Holiday rush for OEC prompts MWO to open daily

 

The OEC rush keeps MWO staff busy until late in the afternnon

Long queues have again formed at the Migrant Workers Office on the 29^th floor of United Centre building, as thousands of Filipino domestic workers slated to go home for the holiday season rush to secure the overseas employment certificate which they need to exit the country.

The lines are particularly long on Sundays, when most FDWs are on their days off, that applicants end up waiting for several hours to complete the process.

In a bid to ease the congestion, the  MWO announced today, Wednesday, that it will open on Fridays and Saturdays in the next two weeks, to process applications for OEC or OFW Travel Pass, verification of employment contracts and renewal of membership to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

The office will offer the special services on Dec 5, 6, 12 and 13, from 9am to 4pm, effectively opening all days of the week for the next two weeks.

According to MWO Officer-in-charge Tony Villafuerte, the foot traffic has been unusually heavy because it is peak season for securing the OEC.

MWO will open Friday & Saturday for next two weeks

Although many overseas Filipino workers already have the OFW Travel Pass, which is supposed to integrate both the OEC and the eTravel (required of all Filipinos departing from the Philippines), they still prefer to get the OEC, said Villafuerte.

This, he said, was because of a post on Facebook that said the OEC is required to be shown when claiming the Php950 terminal fee from airlines at Philippine airports.

Some OFWs who have recently gone on vacation also reported being asked for their OEC on top of the OFW Travel Pass by Philippine immigration officers, before clearing them for boarding.

Apart from this, securing the OFW Travel Pass in lieu of both the OEC and the e-Travel under a new system that is still on its pilot run is said to have proved challenging to many that they opt to just revert to securing the two documents separately.

Villafuerte says many OFWs still secure the OEC even if they already have the OFW Travel Pass

But this should not be so much of a problem, said Filipino community leader Marites Nuval, if volunteers were again asked to help OFWs download the OECs or the OFW Travel Pass on their mobile phones, like in the past.

“Kung i-allow kami we are willing to help para makuha nila yung OEC nila kung returning to the same employer. Kahit sa cellphone lang nila kaya naming gawin,” said Nuval, who used to volunteer her services regularly during the time of former Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre. (If they would allow us, we are willing to help those who need the OEC, especially if they are returning to the same employer. We can help them secure it using their own cell phones).

The only time OFWs would need to ask the MWO directly for help is when they have moved to a new employer, which would require a staff member to change the particulars in their employment records.

Leona Blundell, who operates a Filipino shop at United Centre, agreed that the queues on the 29^th floor could be greatly reduced if more people were trained to help home-bound OFWs who are not so tech-savvy.

“It takes only a few minutes to secure the OEC even if the OFW has forgotten her email address or password,” said Blundell, who is often asked for help by those who want to skip the long queues at the MWO.

Doing it this way could be the wisest move at this time.

Last Sunday, Nov. 30, several FDWs who were still a few meters away from the service counters at about 4pm told The SUN that they had been in line since 11:30am and had to skip lunch.

“Sana naman huwag na kaming pahirapan nang ganito,” they lamented. (How we wish we would be spared of this burden).

Lines formed even outside the MWO 

Only last month, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac announced during a visit to Hong Kong that the OEC had already been integrated into the eTravel pass, easing the burden of OFWs who are required to present two separate documents before they could return to their workplace.

“Red carpet, not red tape,” said Cacdac, alluding to a promise to provide OFWs with red-carpet treatment when they go home, instead of being bogged down by bureaucratic red tape.