Labor department boosts reintegration program for OFWs

To help returning overseas Filipino workers, especially those affected by conflicts abroad, the Department of Labor and Employment will create a reintegration secretariat that will bolster the existing reintegration program for them.

The main objective of the program is to assist returning OFWs find local jobs or re-employment overseas for them to support their families. Likewise, it will successfully reintegrate workers into the "country's socio-economic mainstream on their return."

"Our aim is to assist further our modern-day heroes, who are sacrificing abroad for the sake of their loved ones, upon their return home, following their productive work engagement in overseas economies," said DOLE Secretary Arturo Brion.

In a press release, Brion explained that a holistic, three-dimensional approach shall be implemented, in coordination with the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices abroad, to assist returning OFWs and their families take part in the reintegration program.

The three facets of this proposed program include Community Reintegration, and Economic Reintegration, alongside the traditional existing program.

First, Brion said the DOLE programs to assist returning OFWs find local jobs or reemployment overseas, or business and retraining opportunities, will continue to be pursued.

Second, he said that Community Reintegration shall be pursued in cooperation with local government units (LGU) and pertinent sectors, in order to assist both returning OFWs and those still working overseas, who want to take part in the development of their fellow countrymen.

And third, under the Economic Reintegration program, the government shall continue to improve the remittance channels for the OFWs and encourage, as well as assist those intending, to invest soundly and productively from their remittances or earnings, with government assistance.

The labor official cited the efforts of other agencies to assist the OFWs remit their hard-earned earnings, and reintegrate into the country's mainstream.

Earlier, Brion said that the total global deployment of OFWs increased by 5.2 percent (+41,556) from 802,478 in the same period last year, to 844,034 between January 1 and October 9, 2006.

Amidst the growth in the global deployment of OFWs, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also said that the total OFW remittances increased by 15.3 percent to US$8.10 billion from January to August, over the comparable period last year. - Wenna A. Berondo