Hard currency

News of the exodus of Filipino workers from Libya often include segments featuring the difficulties experience by our repatriated countrymen in exchanging hard-earned Libyan currency into their equivalent in Philippine Pesos. The Libyan Dinar is supposed to be equivalent to about 34 pesos and yet there are no banks that accept the former for exchange. They, along with the Central Bank, explain that the Philippines does not keep and does not have enough foreign reserves in the form of the Libyan Dinar to allow for the exchange of a significant if not all the Libyan Dinars that our OFWs brought home with them. The Central Bank officials further explain that this is due to our not having significant trade with Libya in addition, of course, to the uncertainties brought about by the current conflict in that country.

What we do have in terms of hard currency - an allusion to the stability of certain currencies that are recognized and honored by banks in most if not all countries - are sufficient foreign reserves in the form of the US Dollar and the Euro. Add to these hard currencies those of our major trade partners like Japan (Yen), Korea (Won), Taiwan (Dollar), China (Yuan) and Australia (Dollar), and our ASEAN neighbors Singapore (Dollar), Thailand (Baht), Malaysia (Dollar/Ringgit), and Indonesia (Rupiah). Of course, the list includes the Canadian Dollar and the U.K. Pound. Then there are also the currencies of Middle Eastern countries where there are significant presence of Filipino workers like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the U.A.E.

I am not aware of how difficult it was or is to exchange Libyan Dinars into US Dollars or Euros while our countrymen were still in Libya. I would assume that when there were no conflicts yet, it was very possible to exchange their savings into currencies that are more stable and that they can easily bring anywhere where these hard currencies will be honored by most banks. Libya, for example, had European countries as major trade partners. Historically, Libyan oil is purchased by the British, the Germans, the Italians and the French. These countries have even fought wars in North Africa in order to seize control of Libya and her vast oil resources. It is here where Field Marshals Erwin Rommel, Bernard Law Montgomery and General George Patton displayed their strategic talents in tank warfare during the Second World War.

Perhaps our OFWs should be mindful of the risks involved when holding on to savings in the form of a rather odd currency. It is also understood and appreciated, however, that there may be losses incurred when purchasing dollars or Euros. But one should probably weigh the pros and cons in cases when one would suddenly need to go home for one reason or another and end up not being able to exchange one's hard earned savings simply because the currency is not acceptable for exchange in large amounts. Perhaps that is a much bigger loss than what is lost in exchanging for hard currency.