The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said  personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) amounted to $2.0 billion in May 2012, rising by 5.2 percent year- on-year.
For the fifth-month period of May 2012, personal remittances increased 5.5 percent relative to the same period a year ago to reach $9.3 billion, according to the BSP.
The BSP also said the steady expansion of remittances during the first five period of the month was underpinned by the sustained growth in transfers from land- based OFs workers with work contracts of one year or more by 2.7 percent, as well as sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts which is by 14.7 percent.
Meanwhile, remittances coursed through banks reached $1.8 billion in May 2012, higher by 5.1 percent compared to the level recorded in the same period a year ago.
This brought the cumulative remittance level for the fifth- month period to $8.3 billion compared to the $6.5 billion for the fourth-month period of 2012.
Fund transfer from land-based workers increased by 2.8 percent to $6.4 billion while those from sea-based workers grew by 14.6 percent to $1.9 billion.
Remittances were sustained by the strong global demand for professional and skilled Filipino workers.
Meanwhile, for the first half of the year, approved job orders reached 393,336, of which 29.1 percent consisted of precessed job orders for service, production, and professional, technical, and related workers which are intended for the manpower requirements in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Taiwan.
This was based on the preliminary data obtained by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).  
Increased inflows of OFs’ personal remittances was due to the continued expansion of banks’ remittance network abroad through additional partnerships with foreign banks, money transfer operators and other remittance agents.
Major country sources of cash remittances from land-based workers for the first five months of the year were the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
BSP started the release of data on personal remittances in June 2012 as defined in the Balance of Payments Manual, 6th edition.