CEBU, Philippines - Overseas Workers Welfare and Administration-7 supervising administration officer Reynaldo Jacalan said that they will be giving P10,000 in release assistance for displaced Overseas Filipino Workers and their families.
The announcement was made during yesterday's Association of Government Information Officers Forum at the Philippine Information Agency office.
In fact, he said they have started giving the release assistance to 18 documented OFWs from Central Visayas who were stranded in Syria, based on OWWA national records. However, Jacalan said that not all of them availed of the assistance.
He said that there are still a lot of OFWs in Syria, but they are undocumented.
The agency's other program is free skills training and livelihood for those OFWs who return to the country and no longer wish to go back abroad. They also have the worker's assistance wherein if there is a solid basis for an OFW to return to the Philippines, due to abuse and other reasons, OWWA will be there to help.
They are also implementing programs for undocumented OFWs by conducting seminars on the importance of OFWs with complete documents once they work abroad.
OWWA encourage those who wish to work abroad to register with OWWA or POEA and be legalized. Jacalan said there is a great advantage if an OFW is OWWA-registered since one can avail of the many benefits that the agency can offer, at the same time their issues will be assessed properly and legally. — (FREEMAN)