OFWs need cultural empowerment

MANILA, Philippines - To save first-time overseas Filipino workers from abuses through awareness, a congressional bet wants the creation of cultural training facilities for them.

Danilo Dizon, a congressional bet for District 1 in Pangasinan and tagged as “The People’s Choice,” urged the government to put up such facilities to make prospective OFWs aware of the cultural and legal laws of their country-destinations.

When asked on what to do to protect the OFWs, he stressed the necessity to educate them about the legal system of their host-countries.

“The government must offer a new law for the protection of our modern-day heroes so we can be assured that these Filipino abroad will not be abused by their foreign employers,” he said.

Moreover, he said, cultural seminars would minimize and solve the problems being encountered by the OFWs in their worksites.

“We want to equip our migrant workers with the full knowledge of the culture and traditions of the place where they are going to,” he said.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs must be the lead implementing agency to supervise, administer and control the cultural training centers because of its strengthened diplomatic ties.

Dizon, who was cited the most outstanding Pangasinan councilor from 1998 to 2001, promised to go after illegal recruiters and economic saboteurs if elected in Congress.