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Press Release
'Reintegration is the crying need of OFWs' - GMA
By Villy Cabuag
OFW Journalism Consortium
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has recognized the need
to realign government programs for OFWs to focus on the long-term
goal of reintegrating them into their communities in the country.
During their courtesy call at Malacanang Palace, migrant
civil society advocates were assured by President Arroyo that
she would endorse to concerned government agencies the prioritization
of a reintegration program for Filipinos working abroad.
"Reintegration is the crying need of OFWs," President
Arroyo said at the meeting with the migrant groups, led by
BaliKaBayani Foundation and the Economic Resource Center for
Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF), on April 18.
There are an estimated seven million Filipinos working and
living abroad, with 700,000 new OFWs deployed every year,
but 70 to 80 percent of these are unable to save enough in
preparation for their eventual return after working 10-20
years overseas.
Among the agencies tasked to create various mechanisms for
OFW remittances are the Development Bank of the Philippines,
the People's Credit and Finance Corporation, other government
financial institutions, and the National Anti Poverty Commission
(NAPC).
Gina Alunan Melgar, executive director of the Laguna-based
Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiatives Inc, said
that NGOs are working on a scheme that will use migrants'
earnings to alleviate poverty in their respective communities,
thereby encouraging them to return and settle in the Philippines.
The DBP's role will be to create a credit window for micro-finance
or the establishment of a cooperative, among other things.
Concrete measures
For its part, the NAPC has long been working for the creation
of a Philippine Micro Finance and People's Credit Corporation.
Now, with the President's endorsement, civil society groups
and NAPC can draw up concrete measures for the reintegration
program, Melgar said.
Even before the meeting with the President, the Overseas
Worker's Welfare Administration (OWWA) had been working for
comprehensive and responsive reintegration program for OFWs.
Currently, the OWWA is the only government agency focused
on assisting the OFWs and their families but its programs
are centered mainly on creating livelihood projects and opening
up credit windows for its members.
In a paper presented by the OWWA at the first National Reintegration
Conference in Manila on April 12-13, government admitted that
many of its programs for reintegration have either been shelved,
are inactive or in need of realignment.
The paper, "The OWWA Reintegration Program: The Government
Perspective" said that although these projects had generally
created a positive impact, they would disintegrate because
the other government agencies involved lack programs for OFWs.
"A reintegration program for OFWs is being redesigned
to make it an integrated whole...much of what it is right
now is a product of studies and experience gained from implementing
(the programs) that were designed to improve the lives of
OFWs and their families," the paper said.
OWWA administrator Wilhelm Soriano said that government should
intensify its programs for OFWs in light of recent developments
in the Middle East and the growing trend towards the localization
of labor in most countries.
Reintegration as centerpiece
A resolution passed during the conference urged government
to recognize OFWs as a special sector and make reintegration
a centerpiece of the country's overseas employment agenda.
The 146 delegates, composed of government representatives
and civil society groups, also asked President Arroyo to provide
clear policy directions and support programs to create an
enabling environment for a comprehensive OFW reintegration
program.
But Mai Anonuevo, executive director of BaliKaBayani, cautioned
that any government program for OFWs should focus on how to
use their earnings or any funds collected for their welfare,
in order to make them a major engine for rural development
in their communities.
She warned that any money raised, either from collections
from various migrant credit organizations or from other bond
floatation in the program's name should be used directly for
the OFW reintegration agenda and not to pay for government's
huge debts.
However, Anonuevo said that when the group asked the President
if migrant civil society groups can dictate where to use the
earnings on the OFW bonds that the Department of Foreign Affairs
plans to float, "She said no.".
Anonuevo also related that civil society groups asked the
President for seed money from her Presidential Social Fund
for information campaigns abroad and other activities relating
to the reintegration plan but Mrs. Arroyo did not seem too
receptive to the idea.
"But I think she is not closing the door. And this is
already a major development because government has recognized
the potentials of the OFW program," Anonuevo added. -
OFW Journalism Consortium
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Press release contributed by:
OFW Journalism Consortium
Contact address: INSTITUTE ON CHURCH AND SOCIAL ISSUES
2/F ISO Building, Social Development Complex, Ateneo de Manila
University,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines
63-02-4265953, 4266070 (fax), jopiniano@lycos.com, OFJournConsortium@yahoogroups.com
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