SUPPORT TO MIGRANT FILIPINOS. Various government agencies under the Inter-Agency Committee on the Migrant Overseas Filipinos open a daylong migrant fair in Butuan City on Friday (Oct. 20, 2023). The event aimed to provide services to some 500 migrant workers and their families, most of whom came from Agusan del Norte province and Butuan. (PNA photo by Alexander Lopez)
BUTUAN CITY – The Inter-Agency Committee on the Migrant Overseas Filipinos (IAC-MOF) led a daylong migrant fair here Friday which will benefit more than 500 MOFs and their families.
Leading the provision of various government services to the MOFs are the Department of Migrant Workers, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
In an interview at the sideline of the activity, PCO Assistant Secretary Evangeline De Leon said the initiative will benefit the MOFs from the province of Agusan del Norte and Butuan City.
“This is one of the series of migrant fair activities that we will be conducting in the different parts of the country,” De Leon said.
Other agencies in the fair included the Department of Health, the Social Security System, PhilHealth, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Tourism.
“We have chosen the Caraga Region for the annual fair this year because of its large number of MOFs,” De Leon said.
The OWWA-13 said there are an estimated 97,000 documented MOFs in the region.
Among the MOFs who joined the activity was Lellibeth Mandras, 55, a mother of four who worked for more than three years in Saudi Arabia and returned home in 2018.
“When I returned home, I availed a livelihood program from OWWA, particularly on hog raising. The project still exists today,” said Mandras, of Barangay Basag.
Esteria Erisari, 62, of Barangay Pinamangculan, said she is representing her daughter who is currently working in a railway company in Qatar.
“I would like to explore more benefits from the government for my daughter who has been working abroad for more than six years now,” she said.
Participants also visited the booths of employers who offered over 400 local job openings. (PNA)
