PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday ordered the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to pursue automated services to ensure the immediate delivery of assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Marcos emphasized the need to stop the bureaucratic red tape to ease the burden of OFWs in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Marcos instructed the DMW to coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for the digital processing of OFWs’ documents.
“We shall automate the verification of contracts and issue secure Overseas Employment Certifications (OEC) that you can keep on your smartphone. I call on the Department of Migrant Workers and the DICT to make this a top priority,” he said in a speech delivered at Batasan Complex in Quezon City.
The OEC, also known as exit clearance or pass, is a document certifying the regularity of recruitment and documentation of an OFW and a proof of his or her registration with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople earlier vowed to simplify the existing processes to ensure “enhanced, efficient, and transparent” services for OFWs.
She also guaranteed that she is prioritizing the review of the POEA’s rules and regulations, including its system on contract verification and issuance of OECS for the streamlining of its key frontline services.
Faster, simpler transactions
Marcos also sought the faster deployment of OFWs by shortening the processing period to three weeks from the current three months.
“Mula sa tatlong buwan ay gagawin na lamang nating tatlong linggo para sa isang dayuhang employer na i-proseso ang mga papeles ng Filipinong nais nitong kunin bilang empleyado (Instead of three months, we will make it just three weeks for a foreign employer to process the papers of Filipinos they want to hire),” he said.
