MANILA, 30 July 2007 — A nongovernment organization helping prepare Filipinos for jobs abroad has cited the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s pre-employment orientation seminar (PEOS) as a step in the right direction.

Loida Bernabe, a director of the Kanlungan, said the PEOS is a very big improvement over the PDOS or pre-departure orientation seminar of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration’s (OWWA), which she said is almost useless as it is “bereft of essence and depth in terms of content.”

“The OWWA modules do not explain to would-be OFWs the pros and cons of migration, rights of OFWs particularly women who are more vulnerable to gender-based violence such as physical assault and sexual abuse, and particular culture of a country where the OFW will be working,” she said in an interview.

“The PDOS gives tips on how to invest on real estates or how to send money from country of work to the Philippines, but gives no practical tips such as even a list of telephone numbers and addresses of consulates or people whom the OFW can call or run to in times of need and emergency,” Bernabe lamented.

She said she finds the PEOS more useful and helpful because it is given to those who are still applying for jobs abroad and still are waiting for its result.

In a PEOS this writer attended recently at the POEA, would-be OFWs were told of the hardship they may encounter once they leave the country.

They were told that there is “no Philippine legal jurisdiction” in any foreign country and that they should be mentally, emotionally and physically prepared when going abroad.

The lecturer was frank in saying that the OFW does not have a privilege to choose one’s employer.

The Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI) has said it had been advocating the pre-orientation approach to the government for years as a more effective deterrent to the problems being faced by OFWs.

What makes the PEOS more useful, PASEI said, is that laborers get the orientation while they are still applying for jobs, thus enabling them to make an intelligent decision on whether or not to pursue their plan of working abroad.

“Couples who attend could discuss the possible problems they could face and could plan ahead,” PASEI President Victor Fernandez Jr. said.

Earlier, the Labor Department has sought the help of NGOs such as Kanlungan, Migrante and Coalition Against Sex Trafficking in Women in Asia-Pacific to give orientation seminars to would-be OFWs.

Administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said the PEOS was part of a comprehensive campaign against illegal recruitment, which taps the support of not only NGOs but local officials, the media, OFW organizations, among others.

The PDOS modules of NGOs are also said to be much better than OWWA’s because they focus specifically on the rights of OFWs not only as workers but also as women in foreign countries.

Kanlungan’s BMOS Module Guide zeroes in on the possible breakup of families that usually happens once the husband or wife is abroad. That children may also acquire anti-social values such as drug addiction, gambling and the like is also explained.

It also gives the country profile, religious restrictions and cultural practices that include eating habits among others where the OFW is destined to go.

Labor and immigration systems are also explained. It categorically explains that the Saudi Arabia, in particular, “exclude domestic maids and others who have the same status” in its laws pertaining to work.

Kanlungan gives practical tips on the living conditions of domestic workers in the Middle East — from household setup to food, terms of employment and working hours and domestic chores.

A sample of a typical work day for a domestic helper has also been drawn up where the possibility of additional tasks not written in the agreement nor verbalized in face-to-face meeting with the employer is explained in detail.

Possible labor problems inherent in a domestic setup may also arise that the Shari’a law of Saudi Arabia are also explained, Bernabe said.