I recently attended an exclusive town hall online meeting on the establishment of the Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo para sa mga OFW na Nangangailangan (AKSYON) Fund which will be used to provide legal and other forms of assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The AKSYON Fund will be administered by the newly created Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) under Secretary Susan ‘Toots’ Ople.
The DMW was officially established on December 30, 2021 when former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11641. The DMW will be operational by January 1, 2023 when it receives funding from the National Budget. It will be absorbing within two years all the powers and functions of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA); Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMAW) under the Department of Foreign Affairs; Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP) under the Department of Labor and Employment; National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) under the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration; and Office of the Social Welfare Attaché under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The DMW is mandated to protect the rights and promote the welfare of OFWs and their families; make overseas employment a choice and not a necessity; and align programs and policies towards the fulfillment of the 23 objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration or GCM, which is a UN initiated agreement covering all dimensions of international migration.
The issues affecting OFWs and their families have been a source of social dysfunction among Filipino families, especially marriages. This is the very reason why Couples for Christ (CFC) in the Philippines launched the CFC Migrants Program in 2009 to give courage and support to OFWs in meeting the challenges of being away from the homeland and their respective families.
The program’s mission is to “Empower migrants and their families through Moral Values Re-orientation resulting in active consciousness of their missionary role. Reinforce their capability to cope with separation. Build their skills and competencies to sustain and grow their finances/livelihood to prepare for eventual family and society reintegration”.
As servant-leaders of CFC in the UAE, together with some couples, my wife, Elle, and I have been entrusted to introduce the Values Formation Program (VFP) for Migrant Workers Family Circles, which is short course of nine sessions comprising lectures, group discussions and personal sharings. In the Philippines the course is given to families in three half days for better result.
Since the situation in the Middle East is very different, we were able to conduct a more shortened course of three sessions in one day before three groups of distressed Filipina workers at POLO-Dubai on November23, 2018 and May 17, 2019, and POLO-Abu Dhabi on May 31, 2019.
The objective of the VFP is to highlight values to the participants that will make them better persons with integrity, help them improve their attitude towards others especially family members, guide them to appreciate the need to live full but simple lives, and enhance their commitment to their families, the Philippines and their God.
With the pandemic and the untimely return back home of thousands of OFWs, the Tawid OFW Program (TOP) was introduced in the CFC Migrants Program in September 2020 as a new undertaking where an ‘ayuda’ or a financial subsidy to an OFW household beneficiary is extended for three months and the affected OFW is offered the Entrepreneurship and Career Program (ECP).
The ECP was launched on May 15, 2021 with the pilot run of the BizneSerye Webinar Series: Mga negosyong pwede kong pasukin (Business Development). A week later, on May 22, the actual run of Module 1 was held. Last July 9, the 3rd batch of the BizneSerye commenced. Participants will learn to develop a business plan and operate an actual business through the guidance of volunteer CFC members.
With the DMW now in place, the CFC Migrants Program can be a big help to the department which is also tasked to absorb the functions of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs or NRCO. The center’s mission is to empower OFWs and their families to work and live with an entrepreneurial mindset, primarily by raising awareness about the importance of saving and equipping OFWs to plan for investment, business, or local employment upon their return, while also responding to the reintegration needs of displaced OFWs and OFWs in distress.
Indeed, there many good news now for migrant workers.
Note: Art ‘Popoy’ Los Banos is veteran PR consultant with a combined 24-year PR experience in the Philippines and UAE. He is currently the Senior Manager for Corporate Communications of the Tristar Group and is the only Filipino in the senior management team of the Oil & Gas logistics company. He was the former 2008 Philippine Independence Day (PID) organizing committee chairman in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. In December 2019, Art ‘Popoy’ received the Philippine Pride Awards in Public Relations from the Philippine Business Council-Abu Dhabi chapter for his ‘exemplary leadership and tireless efforts to continuously support, boost and campaign for excellence to uplift the Filipino image.’ Recently, he was named as one of the Philippines’ Top 30 Leaders on LinkedIn.