Cayetano: "Our OFW's Deserve Respect and Support"
Calls on Government to do more to address issues of Presyo, Trabaho, and Kita

In celebration of Migrant Workers Day, Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano called on the government to strengthen efforts to create jobs back home, including rural micro-financing programs and skills training as means to start small-scale businesses for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are returning to the country.

"The 10 million OFW's who have sacrificed to provide for their families and contributed back to our economy deserve our respect and our support. We must work tirelessly to create jobs, increase wages, and lower prices - Presyo, Trabaho and Kita - so that more Filipino workers can join their families and thrive in this growing economy," said Senator Cayetano.

Cayetano renewed his call for an establishment of the Department of OFW's to help address the issues of job creation, lowering prices, and increased wages - Presyo, Trabaho, and Kita - that affect the OFW community and their families.

"From Syria alone, already 4,305 OFWs have been repatriated since 2011 as a result of the escalating tensions in the area. We need to equip them with means to address our country's pressing issues felt in the grassroots such as high prices, lack of jobs, and low income now that they've come home," he said.

In this light, he also called on the Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) - National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), both currently handling the Reintegration program for returning OFWs, to beef up its available lending schemes and skills training to meet the needs of returning migrant workers.

"Displaced Filipino migrant workers should be allowed easy access to start-up funds for their small businesses and livelihood projects from rural banks and cooperatives and non government organizations (NGOs)," he said.

Cayetano explained that an expanded microfinance program that includes financial services like loans, payment services and insurance will help create jobs for OFWs families who generally belong to poor and low income households.

"Our Government must dedicate resources to creating jobs, lowering prices, and increasing wages to help our OFW Community. I support the formation of a Department of OFW's to address the issues of Presyo, Trabaho, and Kita that affect OFW's and their families," said Cayetano.