 |
| The new app is now available for downloading |
A mobile phone application that would link up all OFWs to the Consulate at the touch of a button will have its pilot launch in Hong Kong on on Sunday, Jan 29, according to Labor Attache Jalilo de la Torre.
But ahead of the launch, the app has been made available to OFWs for downloading starting on Jan. 24, so their phones would be ready for hook-up with the system when it launches on Sunday.
The app will play a crucial role, as, with just a tap of the finger, it will instantly connect a troubled OFW to the Consulate or to a compatriot nearest her.
Labatt De la Torre said one crucial function of the app is it would enable domestic workers who are being abused by their employers to take photographs of the abuse and store these as evidence in an account in the app that is inaccessible to the employer.
“Yung natatakot mag-store ng mga ebidensiya at baka makita ng employer, puwede niyang i-store muna sa app na iyan, sa cloud storage, para hindi makita,” the official said.
Former Hong Kong-based domestic worker Myrna Padilla, now a successful information technology entrepreneur, will formally launch the app that she developed during simple rites at the Consulate
De la Torre said Padilla donated the app, which is downloadable on any android phone, to the Philippine government to enable it to track OFWs anywhere in the world.
Padilla owns and heads a Davao-based business process outsourcing company named Mynd Consulting, which she set up after returning home following several years of being an OFW in the territory.
Labatt De La Torre said the app would ease OFW communication with compatriots who are in various parts of Hong Kong, and with the Consulate and its attached government units.
The benefit from the new app is for the Consulate “to be able to track and monitor OFWs within Hong Kong basta naka-upload lang sa mobile nila, and to post-notify them if there’s an important event,” said Labatt De la Torre.
“Puwedeng pakinabangan ng lahat ng Filcom kasi puwede silang maka-create ng sarili nilang group na parangFacebook.”
Development of the application began a few years back and, in 2014, it was already publicized as an app that enables OFWs to meet and stay in touch. The app helps them choose the country where they are based, the dialect they choose to use, and the organization to which they belong.
