New center in Clark to serve OFWs

CABANATUAN CITY — A one-stop service center that will house at least 20 government agencies such as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will be opened to the public at the Clark Special Economic Zone to service some 5.2-million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Central Luzon and Northern Luzon.

In a press conference, Diaz said that the President has approved his proposal to put up the satellite office for OFWs at Clark.

He said that the OFW satellite office will be useful for contract workers working overseas since roughly 65 percent of the eight million OFWs are residing in North Luzon based on a study conducted by the DOLE.

Aside from the DOLE and the DFA and the two attached agencies, other agencies that will establish field offices at Clark are the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), the Department of Health (DOH). the National Statistics Office (NSO), the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) among others.

The service center, Diaz said, will operationalize and make available to the public an integrated document processing center to reduce the time required on the part of OFWs and the public on official transactions. It will also adopt a computerized and integrated system of registration of OFWs.

As a service center, the facility will provide for the issuance and renewal of passport and visa, issuance of Overseas Employment Certificate, Artist Record Book, and authentication of documents such as birth/marriage certificates, NBI clearance, certificate of competency and board rating for professionals, school records.

It will likewise provide for temporary housing/lodging for the duration of stay at the center, OFW membership and medicare.

Diaz said that consular offices, training centers, licensed recruitment agencies, dormitories and clinics will also be set up in the area.

The Office of the Presidential Assistant for North Luzon (OPANL) coordinates and oversees the Arroyo administration’s projects in 22 provinces in North Luzon. It is also involved in resolving right-of-way problems among others. Diaz emphasized that the government recognizes the importance of OFWs who, he said, remitted a total of $7.17 billion last year, up by 19 percent from the $6 billion recorded in 2001.

He said that the OFWs among them nurses, caregivers, IT experts, domestic helpers and seafareres continue to play the role of "bagong bayani" by remitting $4.52 billion for the first seven months of this year, which is six percent higher than the $4.26 billion registered during the same period last year.

Taking this into consideration, he said that government services relating to their deployment should be made more convenient to them.

He said that the creation of a one-stop center for deployment of OFWs would facilitate the deployment process, decentralize government services, create an economic multiplier effect and serve as an attractive market to entice airlines to transfer flights to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark.

"This service center will likely encourage licensed recruitment agencies to relocate there as well as representative offices of foreign companies that directly recruit and hire OFWs," he said.

But for it to be more effective, Diaz said that the service center should also house the consular offices of foreign countries, particularly the top 10 destinations of OFWs.