OFW deployment hits 1.8 M in 2013

By Mayen Jaymalin, The Philippine Star


MANILA - Filipino workers remain popular with foreign employers, with the number of workers hired abroad reaching over 1.8 million last year.
“We are still finalizing the report, but based on the latest figures that I saw, we were able to match the 2012 deployment figure of 1.8 million,” Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Hans Cacdac said.
Cacdac said POEA recorded the highest ever deployment of Filipino workers in 2012.
According to Cacdac, the political instability in various countries abroad a year ago has not adversely affected the hiring of Filipino workers.
“There was no decline in hiring because the countries that are politically unstable are not traditional destinations for Filipino workers,” Cacdac pointed out.
Most of the Filipino workers were deployed in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and several other Middle East countries.
The POEA yesterday launched a new system that will help prevent aspiring overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from falling prey to illegal recruiters.
Cacdac said the POEA came out with a mobile application system that will allow OFWs to check whether they are dealing with licensed recruitment agencies and if there are job orders.
“With a touch of their mobile phone, they can check on the spot if the person offering job is a licensed recruiter,” he said.
Cacdac said the POEA hopes to eventually include in the new system an application that will allow returning OFWs to apply for the required overseas employment contract.
Based on POEA records, Cacdac said, there are fewer cases of illegal recruitment, but stressed the government would continue the intensified campaign against it.
Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said that 4,000 jobs were generated with the new enterprises started by OFWs who availed of the government’s reintegration program.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more