Wednesday, April 04, 2007 Gov’t open to redeploy Pinoys not ready to return By Kristy-Anne C. Topacio-Manalaysay
SUCCESSFULLY building a business after working abroad, Alberto Limbo Perez still couldn’t be pinned down in his own country. Luckily for him, a recently-built government center can give him that chance.
“Who would reject the opportunity of working abroad?” the 47-year-old Perez said in Tagalog. “Earnings from abroad are a big help to meet our needs. It’s a waste to let the opportunity pass.”
This comes from a man whose seven-year-old work abroad is being poured on a house with swimming pool at a cost of P4 million, almost half of what the government spent on a building to mold Filipinos like him to either stay home for good or go back to migrant work.
The building in Intramuros, Manila, was funded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) with a P7 million purse (US$140,000 at US$1=P48) according to Labor Attache to Japan Reydeluz Conferido.
Conferido said the National Reintegration Center for Overseas Filipino Workers would allow temporary migrant Filipino workers with plans to return permanently here to adjust first by allowing them go back to overseas work.
According to Conferido, the center could help Filipino workers find jobs anywhere in the world while preparing for that time he or she could eventually return.
“The past program was intended for OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) who have decided to stay here for good,” the country’s labor attaché to Japan said during the launch of the center early March.
It’s this past program, begun at the start of the new millennium and formally launched three years ago, that the new project builds on, Conferido added.
“The personal reintegration has been further enriched to zero in on the abilities of the OFWs and help them match the environment in the Philippines a lot better, taking advantage of their particular expertise and skills and match them to existing opportunities in the Philippines,” Conferido said.
“If the OFW is not ready yet to return to the Philippine for good, the same personal reintegration program is going to help them still look for appropriate opportunities abroad,” he added.
Limbo
The new structure, according to documents, plans to combine under one roof the personal, community and economic reintegration programs handled separately before by four government agencies.
The Owwa), which charges each Filipino leaving for work abroad US$25, attempted the personal reintegration, according to Conferido.
Its parent agency, the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), handled the economic reintegration by encouraging OFWs to borrow money during the 2004 presidential elections.
Owwa’s sister agency Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) —which facilitates the outflow of workers— is now included in the new program. Another agency, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), forms the fourth leg of this new attempt to attract Filipino workers to return to the Philippines.
These are Filipinos like Miguel Bolos who bought a spa using money he earned working in Saudi Arabia as an assistant comptroller for a quarter-century.
Bolos welcomed the construction of the center, saying its program is promising for returning overseas workers planning to venture into business.
“For one, it could give returning overseas Filipinos some kind of an idea rather than starting from scratch on their own,” Bolos said. “It could save them time by coming here and right away, get some kind of an idea. It may not be a very firm idea, but [the Center could offer] something to start on.”
Bolos invested in a spa, now employing three men and 18 women, without the formal assistance of the government agencies involved in the Center.
On the other hand, Perez, a garments-trader and present during the building’s formal opening, doesn’t mind the Center’s “redeployment” feature.
The 47-year-old businessman said he’s willing to work overseas again, if a job opportunity comes his way.
According to the center’s promotional documents, Perez would be evaluated of his skills and matched with job orders from other countries.
Conferido said the decision to open this option is a sort of reality check for government: it can’t stop Filipinos from leaving and it couldn’t provide the high-paying jobs to stake their future in their homeland.
Fly
The Center promises to provide OFWs online search for jobs overseas, training in entrepreneurship, psychological help, and “re-tooling”.
The last one dampened the interest of OFWs like Eden de Castro Villa who said what she and others like her need more is money.
“It’s a good initiative, though I hope that the government would still support us financially even if we already started with our businesses,” de Castro Villa, a former teacher, said in Tagalog.
Though she said her fondness for creating items out of native materials started in high school, her one-year stay work as a domestic worker in Hong Kong helped her develop a knack for craft works.
Thus, when she returned home to the province of La Union in 1999, she went into business.
Lacking capital, de Castro Villa relied on the money sent by her husband Lowell, who was then working in Singapore.
For Perez, it was through a quarter-of-a-million peso loan from Owwa that jumpstarted his business expansion.
Pereze and Castro Villa however wouldn’t enjoy the center’s services.
The center would only accommodate Filipinos going abroad for work beginning September 2003. But if they didn’t pay the US$25 membership fee to Owwa, they won’t be eligible for getting help from the government agency.
Still, for Bolos, it’s a start.
“Just like any (government) endeavors, you (could only) hope for the best,” Bolos said.
At least, he added, returning OFWs have something to refer to for help like the center.
“It (the center) could give them some sort of idea (of what to do with their savings),” Bolos said. “But on how successful it’s going to be, I don’t know. It all depends on the leadership, and on the (public officials’) desire and determination to let it fly.” (OFW Journalism Consortium/Sunnex)
