MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos working abroad need not worry about massive layoffs because of the current global financial crisis, Labor Scretary Marianito Roque said on Thursday.
"As a matter of fact, Filipinos are now getting new high-paying, high-value jobs," Roque said, according to an article posed on the government's official website.
Employment prospects abroad remain stable. In factr, the government has even signed an agreement with four provinces in Canada – Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan – for deployment of Filipinos.
The pay in those places are higher than what Filipinos elsewhere are getting, Roque said.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and France would also need services of Filipinos – particularly nurses, information technology workers, truck drivers, hotel personnel, and heavy equipment operators.
A Luzon regional officer of Philippines Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), Romeo Jaramilla, made the same assurance to workers, stressing that situation remains normal. The overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) who have gone home, he said, are "just on vacation."
"Actually, we haven't received any reports or indications of any possible layoffs because of this global financial problem and more applicants have come to apply because more employment opportunities are seen especially in the Middle East," Jaramilla said in a speech with some residents of San Fernando in La Union.
In fact, overseas workers have been going to the POEA office to get their exit clearances, which they need in going back to the countries where they are deployed. Most of them are part of the "Balik Manggagawa" program.
Based on the data given by POEA Regional Center Luzon, the agency’s Balik Manggagawa program has a total of 1,329 OFWs who came home for vacation in July and are now able to return to their countries of deployment.
The study added that there were 1,266 workers who did the same in August; and 900 in the month of September.
Engineer Edwin Rivera, La Union Field Officer of DOLE, for his part, added that this coming November, the agency is planning to conduct a job fair region-wide, which will cater to both local and overseas job seekers.
Aie Balagtas See,
GMANews.TV
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