Given the chance to meet President Bongbong Marcos Jr. if the supposed Town Hall meeting with fellow Filipinos in Dubai was held last November 25, I would have reiterated what I wrote in July 2022 and in July this year proposing to make the UAE as the base of a Global Emergency Response and Crisis Center of the Department of Migrant Workers, and an overseas extension of the Presidential Action Center (PAC) covering Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), respectively.
The PAC serves as the command center and liaison unit of the Office of the President with various agencies on all requests for assistance, complaints, and grievances from the public.
Why the UAE? There are two international aviation hubs – Dubai and Abu Dhabi – which are 8 flight hours to London and Johannesburg, 7 flight hours to Milan, 5.5 flight hours to Kenya, 4 flight hours to Cairo and Tel Aviv, 3 flight hours to Jeddah and Amman, 2 flight hours to Riyadh, 1.5 flight hours to Kuwait, and one flight hour to Doha.
With limited international flights from the Philippines to countries in the EMEA region, plus the long flying hours, any emergency response from Manila would take a considerable time than having someone based in the UAE to immediately fly out and ‘rescue’ or ‘resolve’ any incident affecting Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
There are over 3 million OFWs in EMEA which is the largest number of Filipino migrant workers compared to Asia. Filipinos in North America, particularly in the US Mainland, are considered more as immigrants who would not be reintegrating back home than those in the Middle East and Africa where countries do not give dual citizenships to migrant workers.
This opinion piece was written by Art ‘Popoy’ Los Banos, a 23-year Dubai resident and PR professional
