The Department of Labor and Employment said in a report that Filipino workers deployed overseas from Jan. 1 to Nov. 18 this year have reached 991,461, only 8,539 short of the one-million deployment target for 2006.

For the same period last year, total deployment was 893,073, but it increased by 11 percent or 98,388 this year to 991,461.

The DOLE report said that land-based workers have reached 751,974 from January to November this year, up by 11.5 percent from the 674,138 deployed worldwide for the same period in 2005. Deployment of overseas Filipino seafarers reached 239,487, posting a growth of 9.4 percent from 218,935 from last year.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said he is optimistic foreign remittances will approach the $13-billion mark by yearend.

Latest official figures of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that OFW remittances through the formal banking channels alone reached $9.11 billion from January to September 2006, or 14.4 percent higher compared to the same period last year.*

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