OWWA e-card holders can enjoy discounts at OWWA partner establishments

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – If you are an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and you have an e-card from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), you can enjoy discounts whenever you buy or avail of services at participating establishments all over the world.

“Masaya kami sa Dubai kasi mostly our Filipino restaurants, Filipino-owned companies tinutulungan din natin. Some of them, if not most of them, started as OFWs and now are entrepreneurs,” OWWA administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan told GMA News Online.

(We are happy with Dubai because we are able to help mostly our Filipino restaurants, Filipino-owned companies. Some of them if not most of them, started as OFWs and now are entrepreneurs.)

“So iyan ay kasama na iyan sa pagtulong, tinutulungan niya ang mga OWWA members, tayo naman tinutulungan at sinusuportahan ang mga entrepreneurs natin,” she added.

(That’s part of helping, they help OWWA members, and we help and support our entrepreneurs.)

Some former OFWs have ventured into owning their own eateries, like Maria Paz, who now owns nine branches of bakeshops and Amiebeth Caintoy, who owns three eateries. They are now OWWA partners.

OWWA e-cards are proof of an OFW’s active membership with OWWA and provides them with easier access to the agency’s programs and services like repatriation, reintegration, training, and social benefits.

The e-card and membership costs $25 and valid for two years. In the UAE, the OWWA e-card costs AED92.

Caunan said the number of OFWs with OWWA e-cards jumped from 54,000 in 2004 to 355,000 last year. There are 2.6 million active OWWA members all over the world, of which 263,000 are in the UAE.

The OWWA, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) led by Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac Cacdac, Consul General Ambrosio Brian Enciso III, and the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Dubai recently held a signing ceremony with 20 establishments that promised to give discounts to OFWs with OWWA e-cards.

“Ngayon umaabot na tayo ng… 20, initial batch ng mga iba’t ibang mga kumpanya – restaurants, logistics company, airline, mga services, especially health services para sa ating mga miyembro,” Caunan said.

(Now, we have reached 20 establishments, the initial batch of different companies – restaurants, logistic company, airlines, services, especially health services for our members.)

“And hindi kami matatapos sa pagdagdag ng mga partners na ito kasi all over the world lagpas 200 na ang mga iba’t ibang kumpanya na nagbibigay ng diskwento para sa ating mga kababayan. So excited kami,” she added.

(And we won’t stop increasing our partners, because all over the world, we have more than 200 companies that give discounts to our countrymen. We’re excited.) — JMA, GMA Integrated News