittances surpassing US15 billion last year.