MANILA, 21 August 2005 — In a bid to reduce the number of unemployed workers at home, the Philippine government yesterday said it was offering more incentives to foreign nationals who hire Filipinos to work abroad.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said transaction costs for hiring OFWs, as Filipino migrant workers are called, will also be reduced under the Department of Labor and Employment’s Labor Opportunities Program.
Foreign employers are encouraged to visit the Philippines and personally search for highly skilled Filipino workers in a one-stop shop in Manila.
“Among the main attractions of the program for foreign employers are reduced transaction costs and exposure to the work attitudes, knowledge and quality of professional and technical training of Filipino workers,” Sto. Tomas said.
By making use of the program, foreign employers reduce the risk of spending money hiring workers who later turn out to be unqualified for positions, she said.
“Foreign employers often pay for the plane fares of workers but there are times that they are forced to send them home because the worker misunderstood the contract’s terms or due to a mismatch with the work, but this problem can now be lessened under the new campaign,” she said.
Another part of the campaign is for the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and licensed recruitment agencies to thoroughly screen applicants for overseas employment.
Sto. Tomas said the program would benefit not only the foreign employers, but job seekers as well because recruitment agencies are mandated to ensure that contracts comply with the terms and conditions acceptable to the POEA.
“Filipino job seekers would have access to wider and more credible information and can even compare verified employment packages before deciding which jobs to accept,” Sto. Tomas said.
She expressed confidence that with the new program, the Philippines will keep its lead over other countries that also export labor force, and enable the government to meet its target of deploying at least one million Filipino workers abroad each year.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment, more than half a million “documented OFWs” have been sent abroad during the first six months of the year.
“Documented OFWs” refer to workers whose papers have been processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
Officials said tens of thousands of Filipino workers are able to seek jobs in some countries illegally and are considered “undocumented.”
Citing reports from the POEA, Labor Undersecretary Secretary Danilo P. Cruz said that as of June 26, the number of OFWs deployed has already reached 502,772, up by 19,276 from 483,496 OFWs who departed the country for work abroad in the same period last year.
Cruz said this is the first time that half a million OFWs have been sent abroad in a single semester.
The Philippine government continues to look for job opportunities abroad not just to keep unemployment in check but also because the dollar earnings overseas Filipinos send home has become a pillar of the Philippine economy.
Cruz said the total remittances of overseas Filipinos could hit $10 billion this year.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank) earlier reported that remittances by overseas Filipinos rose by 17.22 percent to $3.072 billion (around P170.9 billion) from January to April 2005, compared to $2.621 billion in the same period in 2004.
Cruz also noted that the continued preference for Filipino workers in traditional and emerging labor markets overseas complemented the marked improvement in employment posted in the Philippines’ International Labor Organization (ILO)-standard based Labor Force Survey as of April 2005.
