Advocacy group lauds one-stop service center for Filipino workers

RIYADH: An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) advocacy group, the United Overseas Filipinos Worldwide (U-OFW), lauded on Tuesday the opening of a one-stop service center for OFWs in Manila.
“The one-stop service center shows that the administration of President R. Duterte will not abandon exporting labor on an intensified scale,” a group spokesman said.
OFWs in the Saudi capital have likewise expressed appreciation for the one-stop service center, since OFWs could avail themselves of various government services in only one place.
Last Monday, the Department of Labor and Employment announced the formal opening of the one-stop service center though its adjunct agency, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The announcement was made POEA’s main office at the Blas F. Ople Building in Ortigas Ave., corner EDSA, Mandaluyong City.
“While it is true that the one-stop service center will give ease to would-be active and active OFWs to avail themselves of the various government services in one place, thereby reducing transportation expenses and time spent for waiting documentation formalities, we could not set aside the reality that the Duterte administration is not yet abandoning the government labor export program,” said John Monterona, U-OFW convener.
Monterona added that the main purpose of the one-stop service center is to speed up the deployment of OFWs, new-hires and returning OFWs or Balik-Manggagawa.
He added that the implementation of the new one-stop shop center, and not just the one at the POEA, will eventually result in the establishment of similar centers in various regions.
“As a result, the government could surpass the 5,200 OFWs deployed daily,” the U-OFW convener said.
He added, “I expect the government to deny that the implementation of the one-stop service center has nothing to do with the intensification of exporting Filipino labor.”