BY PHILIPPINE INFORMATION AGENCY - With 52,059 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) coming from the Bicol region who are now toiling abroad either to earn a living or simply fulfill a dream to set foot on a foreign land, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is left with a gargantuan task to look after their welfare and ensure their dependents are protected.
This was one of the key points discussed by OWWA OIC regional director Jocelyn Hapal during the discussion on Mainstreaming Migration in Local Development Plans held at the Avenue Plaza Hotel, Magsaysay, Naga City over the weekend.
OWWA, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is also mandated to ensure that the provisions of RA 10022 or an Act “Amending Republic Act No. 8042 Otherwise Known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as amended, further Improving the Standard of Protection and Promotion of the Welfare of Migrant Workers, Their Families and Overseas Filipinos in Distress, and For Other Purposes” are properly implemented.
“Camarines Sur has the highest number of OFWs, totaling to 42 percent of the total OFWs in the region. These are the documented workers who have registered in our office. We should not forget that there are still a lot of our kababayans who left the country without completing their documents,” Hapal added.
Camarines Sur registered a total of 17,903 land based OFWs and 4,101 sea based workers, totaling to 22,004. The province of Albay comes next with 28 percent of the share from the total of 12,094 land-based OFWs and 2, 608 seafarers totaling to 14, 702 contract workers.
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