First international work program slated

The Department of Labor and Employment is bringing into the country foreign employers under the first International DOLE Labor Opportunities Program (DOLOP) to promote Filipino workers and showcase their skills and talents.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said DOLOP is an inbound marketing process designed as a one-stop shop that brings together the various stakeholders in the overseas employment program.

Among these stakeholders are overseas employers; licensed recruitment agencies; Filipino professionals, workers and seafarers; private recruitment companies and government agencies involved in human resource development.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas had tasked the POEA to organize and stage the DOLOP, which will be held from Nov. 8 to 11 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Baldoz said DOLE has three components: an international labor mart, international labor opportunities forum and international employers awards.

She said the country’s labor attaches will invite new foreign employers to meet with licensed recruitment agencies for possible business relationships.

Baldoz invited licensed recruitment agencies and other service providers to set up booths at the labor mart, where they can make initial contacts with foreign clients and where they can match employers and candidates.

The labor forum will feature international speakers in plenary sessions on employment opportunities in Asia and the Pacific, Americas and the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and the maritime industry.

The highlight of the forum is a session on hiring Filipino workers and the documentation procedures involved in the process.

Baldoz said participating recruitment agencies will save on travel costs because they need not go abroad to search for new principals.

The international employers award is a public acknowledgment of foreign companies who have a track record of preferring and promoting the welfare of Filipinos in their employ.

Meanwhile, Sto. Tomas said the country’s entertainment industry is now setting up its own academy for the formal schooling and training of Filipino entertainers who plan to work in Japan.

Under the new rules, the Japanese government will no longer accept the Artist Record Book (ARB) as the primary document included in a Filipino entertainer’s application for a visa.

Tokyo instead reverted to the old system, which was in place until 1994, requiring Filipino entertainers applying for a visa to have two years’ training at a foreign educational institution or two years’ experience as entertainers outside Japan.

"The industry is setting up its own academy, but they need to pass the requirements for a government certification," Sto. Tomas said in an interview aired over the weekly radio program of Vice President Noli de Castro.

She noted that there has been a 17.3 percent decrease in the number of entertainers who were able to return to Japan since Tokyo adopted the new law to combat human trafficking. This figure represents about 9,000 entertainers.

Sto. Tomas said Japan imposed its new policy for Filipino entertainers much later than it did on other countries, perhaps out of consideration. — With Pia Lee-Brago