High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Padala is a word from the Tagalog language which means "consignment" or "the thing consigned". The word also has become a cultural concept, a tradition and a state of mind of Filipinos leaving their native country to work in foreign lands as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in order to "send something" back home. These workers send things to their families back home in the form of padala; either money or material goods utilizing balikbayan boxes. Padala has developed into a way of life that is actually an increasingly extensive network of formal and informal money remitters or cargo forwarders that comprise the padala system. In 2001, the Philippines ranked 3rd world-wide after India and Mexico among the top ten monetary remittance recipient countries. In 2006, the Philippines received over $12 billion dollars in remittances from overseas Filipinos worldwide.