More Filipinos left for jobs abroad in 2005--labor chief

More Filipinos left for jobs abroad in 2005--labor chief

Jan 05, 2006
Updated 03:05pm (Mla time)
Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

THERE is a "continued high global demand and preference for skilled overseas Filipino workers," Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said Thursday.

Sto. Tomas noted that the deployment for Filipino seafarers breached the 300,000 mark for the first time last year.

She said the total global employment contracts processed for Filipino seafarers reached 302,328, or 10,812 higher than the 291,516 contracts processed during the previous year.

Citing records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Sto. Tomas said the total number of overseas employment contracts processed for OFWs reached 981,337 from January 1 to December 31, 2005, or 39,615 higher than the 941,722 contracts processed in the same period in 2004.

The labor chief said the figures she cited did not include the records from the country's regional and international exit points outside Metro Manila -- Davao, Clark, and Laoag.

“We expect the total global deployment and number of overseas employment contracts for 2005 to increase further as the final data come in," she said. Sto. Tomas said that the number of overseas employment contracts for land-based OFWs reached 679,009 as of December 31, 2005, surpassing by 28,803 the 650,206 processed in the same period in 2004.

"Per our preliminary data, more overseas employment contracts were processed for new hire land-based workers, reaching a global total of 399,696 in 2005, or 8,933 higher the 390,763 processed in 2004," she said. She said contracts processed for rehired

OFWs also grew to 279,313 in 2005, or 19,869 more than the 259,444 previously processed. Sto. Tomas said this increase was achieved as government tried to curb illegal recruitment and human trafficking, marketing; and campaigned for the welfare and protection of OFWs worldwide.

"Our global welfare thrusts for the OFWs have been strengthened further with the reinvigoration of our more than 30 Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) in key cities overseas with significant OFW populations, including two new POLOs situated in Brussels, Belgium, the seat of the European economy, and in Jordan, which complement other POLOs in the Middle East," Sto. Tomas noted.