DOLE provides safety net for displaced OFWs

Overseas Filipino workers in the CNMI who are displaced due to the global financial crisis or for any other reason may receive a package of assistance and services from the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment.

The CNMI, which is home to an estimated 10,000 OFWs and Filipino-Americans, has seen large numbers of foreign workers sent home in recent years not only because of the death of the garment industry but also due to the global financial crisis.

These services for displaced OFWs primarily involve finding them another suitable employment locally or overseas, or helping them set up livelihood or income generating projects.

Philippine labor attaché to the CNMI Joann Lourdes Lavilla said the first step would be for returning OFWs to fill up an application form before leaving the CNMI.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office on Saipan will then fax the completed application form to the National Reintegration Center for OFWs for review, just in time for the return of the OFW to the country.

“We would like to inform those who decided to go home for good that there’s a package of assistance given by DOLE through the National Reintegration Center for OFWs or NRCO. It’s mainly business counseling, training, local and overseas job placement,” she said.

OFWs are encouraged to call POLO or the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration at 235-6992, 235-3411 or 287-6867 for more information, or drop by their offices on the ground floor of the Marianas Business Plaza (formerly Nauru Building) in Susupe.

The package of assistance is administered by NRCO, which offers services divided into three categories: counseling, capability enhancement, and linkaging and networking.

Under the counseling services, OFWs and their families will be guided on values formation and prepare OFWs for eventual reintegration into the local workforce.

The services include choosing re-entry options such as employment and livelihood, financial and investment opportunities, participating in brain gain initiatives and retirement programs, and sharing their expertise as part of their social and economic commitment in their respective communities.

NRCO’s capability enhancement services include equipping OFWs and their families with knowledge and skills in their desired re-entry options toward their personal, economic and community reintegration.

Specific services include financial literacy, financial planning and management, savings and special remittance schemes, and investment options and opportunities.

Under NRCO’s networking services, OFWs and their families will be connected with reintegration needs to appropriate stakeholders or service providers.

The specific services include assisting OFWs and their families in business formation, access to credit facilities, technology and product development, market assistance, and skills upgrading/re-tooling, among other things.

OWWA also came out with the Filipino Expatriate Livelihood Support Fund as safety net for their displacement due to the global financial crisis.

After OFWs have availed of assistance from NRCO for the initial assistance package, any interested OFW may avail of the FELSF, which offers a non-collateral loan window where the displaced OFWs can loan up Php50,000 or close to $1,000 with a very low interest of 5 percent per annum, payable in 24 months.

According to DOLE, government banks can also extend loans through their collateral windows if worker decides to expand his business enterprise.

More information is available online at www.nrco.dole.gov.ph.