The government’s P2 billion reintegration program for overseas Filipino workers is now made accessible to Boholano OFWs who wish to be more productive thru entrepreneurship. This boosts their prospect of expanding their business or starting from small or medium scale enterprise which can provide economic security not just for them and their families. Their investments can help generate employment which, like livelihood, is a major thrust of the government in partnership with the private sector like the OFWs. The Capitol under Gov. Edgar Chatto and Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim is wide open to the OFWs who seek assistance in accessing to the livelihood assistance program of the Aquino administration. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) conducted here on Thursday an orientation to prepare the intended beneficiaries for the program implementation. Active overseas workers on vacation here, former OFWs and their families attended the orientation which would guide them to access to credit facilities coursed through the program partner banks.
The government is giving sustainable enterprise opportunities to the OFWs and their families so that working abroad may be more of a choice than necessity, according to the DOLE which provincial manager is lawyer Wilson Cenas. OWWA Regional Supervising Administrative Officer Rey Jacalan said the OFWs have to choose their business because the government is also ready to assist them technically. He said individual OFWs can get as much as P2 million each to start their business venture and livelihood enterprise. OWWA has put up P500 million while the Land Bank of the Philippine (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) infused P500 million apiece for the nationwide implementation of the program. Gerry Guidaben, OFW program officer of the DOLE here, flew to Manila on Friday after the orientation of the program beneficiaries. Both active and former OFWs have to secure certifications as registered members of OWWA to avail of the financial assistance.
OFW COOP OPENS BOTICA, GROCERY
A model to start business, the Saudi Arabia-based Boholano Overseas Workers and Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BOWAC-MPC) has opened its pharmacy cum mini-grocery along J.A. Clarin Street here this month. The governor welcomed the investment of the OFWs who themselves regard Chatto as a champion supporter of their sector since he was vice governor and then congressman. Cooperative founder and chairman Elias “Dong” Bonite said their new venture adds to the existing credit and loan facilities for BOWAC members working in the Middle East like him. The other BOWAC officers are OFWs Alberto Pastor as board vice chairman and Marcus Raymund Ferniz, Jose Oclarit, Eluerino Caverte, Junet Cabardo and Vivencio Derequito as directors. The board recently appointed former Taloto barangay kagawad Wilma Gran as coop manager here with Rosario Charette Partolan as administrative officer and cashier. The cooperative was founded by the Boholano workers in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2004 as a credit cooperative.
It was then the first OFW cooperative in Saudi and the Middle East registered with the Philippine Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). BOWAC’s office in Al-Khobar, Saudi has catered to loans and remittance services to coop members within the area while its Tagbilaran office thenfocused on the disbursement of loan proceeds and remittances to the members’ beneficiaries. In June this year, the group ventured into a multi-purpose cooperative and has thus engaged in pharmacy cum mini-grocery business. Bonite said the OFWs who are cooperative members and their families and dependents can avail of VAT-free medicines and grocery items. BOWAC’s long-term goal is to operate a hotel in Bohol and contribute to the fast-growing tourism industry, which is an economic engine according to Gov. Chatto.
(Ven rebo Arigo) |
