MANILA, Philippines -- Globe Telecom announced a partnership with Western Union that allows Filipinos in Hawaii to send remittances to the Philippines via the former's GCASH service.

Under the partnership, Filipinos can send remittances from Western Union sites found in Foodland stores in the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Big Island. A fee of $4.50 is charged per $100 remittances or less.

Receiving parties in the Philippines will be notified via SMS and can then encash remittances through Globe centers and other authorized GCASH outlets.

According to the Hawaii Filipino Chronicle, a weekly newspaper for Filipino residents and businesses in Hawaii, there are more than 168,000 Filipinos at present living in Hawaii, comprising more than 15 percent of the total population.

Globe and Western Union announced a partnership in January aimed at providing remittance services via GCASH for Filipinos abroad.

The partnership targets low-principal but high-volume transactions typical in countries that have high concentration of overseas Filipino workers.

Western Union has presence in more than 200 countries. Globe, through subsidiary G-Xchange Inc., manages more than 6,000 GCASH outlets nationwide. According to Globe, the service is now used by more than 1.5 million users.