President Ramos is actively pursing a comprehensive peace agreement with these rebel groups. The crime situation has not improved in the country where a number of military and police officers are implicated in murders, rapes, bank hold-ups, and kidnappings. One serious problem facing Filipino workers around the world is the abuse they are receiving from foreign employers. Many of them were mistreated and exploited. Filipino domestic helpers were sexually molested in the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and in other Asian countries.
Human labor is a major export and sizably accounts for the dollar earnings of the country.
An estimated three to five million Filipinos are working abroad. Philippine economy grew at a 5.5 percent growth rate in 1994. Enough electric power, which was not stable in the early 1990s, is now propelling several industries to full economic recovery. Foreign debt payment still accounts for 33 percent of the national budget. Inflation is still high in spite of the fact that the prices of oil and petroleum went down.