to redouble efforts to promote labor export - in this way hoping to maintain remittance and foreign exchange flows even at the cost ofeven greater problems for migrant Filipinos. The government proceeds trom the principle that labor export is a cornerstone of Philippine economic policy rather than a merely stop-gap alternative amidst an array of other development measures. This faulty premise is reflected in its issuing AO 241 as among its responses to the global crisis. It is also reflected in how OFWs who approach the government for assistance with employers seeking to negotiate their contracts downward have reported to Migrante that the response they got was that little can be done because the whole world is in economic crisis. The steady revenues from state exactions that labor export generates for the government is also becoming relatively more important given how the economic crisis is eating away at more conventional tariff and tax collections. For another, its rnajor tack in dealing with displaced OFWs is redeployrnent immediately or after a period of supposed retraining, retooling and skills enhancement. It also claims livelihood programs but these appear fundamentally limited in involving very small amounts of financial support or otherwise strict collateral requirements, aside from ultimately being ineffective considering the absence of stronger domestic economic foundations and sustainable local incomes. If anything the current situation underscores the problem with relying on foreign economies for jobs and incomes. The state of these economies is beyond the government's control while their descent into crisis has the worst effects on Filipino migrants who, because of various crisis-driven factors, face greater and more intense violations of their rights and deterioration of their welfare. It is already unable to protect the millions of Filipinos abroad as it is facing severe orientational, organizational and resource limitations -yet it is apparently determined to add hundreds of thousands or even millions more. The appropriate strategic response is rather to begin to ensure that Filipinos have jobs and livelihoods at home. The declared economic assistance package for OFWs affected by the crisis will be of very limited effect at best. The Philippine government has announced an assistance package for displaced OFWs. These include job-placement referral services for those who returned to the country POEA referral to a recruitment agency for easy deployrnent or immediate deployment, or Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) placement 43