MikeLigalig.com

Mayen Jaymalin
The Philstar

The government must put up commissaries and reduce remittance fees to ease the adverse effects of a strong peso on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the commissaries should sell food and other basic commodities at discounted prices for families of OFWs.

“DOLE  has come up with two sets of remedial measures, immediate and long-term,” he said.

Brion said the DOLE came up with the recommendation following consultations with the Department of Agriculture, the Department Trade and Industry, Department of Finance, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Other immediate remedial measures involve income augmentation programs for low salaried semi-skilled OFWs earning less than $400 basic monthly pay, he added.

Brion said the measures include the provision of livelihood and skills training for employment scholarship programs (SESP) to enable OFWs and their families to gain appropriate skills and loan assistance for the setting up of income-augmenting business enterprises.

For OFWs earning a monthly salary of $400 and above, the DOLE recommended the floating of OFW bonds that can pay for house and lot at a discount price and as alternative OFW investment, he added.

The DOLE  also recommended the provision of long-term  financial literacy program and enterprise development training for OFWs and their families to sustain the assistance and viability of the OFWs’ economic capability, Brion said.     

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