OWWA has new welfare officer in CNMI

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has a new officer in the CNMI following the completion of former welfare officer Leonor Mabagal’s two-year term last week.

Mabagal, who left Saipan for the main office in Manila, Philippines yesterday morning, turned over her post to officer Reynaldo D. Tayag early this week.

Tayag arrived on Nov. 1 from Manila and immediately started his two-year term on Monday, Nov. 3.

In an interview at the OWWA office yesterday, Tayag said the CNMI is his second assignment abroad. His first two-year post was in Seoul, South Korea, from 1997-1999.

“That was the time of the economic recession in Asia and it was really a difficult situation,” he said.

During his first week on Saipan, Tayag paid a courtesy call to the Secretary of Labor as well as other government offices.

His first impression of Saipan is that there are minimal cases to attend to because local labor laws are being enforced, compared to those in other countries like Korea and the Middle East.

“We have to attend to about 10 cases each day in Korea,” he said.

On Saipan, he said, the OWWA office is working on a facilitative process as well as programs that would benefit and promote overseas Filipino workers.

“I will continue to undertake the programs and services of the former officer,” Tayag said.

He said he would continue to reach out to OFWs to encourage them to become OWWA members and make them realize the importance of being a member.

Prior to his coming to the CNMI, Tayag was a welfare officer under the Management Information system/Planning and Program Development Division.

The 56-year old native of Pampanga, in Central Luzon graduated in 1970 from the University of the Philippines-Los Banos with a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and a master’s in Community Development at the College of Social Work and Community Development in UP Diliman in 1997.

He has held various positions such as research assistant, training associate and community organizer at UP, and program coordinator with a non-government organization before his employment with OWWA as project development officer at the Region IV office from 1989-1991.

He became supervising project development officer at the OWWA head office from 1991 to 1996 then OIC for Livelihood Operations Division from 1996 to 1997.

Then came South Korea, where he was the Center Coordinator for POLO-Philemba, managing the daily operations of the Filipino Workers Resource Center, conducting trainings for OFWs on business planning and other skills development.

After his Seoul post, Tayag held various posts at the OWWA main office.