A standard welcome package awaits overseas Filipino workers stepping off humanitarian flights from the Middle East—one that bundles cash aid, medical checks, counseling, and help finding new work. Funding that promise just got bigger.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has authorized an extra P3 billion for the program that repatriates and reintegrates OFWs uprooted by the regional conflict, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto announced Sunday, June 21. The money covers the entire journey home, from pre-departure support to transport and the services workers tap once they land.
“War or not, there are Filipinos in extreme distress that we should bring home,” Recto said.
The Executive Secretary stressed that the President’s directive was specifically about what happens after arrival. “His instruction was that it should not be that once they land here, they are left to fend for themselves. What the president wants is assistance for those who need to return to the provinces and, above all, economic opportunities,” Recto said in Filipino.
He framed the returning workforce as an asset rather than a burden. “By tapping the skills of the OFWs honed by their work abroad, society benefits as well. This is a kind of technology transfer that helps the economy. This is a brain gain we need,” he said.
Several of the humanitarian flights doubled as medical evacuations. “If you will recall, these flights became medevacs for sick Filipinos as well. The DMW, through the brilliant leadership of Secretary Hans Cacdac, brought medical personnel on board to care for them,” Recto said.
On the ground, the Department of Migrant Workers has staged 15 Bayanihan Para sa Balikbayang Manggagawa National Reintegration Network and Job Fairs nationwide, billed as one-stop shops linking workers to jobs at home and abroad, livelihood programs, and financial literacy sessions.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has channeled separate help through its Balik Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay Program, reaching 664 recently repatriated workers with livelihood aid. Qualified beneficiaries can draw as much as P20,000 in seed capital to launch small enterprises.
The DMW’s airlift had carried 10,446 Filipinos safely out of the Middle East as of June 17—8,281 of them workers, alongside 1,803 dependents and 362 stranded individuals.
