Philippine official thanks OFWs for backing economy

Philippine Labour and Employment Secretary Silvestre H Bello III said his visit to Qatar has been ‘very fruitful’ having discussed with his Qatari counterpart relevant issues with regard to the protection of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Qatar.
Bello was addressing around 250 Filipinos at a community assembly on Monday held on the sidelines of his visit to Qatar upon the invitation of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA).
During a meeting with H E Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi, Bello highlighted the plight of 644 OFWs whose salaries had not been paid for two to six months.
The Minister informed Bello of MADLSA’s plan to create a fund for migrant workers who are not paid on time. Bello underlined the government’s concern for the welfare of OFWs around the world and went on to thank them for their invaluable contribution to the country’s economy. “I would like to thank you personally for helping our country’s economy. You are, indeed, the modern day heroes,” he said, adding OFW’s remittance has reached $28b a year. Referring to OFWs as ‘the apple of the eye’ of President Rodrigo Duterte, Bello said the President has always had deep concern towards OFWs since he assumed presidency last year with programmes directed towards overseas Filipinos. These include One-Stop Service Centers for OFWs (Ossco) which processes documents within 72 hours, the soon to be launched iDOLE card and the Overseas Filipino Bank.
“We now have 17 one-stop service centres for OFWs in the Philippines. We are coming up with the implementing guidelines for the iDOLE card within this week and by October 31, your iDOLE cards will come out,” he said, adding Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) will be a thing of the past since iDOLE will serve as OEC.
About three weeks ago, Duterte issued a presidential order authorizing establishment of Overseas Filipino Bank which will be launched in January next year, said Bello, who underlined the government’s ultimate goal to bring OFWs back to the Philippines.
“The final goal of the President is to get you back to the Philippines because he knows the social implication of your leaving our country not out of your choice but out of necessity,” he said, while highlighting the government’s plan to undertake massive infrastructure projects in the next five years set to generate an estimated two million jobs every year during that period.  “After five years I’ll be seeing you again not as OFWs but as Filipinos,” he ended.