Recruitment leader backs department for OFW

Business Mirror

By

 Recto Mercene
 -

239


Migrant workers from the Middle East wait for their luggage at the Naia Terminal 1 in this 2018 file photo. The government is looking to set up a one-stop shop Department of Overseas Workers to better protect them from the unfair practices and abuses, and facilitate the process of vetting and documentation of migrants.
THE recruitment industry said on Sunday it welcomes the creation of the Department of Overseas Workers (DOOW), which President Duterte wants to set up by year-end.
“The DOOW is long overdue,” said recruitment consultant Manny Geslani. “This will be for the benefit of 3 million temporary migrant workers.”
He expressed optimism that the one-stop shop department will relieve hundreds of  thousands of workers of the burdens of “simply going from one government office to another.”
He said the current setup “taxes many of the applicants [as they]procure travel documents like birth certificates, passports, health clearances, trade and  training certifications.”
Duterte made the pitch for a separate department when he graced the Araw ng Pasasalamat for OFWs on Friday.
As envisioned, the Department of Overseas Workers will put under one roof the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Overseas Filipinos (COF), as well as other government instrumentalities concerned with overseas worker deployment.
Geslani said the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration and the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Service Group (CIDG) could be attached to the proposed department “in order to weed out unscrupulous criminal syndicates  who continue to prey on innocent Filipinos aspiring to work abroad.”
He claimed illegal recruiters and online recruiters are very active around the premier international airport.

P2P for OFWs

Meanwhile, returning or vacationing OFWs can now use the point to point luxury bus to Baguio City without leaving Naia terminals upon their arrival in Manila with the opening of a new P2P service from PITx/Naia to Baguio City. Travel time is estimated to be less than four hours.
An established bus company plying Northern Luzon announced at the sidelines of the “One road, one nation towards PUV modernization” launching last week in Muntinlupa City their newest route.
Jeremy Chua, president of Solid North Inc., said that by the third week of July 2019, the P2P service will commence service  from the PITx terminal in Parañaque City and pass by the Naia terminals to pick up passengers for Baguio City.
The new luxury buses are fully air-conditioned and equipped with a comfort room on board.
It also offers food en route since the service is nonstop.
OFWs would be picked up at the Naia terminals by the buses and they no longer have to commute to the bus terminals on Macapagal  Boulevard.
This service will be every hour, according to Chua.

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