Since June 2011, P648.44 million in loans to 876 OFW businesses with over 4,800 jobs generated highlights the National Reintegration Program for OFWs

Working away from home is a great sacrifice. For Overseas Filipino workers, it means long, lonely days away from the family, relatives, and friends. It also means living constantly under the shade of a foreign culture and unfamiliar customs, laws, and traditions. These are that inevitable social cost of pursuing a better life.

Aware of this phenomenon, the government, through its strengthened reintegration program for OFWs, provides a perfect opportunity to mitigate the social cost of migration through a small and medium enterprise sufficiently attractive to OFWs to return home.

Such was the experience of Priscillano Gaces of Bangui, Ilocos Norte. A former OFW, Gaces started his overseas venture as a utility worker in Saudi Arabia in 1977. Over a span of eleven years, he was promoted only once, as a third cook, but he persevered and saved his money wisely. Only when he felt he was becoming more sickly that he decided to return to the country.

When he came back, he looked for an opportunity to turn his savings into a productive venture. He thought of swine raising and started a piggery business.

In 2013, he learned that the Department of Labor and Employment was lending money under its P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund, a component of the National Reintegration Program for OFWs being implemented by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Hoping to expand his piggery, Pricillano applied for a loan under the program and was granted P1 million. He used the loan to construct a sturdy piggery farm. His business flourished. At present, Pricillano earns an annual net income of P500, 000.

"I am very thankful to the DOLE and the OWWA for this program. The loan really helped me to take off in my business," said Pricillano, now 62.

Heronelia Dofredo of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, has a similar story. A former caregiver in Ontario (she left the Philippines for Canada in 2008), she felt the need to augment the family income derived from a small sari-sari store managed by her husband, Noli. 

When she decided to work abroad, Heronelia left behind her husband's care their two children, Rachel and Mark, a tremendous sacrifice that was not lost for Heronelia.

"I chose a difficult alternative to earn and save for my children's future, that's why I left," she said.

In 2013, while still in Canada, Heronelia's husband informed her of the P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund of the government. Sensing an opportunity, she asked Noli to invest her modest savings into a business. Noli obliged, and on 27 March 2013, upon the OWWA's recommendation, the Land Bank approved and released her a loan of P800,000 for additional working capital of their sari-sari store.

The Dofredo couple used the money to buy additional inventories. In addition, they used a part of the loan to put up two rolling stores which go around the neighboring barangays in Narvacan.

Diligence, industry, and patience have led the Dofredo couple to transform their variety store into a large grocery store. From the grocery and the two rolling stores, the couple now earns an average monthly net income of P90,000. Noli, with the help of his two children, manages the business. Heronelia is still in Ontario, Canada, working.

"I am hands-on in managing our daily operation. I have now eleven workers who are employed full-time," Noli said.

Gaces and Dofredo are two of the 876 OFW beneficiaries whose small business loans have been approved by the Land Bank of the Philippines under the P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund since President Benigno Aquino III has mandated the set-up of the fund in June 2011. The total amount of loans granted under the program has already reached P648,444,196 (P648.44 million).

The largest number of OFW loan applicants comes from Region 3, with P116.2 million in approved loans for 204 enterprises. This is followed by Region 4-A with P97.6 million in approved loans for 178 projects, Region 6 with P72.2 million for 68 businesses, and Region 5 with P57.9 million in approved loans for 64 ventures.

“These small and medium business enterprises assisted through the P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund have generated 4, 008 jobs," Baldoz explained.

According to Baldoz, the P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund supports OFWs and their families who plan to put up businesses to maximize the gains of overseas employment, mitigate the social cost of migration, and cushion the impact of forced repatriation.

Managed by the Land Bank of the Philippines, the OFW loan program carries an annual interest rate of 7.5 percent in declining balance, with a flexible payment scheme of a maximum of 5 years and an incentive grace period of two years. A borrower can borrow a minimum of P300,000 and a maximum of P2 million.

"The P2 Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund responds to the 22-point labor and employment agenda of President Benigno S. Aquino III, specifically Item No. 19 which calls on the DOLE to facilitate the re-integration of returning OFWs by favorable terms of investments, tax incentives, access to government financial institutions and other benefits that are offered to foreign investors," explains Baldoz.

"It further realizes Item No. 15 of the agenda which emphasizes on giving assistance to OFWs in achieving financial stability through training, investment and savings programs," she added.

With the government’s National Reintegration Program for OFWs now registering visible gains in terms of lives transformed, Baldoz reiterated her advice to OFWs to take a look at the viable opportunities offered by the program and consider the option of going into business to earn productive income.

“The protection of OFWs is a major mandate of the DOLE. As we intensify welfare and protection measures for OFWs, we continue translate into action President Aquino III’s economic vision of a government that creates jobs at home so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity,” Baldoz emphasized.