MANILA, Philippines—Several hundred Filipinos have lost their jobs abroad amid the global economic slowdown, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Friday.They include 200 ship builders, as well as more than 100 factory workers in Taiwan, she said in a speech to government workers in Manila. She did not say where the shipyard workers were employed. The Philippines hopes to avoid a recession next year through the spending of families receiving remittances from several million Filipinos living or working abroad and who are expected to send home about $15 billion this year. The amount is equivalent to 10 percent of the country's economic output. Economists say about half of some eight million Filipinos based abroad remit money to their relatives in the Philippines. "As of now, it’s only a trickle of our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) or expatriate Filipino workers that have lost their jobs because of the world financial crisis," Arroyo said. "In fact some of (them) have already found new jobs," she said without giving details. Arroyo said her government was working to provide "temporary relief" to expatriate Filipinos forced to return home by the global downturn. The labor department is putting up a P250 million ($5 million) "livelihood support fund" that would be lent to former Filipino expatriate workers wishing to start a business, pursue studies or technical training. "Even if it is only a trickle of our Filipino workforce that is coming back, the government will not sit idly and do nothing," she added. | 
