Returning Overseas Filipino Worker urged to learn highly-paid skills


January 06, 2019
 

By

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco
 
People's Journal

THE government must encourage returning Filipino household service workers (HSWs) to learn highly-paid skills such as welding, ACTS-OFW Party-list said yesterday.

“While welding is considered a non-traditional occupation for women, many manufacturing and construction firms here and abroad actually prefer women as welders owing to their calmer hands,” said ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III.
“In fact, semiconductor and electronics companies also favor women as workers because of their steadier hands,” said Bertiz.
A portion of this year’s P7billion budget for the government’s Free Technical and Vocational Education and Training should be invested in the retooling of returning HSWs who are willing to shift jobs as welders, Bertiz said.
“The government could initially target returning HSWs from the Middle East, particularly those who are high school graduates or undergraduates, and who are underpaid,” Bertiz said.
Many foreign employers in the Middle East still pay their Filipino HSWs only $250 to $300 a month, despite a Philippine Overseas Employment Administration order pegging their minimum monthly salary at $400.
“We have a persistent shortage of welders here at home because fewer Filipinos are entering the vocation, and many of our welders have gone to greener pastures abroad,” Bertiz said.
He cited the case of New Zealand, where Filipino welders are getting paid on average the equivalent of P5,176 per 8-hour day, or almost 10 times the P537 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila.
“We expect the lack of welders here at home to worsen in the months ahead, considering President Duterte’s programmed massive infrastructure spending,” Bertiz said.
The lawmaker cited the need for the government to equip returning HSWs with new skill sets that would enable them to enter higher-paying occupations and achieve a higher standard of living for their families.

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