Forum details digitalisation of OEC for overseas Filipinos
The Philippines’ Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Finance and Internal Affairs Undersecretary Maria Anthonete Velasco-allones detailed the progress on the digitalisation of the Overseas Employment
Certificate (OEC), through the hybrid “DMW Dialogue with the Filipino Community in Dubai and the Northern Emirates” on Friday evening.
The three-hour forum (from 7:45 pm UAE time/11:45 p.m. Philippine time) was the firstever international meeting of DMW senior officials—led by Secretary Susan Ople—with OFWS.
It was a collaboration between the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Dubai (POLO-DUBAI) and the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai as “Kapihan at Kwentuhan, Kabayan” (“Coffee and Stories, Countryman”), with visiting DMW Policy & International Cooperation Undersecretary Patricia Yvonne Caunan.
Allones reiterated in Filipino, what Ople had mentioned in her brief talk that the target date for the international launch of the OEC app is on October 15: “This is an SOS buton to house (the OFW’S) complete profile
A mobile-friendly app being developed in connection with OEC, required from returning OFWS to their job sites; app which is likely to be launched by Oct.15 will also include a payment portal
with the Balik-manggagawa (Returning OFW) Processing. It has a digital vault for the storage of all the mandatory documents. It has a Help Desk for all enquiries. We are already in communication with our partners here to add the payment portal. The digital payment is a must if our aim is to reduce the foofall in all the POLOS worldwide.”
Internationally recognised as a government with globally-accepted procedures for the protection and welfare of its migrant/overseas contract workers, the national leadership of the Philippines has been heavily criticized by some OFWS in Dubai and the Northern Emirates who perceive the OEC as useless and burdensome, especially since the imposition of the Novel Coronavirus-related “No Appointment-no Entry” policy since March 2020.
The OEC exempts OFWS from travel tax. OFWS who vacation in their country present this before the Bureau of Immigration (BI) at any of the exit points from the Philippines.
Commenting in a July interview that the OEC scrapping is a “policy decision by the higher authorities,” Labour Atache in Dubai and the Northern Emirates John Rio Bautista said the presentation of the OEC at the BI is “for the proper documentation of all OFWS worldwide.
“Our government through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs has a global mapping of all OFWS worldwide for traceability. There are some who ask for help. Some families ask for the whereabouts of their OFW kin. The OEC like the (job contract verification-jcv) are tools that help our government locate OFWS.”
Linked with the JCV, Bautista mentioned that Filipinos who leave for their jobs abroad by way of the regular channels through the POEA no longer need to have their job contracts verified by the POLOS nearest them because these have been verified and documented prior, by the POEA.
Bautista also then said: “More than 50 per cent (of the average 700 to 1,000 a day) of our clients here at POLO-DUBAI need their job contracts verified (because they exited the
Philippines not as workers with job contracts). Others are those who have changed employers but that is not a big percentage. The JCV is necessary to check that the standards for the OFWS, their salaries and benefits are met.”
In a related news, the September 18 (Sunday) “One Day One-stop-shop” initiative of the POLO-DUBAI with the Filipino Social Club held at the Dubai Club for People with Determination served 1,557 OFWS with 556 walk-ins.
Of the 1,557, 612 had their job contracts verified, 495 renewed their Overseas Workers Welfare Administration memberships, 247 paid their Social Security System contributions and 203 availed of the PAGIBIG (Home Development Mutual) Fund membership service.
So far, 4,347 Filipinos in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah have been served by the outreach programmes of POLO-DUBAI in tandem with the Pcg-dubai and Filsoc as underway are similar activities with other Filipino organisations.