Only 17 of 112 Ilocos OFWs back from Lebanon
Only 17 of the 112 registered Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from the Ilocos region who were deployed to Lebanon from January to July this year have returned so far.
According to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s Ferdinand Merrera, Attorney II of the POEA’s Regional Center for Luzon based in San Fernando City, of the 112 that left for Lebanon, 46 were agency-hired or agency-deployed and 66 others were returning OFWs who had their Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs) reprocessed.
The 17 were among the more than 5,000 OFWS who have been repatriated so far to the Philippines with the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the International Migrant Workers Union. He said close to 30,000 OFWs remain to be repatriated at presstime.
But he clarified that there could be more than 17 who already managed to return already but still haven’t reported to the POEA or the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration).
Merrera admitted that there are workers who went overseas but their papers did not pass through the usual legal processes and thus were declared as undocumented.
He pointed out that only documented workers can receive benefits from the OWWA.
Violeta Buenaventura of Department of Labor and Employment district office said that most of the repatriated workers have expressed preference to be re-deployed to Canada instead of the Middle East.
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