DOLE to OWWA: Draft module on Pinoy values for OFWs

Saying overseas Filipino workers are the country's best ambassadors of goodwill, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to prepare modules on Filipino values for the OFWs. DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the module will be used in the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) to instill in OFWs values such as deep love of and loyalty to country. “I have instructed OWWA Administrator Carmelita Dimzon to immediately come up with such a module in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs. Once the module is finished, we will request the assistance of the DFA in training trainers for the PDOS module, and afterward require all PDOS providers to use this as a mandatory subject of their PDOS,” Baldoz said in a news release. Baldoz also instructed the OWWA to consult with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the National Historical Commission to get input on the country’s history and rich cultural heritage. The OFWs can in turn share such knowledge with people of other nationalities, she added. She said OFWs she has met abroad had expressed deep love for the Philippines, even as their passion at work make their foreign employers proud of them. “Our OFWs are our national pride. They are acting, knowingly or unknowingly as our ambassadors of goodwill. We should, therefore, motivate them to act as such,” she added. With the new PDOS module, Baldoz said OFWs, including seafarers, household service workers and low-skilled workers will all be professionals in the way they dress, talk, and conduct themselves in public. They will be made aware that they are representing the Filipino race in their host countries, she added. “It is not only work, work, and work that our OFWs need to be able to show and demonstrate. They must learn to be articulate when telling the Philippine story and expressive of the national pride, particularly now that the country is experiencing socio-economic resurgence,” Baldoz said. - VVP, GMA News