Philippine Labor Secretary Erlinda Dimapilis-Baldoz

Philippine Labor Secretary Erlinda Dimapilis-Baldoz is due to visit the Kingdom at the end of the month and is expected to meet with her Saudi counterpart, Minister Adel Fakeih.

“A request for such a meeting has been forwarded to the Saudi authorities and it is expected that bilateral issues will be discussed for the most part during their engagement,” noted a source at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh (POLO-Riyadh).

Importantly, a labor pact was signed last year between the two sides, stipulating the rights of Filipino workers and their employers in the Kingdom.

Dimapilis-Baldoz will be leading a delegation comprising Rebecca Calzado and Hans Leo Cacdac, administrators of the OWWA and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), respectively.

Dimapilis-Baldoz will also relaunch the reintegration program for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) that will prepare them for if and when they finally go home for good and decide to stay in their home country.

The program is being implemented under the auspices of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs (MRCO) and OWWA regional offices consisting of job referral programs (local and overseas employment), business counseling, community organization efforts, financial literacy seminars, networking with support institutions and social preparation programs.

For this purpose, a reintegration fund has been set aside in the form of a loan facility in cooperation with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) so that these services can be distributed effectively.

 
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