Arroyo bares package for retrenched OFWs
Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has unveiled a “payback package” for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who have been retrenched as a result of the global financial crisis, even as she belittled the layoffs as a “trickle” of the entire OFW population.
On Friday, Arroyo distributed PhilHealth insurance, certificates for skills training, and referral letters for alternative employment to 102 of more than 1,000 recently laid off OFWs from Taiwan, at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang.
“We will implement programs to show our gratitude for our expatriate Filipino workers, who are forced to return home because the country where they are working in is hit by the economic crisis. The DoLE [Department of Labor and Employment] and the OWWA [Overseas Workers Welfare Administration] will lead the government’s payback programs for expatriate Filipinos,” she said.
“Even if it is only a trickle of our workforce that is coming back, the government will not sit idly and do nothing for our modern day heroes in this time of great economic uncertainty. We assure you of full and unequivocal support,” she said.
The “payback package” includes:
- Setting up a P250-million livelihood support fund, which Arroyo had announced in October;
- Cutting red tape so that OFWs could access the P250-million fund easily;
- Identifying business opportunities;
- Identifying employment opportunities here and abroad;
- Skills training to avail of in-demand jobs in other parts of the world;
- Setting up of DoLE and OWWA desks in every province to match OFWs’ skills with available jobs;
- Setting up of an online resource for job vacancies, and;
- Holding a “marketing blitz,” through the OWWA, for OFWs.
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