OWWA, Facebook to provide OFWs access to digital literacy

MANILA, Philippines — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has partnered with social media giant Facebook to provide overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) access to digital literacy and small business training programs.

OWWA chief Hans Cacdac and Facebook Asia-Pacific director for community affairs Clair Deevy led the signing of a memorandum of agreement as part of the national celebration of Migrant Workers Day yesterday.

Cacdac said the partnership aims to empower OFWs and their families.

A one-hour digital literacy module will be provided for departing OFWs while informational videos will be played at OWWA offices and posted on their online platforms.

Cacdac said the seminars would provide OFWs with entrepreneurship skills to prepare them for their return to the country.

“Livelihood has always been an integral component of the reintegration program of OWWA. Given the onset of technology and the power of social media, we must take advantage of these platforms for more economic uses,” he said.

By becoming digitally literate, OWWA deputy administrator Arnel Ignacio said OFWs could easily identify fake news and help prevent these from spreading that could create confusion among Filipinos abroad. 

The OWWA also hosted a job fair with 47 participating agencies, which offered local and overseas employment for displaced OFWs from Saudi Arabia.

The event, dubbed “Kabuhayan at Teknolohiya para sa OFWs at Pamilya,” was held at the Philippine International Convention Center and attended by 2,000 OFWs and their families.

OFW remittance charges

Local and foreign banks will collect remittance charges of up to P161 billion this year from millions of OFWs sending money to their families here,

Rep. John Bertiz III  of party-list group ACTS-OFW said.

Bertiz denounced the “excessive” charges, saying workers would pay banks $3.1 billion (P161 billion at P52 to the dollar) to send home an estimated $29.3 billion.

He cited a World Bank (WB) study showing that the global average cost of a personal cash transfer through bank channels was 10.57 percent in the first quarter of 2018.

This means that an OFW pays an average of $10.57 for every $100 he remits to his family back home, Bertiz said.

“Slashing remittance fees by half would easily mean $1.5 billion (P78 billion) in cost-savings and extra cash in the pockets of migrant Filipino workers and their families here. There’s really no reason why banks cannot reduce fees, considering that non-bank money transfer agents are charging as low as three percent,” he said.

Bertiz said Filipinos still prefer to send money home through banks largely because of the security the banking system provides.

Leyte Rep. Henry Ong, vice chairman of the House committee on banks, said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and bankers should work on reducing remittance charges to three percent.

According to the BSP, OFWs remitted $7 billion through banks in the first quarter of 2018.  In the whole of 2017, they sent home $28.1 billion using bank channels.   –  With Jess Diaz