1 M Pinoy workers went abroad this year

The Philippines has reached a new milestone: it has deployed over one million of its people to employers overseas this year.

Labor Undersecretary for employment Danilo Cruz reported yesterday that official records show that more than one million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been deployed as 2006 enters its last month.

"We have reached one million annual deployment well before yearend and this represents a significant milestone in the efforts to facilitate overseas employment," Cruz said.

Based on data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), a total of 1,011,148 OFWs were hired between Jan. 1 and Nov. 21. This figure indicates a 12.4 percent increase over the 899,675 OFWs deployed over the same period last year.

The deployment of land-based OFWs posted the highest growth, at 12.9 percent from 678,424 in 2005 to 766,019 over the first 11 months of this year, Cruz said.

The number of sea-based workers grew by 10.8 percent from 221,521 to 245,129, while the deployment of re-hired workers grew by 16.5 percent.

Cruz said the country succeeded in deploying over a million OFWs despite the recent conflict between Lebanon and Israel and other crises that resulted in a slight drop in the hiring of OFWs in several countries.

Since President Arroyo assumed the presidency five years ago, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has been working to generate at least a million new overseas jobs for Filipinos.

Although the Philippines is known as one of the world’s leading labor exporters, the country did not reach the million mark in OFW deployment until this year.

Cruz expressed confidence that this year’s deployment will set a new pace for the country’s migration program.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion earlier reported that the deployment of over a million OFWs and programs to ensure the safety of these OFWs will be part of DOLE’s policy thrust next year.

As this developed, aspiring OFWs deplored POEA processes for selecting OFWs for deployment to South Korea, which they described as "flawed and prone to corruption."

These job applicants said that they were required to shell out P15,000 under the Employment Permit System (EPS) for Korean language training and other requirements so they can be registered in the POEA database.

Even after paying the fees, applicants have no assurance that they will be selected, since the selection is done by prospective Korean employers.

They urged the government to take appropriate measures to come up with a new system that will make it easier for workers to seek employment in South Korea.