Make returning OFWS as tour guides – Villar

CEBU, Philippines - A labor group is calling on the National Government to come up with long-term  strategies to solve the unemployment and underemployment problems in the country.

Dennis Derige, spokesperson of Partido ng Manggagawa-Cebu said that the government should have a mass public employment program to provide jobs to millions of unemployed since the private sector has historically failed to generate full employment.

Public employment would help solve the huge problems in social housing, environmental renewal, public health, among others.

Derige added that making returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as tour guides as one way of providing jobs is nothing but a “band-aid” solution.

“Making returning OFWs as tour guides is a drop in the bucket as a solution to providing jobs to the thousands of them,” Derige added.

Former Las Piñas Representative Cynthia Villar, who is seeking a senatorial post under Team Pnoy, is urging the Department of Tourism and the Department of Foreign Affairs to tap returning OFWs as tour guides and interpreters to welcome international visitors from countries like Korea, Japan, Malaysia and the Middle East.

“This can be part of our reintegration efforts for OFWs since they are familiar with the customs, culture and even languages of countries that send a lot of tourists our way. It will also help put our tourists at ease since those looking after their needs are former workers in the countries that they came from,” said Villar in a press statement sent to The FREEMAN.

Known by her campaign monicker “Misis Hanepbuhay”, Villar said that the tourism industry is a fast-growing sector and both the national and local governments must work together to outbeat other rival countries in terms of tourist arrivals.

“Many OFWs from Korea are able to speak the language fluently. They can be trained to become professional tour guides and interpreters,” Villar pointed out.

But Art Barrit, spokesperson of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said that not all returning OFWs will qualify and still have to undergo crash course on the rudiments of the industry.

Barrit said that what OFWs are asking now is access to the financial institution to have seed capital in running a business. —/MBG (FREEMAN)