Group backs Ople as DMW chief

MANILA, Philippines — Policy research and labor advocate organization Lilac Center for Public Interest yesterday expressed elation over the selection of Susan “Toots” Ople as the secretary of the new Department of Migrant Workers and vowed to support the DMW’s programs and projects.

Lilac Center president Nicon Fameronag said they believe Ople “is a very wise choice. She has the experience for the job and the heart and compassion for the constituencies of the national government agency mandated to protect the rights and promote the welfare of our OFWs” or overseas Filipino workers.

Fameronag, himself a former undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment like Ople but now the mayor-elect of Concepcion, Romblon, said Lilac Center will work with the DMW for an enhanced, more focused and sustainable national program for OFW reintegration.

“The Lilac Center has been advocating for an OFW reintegration program attuned to the needs of returning OFWs and their families and responsive to our national development goals. But tokenism and neglect during the past six years relegated OFW reintegration to the tail-end of the Duterte administration’s agenda,” he said.

Fameronag vowed that as a local chief executive, he will make sure that his fellow mayors all across the country understand and are made aware of their very important and valuable roles and obligations in the crafting and implementation of a national reintegration program that could spur dynamism and economic activities in their respective municipalities.

He further said he will bat for the inclusion in the agenda of the Municipal Mayors’ League of the Philippines of the formulation of an OFW national reintegration program with features distinct and unique to the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the country’s 1,488 municipalities.

“Very few mayors know there is a National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) under the DOLE, which is one of seven offices transferred to the Department of Migrant Affairs,” Fameronag said.

“I hope Secretary Ople would strengthen the NRCO and expand its reach so that returning OFWs could be served better through its programs, projects, and activities,” he added.