MANILA, 1 August — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will now handle pre-departure orientation seminars or PDOS for migrant Filipino workers.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said it had transferred the function since the OWWA handles welfare cases.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz and OWWA head Wilhelm Soriano issued a joint circular mandating the transfer as a “major component of OWWA’s information program for OFWs and their families.”

The circular was the offshoot of a memorandum of agreement between both agencies wherein both would work together for the enhancement of the PDOS and facilitate its transfer from POEA to OWWA.

“I think that it is more appropriate that this (PDOS) be handled by a welfare agency for OFWs,” Baldoz said during the turnover ceremonies yesterday afternoon.

In turning over the PDOS to OWWA, Baldoz yesterday gave her agency a pat on the back.

“This has been our baby for the past 20 years and we like to think it has matured. We are now wholeheartedly turning it over to OWWA,” she said.

She described the PDOS as “more than just a requirement for overseas employment” and said that it was about time that this program was turned over to OWWA so that it would gain “new strengths, a new perspective and new values.”

Soriano said the POEA’s welfare department would assist OWWA and its personnel during a six month transition period.

The POEA would “orient OWWA personnel in the conduct of PDOS including its accreditation procedures.”

As overseer of the PDOS, the OWWA would “prioritize the enhancement and production of audio-visual and country/skill specific materials, syllabus review, evaluation of accreditation system, facilitators development, and institutionalization of consultative mechanisms for improvement of PDOS.”

“An OFW who is fully informed is fully protected,” Soriano reasoned out borrowing the words of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Soriano later expressed hope that there would be an OFW Development Institute “in the near future” to be “co-managed by POEA and OWWA.”