Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 24) — Undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have been sent home after they lost their jobs amid the COVID-19 crisis are also eligible for benefits under the livelihood programs of the government, an agency under the Department of Labor and Employment said Friday.
“Lahat po ng returning OFWs ay may mga programa na pong pwedeng ma-avail dito sa opisina ho namin,” Roel Martin, officer in charge director of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs, told a briefing.
[Translation: All returning OFWs could avail of our programs.]
Martin said his office coordinates with various agencies in the “reintegration of the OFWs.”
He noted that the Department of Trade and Industry provides skill and entrepreneurship trainings for OFWs, while Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as well as the Department of Science and Technology offer capital for displaced workers to put up their own technology-based enterprise.
Martin added his office has helped evacuate over 90,000 overseas Filipinos under OWWA’s repatriation program, with most of them back in their respective home provinces.
OWWA head Hans Cacdac earlier said that authorities will focus on providing livelihood assistance instead of cash aid for returning overseas Filipinos.
Cacdac explained that the financial assistance was previously prioritized since it was the “immediate need” as more than 300,000 OFWs were displaced due to the coronavirus pandemic
