Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Hope for displaced workers By Cherry Ann T. Lim Of Sun.Star Cebu
THE jobless but plucky will prevail.
This is the underlying message of government agencies that may have to deal with the return of a considerable number of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from abroad as the financial turmoil in the United States spreads to other parts of the world.
Vice President Noli de Castro has warned that anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 OFWs could lose their jobs in what some analysts are now calling the biggest crisis since the Great Depression.
So far, no OFW has had to return to Central Visayas as a direct result of the US credit crunch, said Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) 7 information officer Imelda Lerida last Friday.
In fact, deployment of workers to overseas destinations continues, she told Sun.Star Cebu.
But should displaced OFWs start to stream back into the country, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) would be ready to help.
Programs
The Owwa 7 and the POEA 7 still have to receive word from their main offices or the Department of Labor and Employment on any new programs that may be needed to cater to OFWs displaced by the crisis.
But Owwa 7 programs and services implementor Romyl Cabillo said Owwa’s existing programs are ready for availment by returning OFWs.
There is a loan program for those who would like to go into business.
An OFW or his family member could get a loan of up to P200,000, Cabillo told Sun.Star Cebu.
Owwa could also coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) or the Department of Agriculture for those interested in receiving livelihood training.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and other Tesda-accredited training institutions also provide scholarships for Tesda-accredited vocational courses, he said.
Asked what businesses she could recommend for returning OFWs, DTI-National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center (Nerbac) 7 Manager Minerva Yap said it would depend on what the OFW knows how to do and the resources he has.
Consultant
For instance, a returning OFW who had been exposed to the food industry in Canada after a long stint working in the hotel scene is now operating a food consultancy.
OFWs return all the time from overseas postings for various reasons, including loneliness, trying to save a marriage strained by the physical separation, and wanting to be around for their growing children.
Yap said returning OFWs have gone into goat raising, bangus (milkfish) farming and the lending business.
One former OFW who acquired a lot with a building on it plans to convert it into a boarding house, she said. He will put up a restaurant and a laundry business as well to cater to the boarders.
Yap said there is no such thing as a business that is sure to succeed because if one is not interested in that type of business, he is far from his market, or copycats bring competition, he could still fail.
She advised OFWs not interested in business not to get into it at all because if they lack the passion and the commitment to keep their businesses going during the tough times, they might just end up creating their own personal financial crises, which could have worse consequences on their families than the global financial turmoil they fled in the first place.
