JEDDAH, 20 December 2004 — Labor Attaché Nasser P. Munder yesterday said he will be relinquishing his post as head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Jeddah on Jan. 1.
In a telephone interview last night, Munder said he will be replaced by Labor Attaché Nilong Bulyok, who arrived in Jeddah yesterday from Manila.
Munder said Bulyok will assume office today to acquaint himself of his new assignment, but the formal turnover will be on Dec. 31.
Bulyok had been assigned to the home office (Department of Labor and Employment) over the past two years after completing his tour of duty abroad, first in Kuwait, then to Libya and Iraq.
Munder, a lawyer from Bubong town of Lanao del Sur province in the southern Philippines, said he will be leaving for Manila on Jan. 3 for a new assignment at the home office.
During his foreign tour of duty of six years and six months, Munder was first assigned as assistant attaché in Kuwait and then Jeddah before he was named attaché in Macau. He was pulled out of Macau two years ago to become POLO chief in Jeddah after the death of Labor Attaché Abraham Malli, under whom he previously served.
Although he had kept a low profile, Munder is considered by community leaders in the Western Region who know him as an “OFW-friendly” attaché.
In a brief telephone interview yesterday, he was profuse with thanks “for all OFWs who have supported me all throughout my term.”
Asked what he though was his most memorable achievement in his less-than-two-years stint in Jeddah, he cited the case of 19 OFWs, mostly medical workers, in the city of Makkah.
Because of the nature of the case, he said his office deemed it better for the workers to return to the Philippines and to let the POLO fighting the case in a labor court.
Six months later, he said, the POLO was able to get all what was due the workers. “The workers could not believe it when we contacted them for their bank accounts so that we could remit their claims,” he said.
