The Department of Migrant Workers has brought private recruitment agencies into its reintegration framework, launching a coordinated push to move repatriated overseas Filipino workers back into foreign employment through a program called Creating Alternative Labor Market, or CALM.
The initiative zeroes in on sectors where demand for Filipino workers remains strong — manufacturing, hospitality, cleaning services, and skilled trades — across labor markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and North America. The DMW said the strategy is designed to shorten the gap between worker profiling and actual placement.
Senior officials led the engagement with participating agencies, including Undersecretaries Felicitas Q. Bay and Jainal T. Rasul Jr., Assistant Secretary Julyn S. Ambito-Fermin of the Presidential Reintegration Executive Secretariat, and bureau directors from the Foreign Employment and Welfare Services Cluster.
Private recruitment agencies expressed backing for the program and pledged to take part in job matching and placement. Beyond virtual interviews of pre-screened applicants, the department said targeted job fairs are being scheduled in the coming weeks to widen the pool of available opportunities.
The DMW framed the public-private arrangement as essential to ensuring redeployment outcomes that are efficient and respectful of workers’ dignity, while reinforcing the Philippines’ standing as a dependable source of skilled labor in the global market.
