Recruiters oppose GMA’s ‘supermaid’ program

Recruiters of overseas Filipino workers oppose the government’s plan to require domestic helpers to go through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for assessment before they can be sent abroad for placement as "supermaids."

Estrelita Hizon, Philippine Association of Mediterranean Agencies Deploying Labour (PAMADEL) president, said they are strongly against the proposal to require aspiring domestic helpers to undergo assessment by the TESDA.

"We are ‘yes’ to the training of domestic helpers, but we are ‘no’ to the assessment," she said.

Hizon said the assessment should be the responsibility of the recruitment agencies, not the TESDA.

"The recruiters should be allowed to do the assessment," she said. "Anyway we are the ones who would be shouldering the penalty to our counterparts overseas if the domestic helpers would not qualify and (are) rejected by employers."

Hizon said the TESDA assessment would only be an added financial burden for domestic helpers, most of whom could hardly afford the cost of recruitment fees.

"They have been coming out with stringent measures for licensed recruitment agencies to comply when we would not do anything that would cost us our licenses," she said.

"They should concentrate in fighting illegal recruiters," Hizon added. — Mayen Jaymalin