Fair offers 1,000 overseas jobs

Noli airs hope OFWs could soon find work at home

Foreign employers here to recruit workers at Int’l Labor Mart

More than 100 overseas recruitment agencies are offering thousands of overseas jobs in labor markets abroad at the jobs fair in the ongoing International Labor Mart of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Labor Opportunities Program (DOLOP) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

The jobs fair runs until today.

As this developed, Vice President Noli de Castro, also presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), said yesterday he hopes to see the day when Filipinos would no longer leave the country to look for work abroad.

The jobs fair is part of the four-day DOLOP which gathers foreign employers, recruitment agencies and other stakeholders in the Philippine local and overseas employment program and aims to expand and identify both global and domestic labor opportunities for Filipino workers and seafarers.

Labor Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas said managers and staff of recruitment agencies will be at booths at the jobs fair to accommodate and interview applicants.

Foreign principals would also be at the fair to interview applicants for overseas jobs that need to be filled immediately, she said.

Applicants can submit applications to as many agencies as they want to and are encouraged to bring several I.D. photos and copies of their resumes and other credentials, Sto. Tomas said.

The jobs to be offered at the PICC fair include those for nurses, physical therapists, caregivers, teachers, college professors, private tutors, programmers, encoders, computer and cell phone technicians, researchers, editors, hotel and restaurant workers, administrative, clerical and managerial workers, engineers, welders, plumbers, fabricators and other technical personnel, sales workers, entertainers, cooks, domestic workers, dressmakers, beauticians, drivers and transport equipment operators, laborers, factory workers, fishermen, hunters, and other agricultural workers.

VP airs concern on social costs of overseas employment

Vice President Noli de Castro, concurrent presidential adviser for overseas Filipino workers (OFW), said yesterday he hopes for the day when a Filipino worker would see the Philippines as the best place to look for work that would sufficiently address the needs of his family.

"Someday Filipinos would no longer have to leave their family behind to seek greener pastures elsewhere," he told delegates and government officials at the First International Labor Opportunities Forum at the Philippine International Convention Center yesterday.

The Vice President’s wish was anchored on the steep social cost that overseas jobs entail on family ties and values of OFW families compared against the benefits of economic abundance they enjoy.

"As presidential adviser for overseas Filipino workers, I am also equally concerned with the social costs involved. I am concerned with how the families they leave behind cope with their absence," he said.

However, the Vice President expressed confidence that a strong partnership between government and the private sector would ensure the lives of Filipinos would markedly improve and a better tomorrow would be achieved.

In the same speech, De Castro also acknowledged that the estimated 2 million OFWs now constitute a very important segment of the economy which is one of the sectors responsible for strengthening the peso over the past few weeks.

"Undeniably, our OFWs are not only our new heroes but also the new drivers of economic growth and the new foundations of economic stability," he said.

To illustrate his point, the Vice President said that total OFW remittances amounted to $7 billion dollars for the first eight months of 2005 and may reach $10 billion dollars at yearend.

He noted that in the 1980s remittances accounted for only 1 percent of the country’s gross national product or GNP.

"Today, these remittances amount to approximately 8 percent of our GNP," he said.

De Castro lauded the Department of Labor and Employment led by Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas for bringing together the major players in the international labor market, such as recruitment agencies, training centers, and overseas employment allied agencies, in a forum that would tackle new opportunities for Filipino workers in Asia, the Americas, Oceania, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the luxury cruise industry.

Meanwhile, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Marianito D. Roque formally opens today the "Jobs and Business Forum for OFWs and their Families," one of the culminating activities of the Department of Labor and Employment Labor Opportunities Program (DOLOP), now on its third day at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

The Jobs and Business Forum, the local counterpart of the First International Labor Opportunities Forum, one of the centerpiece events of the DOLOP, will involve public discussions on a wide range of employment and business issues important to OFWs and their families.

The forum will have the following sessions:

1. Jobs in sunrise industries.

2. The PhilJobNet.

3. Savings and investment options.

4. Ating Alamin: Agri-Business for OFWs.

5. The Franchising Business.

"The Forum will be a unique opportunity for OFWs and their families to learn more about current entrepreneurial, small investment and savings trends that could help them benefit fully from their gains from working overseas," Roque said. (with a report by David Cagahastian)

Visit http://SubicBay.Ph
for latest developments in Olongapo Freeport City, GawangGapo, Sanggunian, BagumbayanVolunteers, InterGapo Wow Wow Win Subik