Article posted November 21, 2008 - 03:04 PM
MANILA, Philippines - Jobs would be awaiting more than 300 Filipino workers who were laid off in Taiwan, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assured on Friday.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the unemployed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) could breathe a sigh of relief because the country is willing and able to absorb them should they return home.

"We can readily absorb them, mabibigyan kaagad natin ito ng trabaho (we can immediately give them jobs)," Roque said in a radio interview.

The laid off Filipino workers in Taiwan are the latest casualties in the US-led financial crisis slowly plaguing various economies in Asia.

While Roque admitted that the workers were hit by the crisis since they were employed in the export industry, he allayed fears that a massive lay-off would be the trend in other countries.

"We have not seen an abnormal trend. We still process an average of 2,800 contracts for outbound OFWs everyday. Compared to the same period last year, there is clearly an increase in overseas deployment," Roque said.

More OFWs would lose their jobs

Since various economies started feeling the brunt of the financial crisis in the middle of the year, fears arose that more than 1-million Filipino workers would lose their jobs.

Economists like Emmanuel Leyco, who had worked in a credit rating agency, predicted that the US recession would create a domino effect all over the globe and cause millions of OFWs to lose their jobs.

"In a global recession, immigrants are the first to go," Leyco told GMANews.TV in an interview last month.

Leyco explained that newly deployed OFWs would be the hardest hit by an economic meltdown because most businesses implement a "last in, first out" policy in their human resources management. He said foreign workers are also often seen as low-priority in employment retention.

The Labor Department has quelled such speculations and assured that unless the economic crisis severely affects top OFW destinations like the Middle East, that scenario is far from becoming a reality.

"I believe (that) would not happen," Roque said referring to reports that one million OFWs would lose their jobs.

Roque added that the country is prepared to absorb between 50,000 to 75,000 retrenched Filipinos overseas. The Labor chief owed the country’s capability to absorb laid off workers to the 200,000 to 225,000 increase in OFW deployment every month.

More jobs for OFWs in 2009

The opening of new labor markets for OFWs has also managed to keep the effects of massive lay-offs to a minimum, according to Roque. Bulgaria, for one, reportedly needs at least 1,000 Filipino hotel workers to fill the void in their hospitality industry.

To prepare the workers needed in Europe, Roque said he has ordered the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to provide free training to aspiring applicants.

"New job opportunities would be opening up in the first quarter of 2009," he said.

The DOLE is likewise speeding up negotiations for more employment opportunities for Filipino workers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, France, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Japan.

According to Leyco, instead of looking for other job markets for OFWs, the Philippine government should focus on re-thinking its 2009 national budget and gear it toward social servicing, health care, and education.

Leyco said the government should also start bracing itself for a possible worst case scenario that would include soaring inflation rates, public deficit, a weakening peso, and high unemployment.

In October, the DOLE launched a contingency plan to help local and overseas Filipino workers who might lose their jobs due to the global financial crisis.

The contingency plan for the overseas employment sector includes two sets of interventions such as assisting affected OFWs find employment in other overseas destinations or set up livelihood or business enterprises for those who no longer want to work abroad.

A fund from the livelihood program will also be set aside for displaced OFWs, according to the DOLE. - Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV