Recruitment agencies have welcomed the commitment of President Marcos to reduce the processing time for foreign employers to hire Filipino workers for employment overseas.
“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,” Marcos said during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday.
Emmanuel Geslani, a consultant for recruitment agencies, said the recruitment industry “most certainly welcomes” the order of President Marcos.
“Thousands of OFWs with pending contracts are the beneficiaries of the order of President Marcos to speed the processing at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for the faster deployment of the OFWs,” Geslani said.
Geslani said recruiters complain of the “inefficient and incoherent” policies of the POEA and actions of some labor attaches in certain countries with “excellent welfare and protection benefits.”
“Alert level 1 is now over National Capital Region and the industry expects processing of accreditation of new and renewal job orders to speed up but the accreditation division still remain slow taking at least two-three weeks for the approval of job orders which have been verified and approved at offices of POLO offices at in different countries.
“The above reasons had faced the agencies uncertainty and unrest with the recruitment agencies whoo exert efforts for new labor markets or get additional job orders from existing employers,” he added.
Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople had earlier said that when she took office last month, she discovered that it takes a minimum of three months for a foreign employer to get accreditation from the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO). Upon learning this, she asked Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy that they collaborate on a project to digitalize the overall process of overseas employment — from application to deployment, returning home and reintegration of the OFWs.
“By doing away with all those redundant procedures and unnecessary requirements, even the number of signatures, we are confident that we can cut that timeline from a minimum of three months to perhaps less than a month or three weeks,” Ople said.
DMW is also asking DICT to digitalize the application of the Overseas Employment Certifications (OEC) for OFWs either through a mobile app or a single website portal so that OFWs need not physically go to the embassies or consulates.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes