OWWA, Facebook to provide OFWs access to digital literacy


Janvic Mateo, Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star) - June 8, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has partnered with social media giant Facebook to provide overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) access to digital literacy and small business training programs.
OWWA chief Hans Cacdac and Facebook Asia-Pacific director for community affairs Clair Deevy led the signing of a memorandum of agreement as part of the national celebration of Migrant Workers Day yesterday.
Cacdac said the partnership aims to empower OFWs and their families.
A one-hour digital literacy module will be provided for departing OFWs while informational videos will be played at OWWA offices and posted on their online platforms.

Cacdac said the seminars would provide OFWs with entrepreneurship skills to prepare them for their return to the country.
“Livelihood has always been an integral component of the reintegration program of OWWA. Given the onset of technology and the power of social media, we must take advantage of these platforms for more economic uses,” he said.
By becoming digitally literate, OWWA deputy administrator Arnel Ignacio said OFWs could easily identify fake news and help prevent these from spreading that could create confusion among Filipinos abroad. 
The OWWA also hosted a job fair with 47 participating agencies, which offered local and overseas employment for displaced OFWs from Saudi Arabia.
The event, dubbed “Kabuhayan at Teknolohiya para sa OFWs at Pamilya,” was held at the Philippine International Convention Center and attended by 2,000 OFWs and their families.

OFW remittance charges

Local and foreign banks will collect remittance charges of up to P161 billion this year from millions of OFWs sending money to their families here,

Rep. John Bertiz III  of party-list group ACTS-OFW said.
Bertiz denounced the “excessive” charges, saying workers would pay banks $3.1 billion (P161 billion at P52 to the dollar) to send home an estimated $29.3 billion.
He cited a World Bank (WB) study showing that the global average cost of a personal cash transfer through bank channels was 10.57 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
This means that an OFW pays an average of $10.57 for every $100 he remits to his family back home, Bertiz said.
“Slashing remittance fees by half would easily mean $1.5 billion (P78 billion) in cost-savings and extra cash in the pockets of migrant Filipino workers and their families here. There’s really no reason why banks cannot reduce fees, considering that non-bank money transfer agents are charging as low as three percent,” he said.
Bertiz said Filipinos still prefer to send money home through banks largely because of the security the banking system provides.
Leyte Rep. Henry Ong, vice chairman of the House committee on banks, said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and bankers should work on reducing remittance charges to three percent.
According to the BSP, OFWs remitted $7 billion through banks in the first quarter of 2018.  In the whole of 2017, they sent home $28.1 billion using bank channels.   –  With Jess Diaz
BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINASFACEBOOKOVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERSOVERSEAS WORKERS WELFARE ADMINISTRATION

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