By Gilbert P. Felongco, Correspondent
Manila: The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said it has made the process of securing clearances and paying fees less tedious for returning workers.
Manila: The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said it has made the process of securing clearances and paying fees less tedious for returning workers.
POEA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said through the online
Balik-Manggagawa (BM or returning worker) system, overseas Filipino
workers (OFW) returning to the same employer can now simply log on to
the POEA website and proceed to fill out forms and submit their
documents for processing.
Earlier, OFWs returning to work for the same employer had to bear with
travelling to POEA Central Office in Mandaluyong or at the POEA regional
and satellite offices.
“The balik manggagawa or the returning worker needs only to proceed to
pay the fees electronically and print out the OEC (overseas employment
certificate) either at the comfort of their homes or wherever they are
conducting the online transaction,” Labour and Employment Secretary
Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz explained.
The POEA is one of several agencies under the supervision of the Department of Labour and Employment.
“The usual long queue of OFWs at the POEA counters waiting for the
processing of their overseas employment certificates will be a thing of
the past,” Dimapilis-Baldoz said.
The OEC printout will contain a special bar code, this will then be
presented by the returning worker to the immigration officer at the
airport upon departure. As soon as the immigration officer opens the
POEA database and finds the returnee’s “new record”, the OFW will be
cleared for exit.
Cacdac said an estimated 500,000 Filipino workers are expected to benefit from this less-tedious, no-fuzz system.
“The BM online system not only speeds up the process of securing OECs,
but more significantly, it provides convenience to our vacationing OFWs.
Very soon, our workers will be able to accomplish this transaction from
any location where there is online connection,” the labour and
employment chief said.
“This will also provide timely updating of the OFW and employer database of POEA,” she added.
According to Baldoz, there are certain cases when returning workers
will still have to undergo the previous process of making an appointment
and personally attend to the processing of his or her papers at the
POEA Central Office in Mandaluyong.
These circumstances include when the returning OFW are changing
employers and the match cannot be found at the POEA database, cases
where the OFWs have not passed through POEA and if the individuals whose
papers are being processed is a household service worker.
“OFWs still have the option of not going through the appointment system
at the POEA Central Office and instead secure their OECs from our
Philippine Overseas Labour Offices or POEA regional and satellite
offices,” Dimapilis-Baldoz clarified.
Source: gulfnews.com
Source: gulfnews.com
