PHILIPPINE Labor Attaché Carmelina F. Velasquez believes that the reintegration program that allows Filipino workers to learn other skills is one of the successful programs she helped implement here.
Velasquez left Saipan on Wednesday after a two-year tour of duty in the CNMI.
She said the reintegration program helps prepare Filipino workers who are facing uncertainty with their continued employment on island.
Since the launching of the program with the full support of the Philippine Consulate General on Saipan, hundreds of Filipino workers benefited from the livelihood and business skill training courses, she added.
“It makes me happy and I find it very fulfilling,” she said.
The courses offered include financial literacy, basic Mandarin, basic computer operations and business management which aimed at educating Filipino workers on financial discipline and encouraging them to become entrepreneurs.
Velasquez thanked all the instructors who volunteered and shared their talents and skill with their fellow Filipino workers.
“Without their support we wouldn’t have made a difference,” she said.
The Filipino community, she said, has been very supportive of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and its programs on island.
Velasquez said she will resume her post as funds and investment management office director for the head office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Manila.
Last week, her staffer Remily D. Oca also concluded her two-year tour of duty here.
Welfare Officer Julia Fabian is currently in charge of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office while waiting for Velasquez’s replacement.
Velasquez said her tasks were very challenging because “I came here when our workers were facing a difficult time due to the transition period and the implementation of federalization law, and there were uncertainties about their employment compounded by the economic hardship.”
She said she always encouraged those who completed the reintegration program to set up their own business in the Philippines.
Because her main responsibility was to promote the welfare and protect the interest of Filipino workers in the CNMI, Velasquez said her office faced tough challenges in delivering services while Filipino workers waited for the final rule for transitional foreign workers.
While on Saipan, she said her office also attended to family problems of Filipino workers.
Some of their family members in the Philippines sought assistance to help locate their parents working in the CNMI.
“We had cases of abandonment and complaints over lack of financial support,” Velasquez said.
She said the Philippine Consulate General was able to trace Filipino workers and relay the information to their family members in the Philippines.
Some Filipino workers on Saipan also sought assistance about their unpaid wages, she added.
Velasquez said they resolved labor and welfare cases through counseling and referrals.
Both the CNMI and federal authorities assisted them in attending to these problems, she added.
She summed up her term in the CNMI as “very challenging and fulfilling.”
