Government Boosts Social Assistance To OFWs Secretaries Blas F. Ople and Corazon J. Soliman signed yesterday in the DFA a memorandum of agreement (MOA) deploying social welfare attaches/representatives to selected Philippine embassies and consulates abroad. The move further concretizes the avowed concern of President Arroyo's administration for overseas Filipino workers. The deployment of these social welfare attaches to foreign service Posts is aimed at addressing the socio-psychological needs and concerns of our nationals abroad. Although mechanisms and resources for addressing such needs and concerns are in no way lacking in our consulates and embassies abroad, President Arroyo deemed it wise to further enhance our assistance to OFWs by way of deploying social welfare representatives. The move affirms the commitment of the Arroyo administration to making "assistance-to-nationals" (or ATN) a major pillar of its foreign policy. In a related development, the Consulate announced that it has received proposals from Manila to assign Ms. Cynthia Barriga and Dr. Ignacia L. Guia-Fajardo as Social Worker and Medical Officer, respectively, to Hong Kong. They will be accredited as Administrative and Technical Staff of the Office of the Labor Attache and they are expected to attend to the needs of the OFWs seeking basic counseling and medical assistance onsite. This arrangement is in consonance with the MOA signed between DOLE, DOH and DSWD.
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