Groups and organizations tend to have communication needs that are specific to them. In the Veloso case, groups and organizations may be identified as family and friends, migrant organizations, the legal team, media, and the Philippine government. Their communication needs had to do with wanting to convince the Indonesian government to stop the pending execution of Mary Jane Veloso.
They were all bent to hear from the Indonesian government news of consideration and the longer they heard nothing, the more desperate they became and even resigned to accept the fate. But the focus of these groups was to make a point for their organizations, to be considered an achievement. For the family, probably their worry was about losing a family member and having Veloso’s children to grow without their mother and losing her in such a traumatic way. This was a paramount concern for the family.
The Community as Client of Communication
When a community is the client of communication, the message has to be responsive to the need and the channel has to be appropriate, and the subject to be communicated has to be relevant to the community. The most evident community to recognize in the case of Veloso would be the Filipino community and the OFW community in particular. For this community, the fate and reality of Veloso represented the suffering of OFWs and questioned the Philippine government’s ability to care of and protect its own citizens. This is critical because the OFW community has been regarded as modern-day heroes due to the large amounts of remittances it pumps into the Philippine economy. In 2009, over 10 million Filipinos were estimated to be migrants, which made the Philippines rank among top recipients of remittances.
The World Bank estimated that remittance flew to developing countries in 2009 totaled $316 billion. The top recipients of migrant remittances were the following (PDI, June 23, 2010 based on the Migration and Development Brief 12, Migration and Remittances Team Development Prospects Group, World Bank).
- India ($49 B)
- China ($48 B)
- Mexico ($22 B)
- Philippines ($20 B)
- France ($15 B) 6.
- Bangladesh ($11 B)
- Germany ($ 10 B)
- Nigeria ($10 B)
- Belgium ($10 B)
In 2014, the World Bank updated the data with India remaining in the top spot at about $71 billion in remittances. China ($64 billion) maintained its second slot while the Philippines ($28 billion) surpassed Mexico ($24 billion) to become the third largest recipient of remittances (World Bank 2014).
