Industry leaders nix govt-to-govt deployment of OFWs

A proposal to make employment of Filipino workers abroad a government-to-government arrangement is ill-advised, manpower industry leaders say. In a joint statement, three industry leaders said the Philippine government tried that during the 1970s when it attempted to phase out private sector participation in the overseas employment program and found it to be ineffective. The government did this by setting up two agencies under the Department of Labor, the Overseas Employment Development Board for land-based workers and the National Seamen’s Board for the sea-based sector. The two agencies were unable to cope with the “enormous" and “tedious" process of recruiting, processing, and deploying Filipino workers abroad, said the statement of Lito Soriano, executive director of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (Fame); Francis De Guzman, a former president of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc.; and Ezek Alunen, a former governing board member of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Because of this failure, then President Ferdinand Marcos formed the POEA to handle all the aspects of overseas employment and also included the private sector in negotiating the deployment of OFWs the statement said. The trio were reacting to the recent suggestion of Senator Manuel Roxas to have the government handle OFW deployment to stop or minimize the incidence of illegal recruitment. “It is regrettable that Senator Roxas has a vague idea of what the private sector has done for the recruitment of Filipinos for the past 40 years. The private sector is the backbone of the OFW success in being able to work in more than 100 countries all over the world," said Soriano. Soriano said the private sector deploys 97 percent of OFWs every year. “Without the participation of the private sector in recruitment the Philippines could not have achieved the more than $16 billion remittances last 2008 and (the) expected $17 billion (in 2009) despite the worldwide recession," he said. He added that almost 99 percent of employers are private in nature and that only a few countries have government-to-government arrangements with the POEA. “The plan of Senator Roxas will only decrease deployment as private employers do not want to deal with government, the POEA will emasculate to three times its size in order to handle the recruitment operations and no super body can effectively compete with the efficiency of the private sector which has been in business for the past 40 years," Soriano said. The Philippines currently has a deployment deal with South Korea and several private companies in Saudi Arabia. But Soriano had earlier argued that the arrangement with Korea leaves no one accountable for the fate of distressed OFWs. [See: Recruiters argue accountability 'gaps' in renewed RP-SoKor deal] The POEA, on the other hand, argued that such deals always guarantee the rights of the workers. POEA chief Jennifer Manalili also said that in the event that anything happens to Filipino workers, they can always “exhaust" all the services of government agencies onsite. - GMANews.TV