.5-M OFWS affected by pandemic, says Bello
THE employment of at least half a million overseas Filipino workers (OFWS) was affected by the Covid-19 crisis, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
As of Wednesday, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III disclosed 505,837 OFWS were already “affected” by the pandemic.
Of these figures, he said 9,402 became infected with the disease.
The remaining 496,435 workers became displaced, when they permanently lost their jobs or are momentarily not able to return to work.
Repatriation efforts
BELLO said 104,000 of these OFWS still refused to come home despite having no employment in their host countries.
Most or 260,575 of the displaced workers have already been repatriated and are now in their hometowns.
Another 131,047 OFWS are scheduled to be brought home by the government before the end of the year. “They will be repatriated at an average of 1,005 to 3,000 per day,” Bello said.
The labor chief reiterated his hopes the payment issue between the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is resolved soon to ensure the swift processing of these home-bound OFWS.
Lower deployment
BELLO noted the pandemic also impacted the deployment of OFWS, declining 60 percent from January to September this year compared to the same period in 2019.
In the first nine months of 2019, Bello said they were able to deploy 1.720 million OFWS.
This year, he said they were able to deploy 682,008 from January to September due to existing travel restrictions here and abroad.
New trends
PHILIPPINE Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Bernard Olalia expects the decrease in deployment of OFWS to persist in the coming years.
However, he noted a spike in demand for OFWS in some job categories, particularly household service workers, Filipino seafarers and health care workers (HCWS).
“Recently, we analyzed our deployment and it has become a healthcare-driven economy. There is now a high demand for nurses. Almost all countries and foreign employers want to hire our nurses,” Olalia said.
To recall, POEA imposed a temporary deployment ban for HCWS to ensure the country will have a sufficient pool of for its healthcare system during the pandemic.
Bello said they are now considering lifting the deployment ban, but still limit the number of deployed HCWS per year.