Labor Secretary Sivestre Bello III is looking into adding more personnel to the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) to help more OFWs, particuarly those who are jobless due to oil price drop.
“Unang-una, we will recommend additional officers kasi dito lang sa Jeddah there are more than 300,000 migrant workers. Ilan lang ang tao dito, wala pa yatang 20. How can you cater the needs of our contract workers kung ganyan lang ang manpower mo?”, Bello stressed.
In his visit to a labor camp that houses most of the stranded OFWs, Bello added that they are also looking into transferring the POLO to a bigger office to accommodate more OFWs who are in need of help.
There is an estimated 9,000 to 11,000 OFWs who lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia due to the work force cut of construction companies due to drastic oil slump. The government since then has started to extend efforts and repatriation projects to the affected. Additional to those is the cash aid given to them and their families in the Philippines.