MECO organizes housing fair for OFWs in Taiwan

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino workers in Taiwan are being invited to a housing fair in Taipei on Nov. 30 and meet with housing developers offering affordable housing packages in the Philippines. To be hosted by the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), the fair will also give overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) an opportunity to interact with representatives of government agencies involved in housing development, such as the Pag-IBIG Fund and Land Bank of the Philippines. MECO Managing Director Antonio Basilio said in a statement that the housing exhibition is the first event of its kind to be organized for OFWs in Taiwan. It will be held at the auditorium of the Dominican International School in Taipei. “These OFWs, our country’s modern-day heroes, endure and persevere. Why? It’s because they want to uplift the lives of their families back home. Many dream of giving their kids the best education possible – beyond what they could imagine for themselves," Basilio said.. Rodolfo Sabulao, labor affairs director of MECO, said that a big portion of the 85,000 Filipinos currently working in Taiwan, including those residing in Taoyuan, Jhongli, Hsinchu, and Keelung, are expected to attend. Sabulao said they have received a lot of queries from workers who are looking for affordable and secure housing projects. “Many, if not all, of our kababayans have this lifelong dream of owning a house that they could call their own. The least that we could do for our OFWs is to organize a Housing Fair that will bring Pag-IBIG, Land Bank and a number of property developers together under one roof," he said. Basilio added that the Housing Fair will serve as venue for OFWs and developers to meet and make arrangements for housing projects that are tailor-made to the OFWs’ needs and requirements. “Most of the housing projects that will be offered are affordable. At the fair, OFWs will also be given a wide array of housing projects in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao," he said. Cash card remittance In the same event, the Land Bank of the Philippines plans to launch its Cash Card Remittance facility. The bank said that this “new low-cost and secure facility" aims to provide OFWs with a faster and more convenient way of wiring their hard-earned money to their beneficiaries. Land Bank launched the same facility in the Middle East last year. Officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will also be presenting their programs and services to OFWs and their dependents during the fair. “Many OFWs in Taiwan would like to know more about PhilHealth’s benefits. We hope that PhilHealth’s presence at the fair would encourage our OFWs to renew their membership so that they could avail themselves of the benefits when needed," it said. Just last month, PhilHealth announced that it would launch new benefits for its members in response to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s call to widen the scope of its services and ensure that adequate support is provided to all its members. OFWs have complained that some benefits provided to them by the OWWA Medicare in the past have been taken away when the Arroyo administration killed the OWWA Medicare and transferred its functions to PhilHealth. In the past, when an OFW who is not covered by a health care plan gets hospitalized abroad, the OWWA Medicare shouldered the expenses, provided all the pertinent documents such as official receipt and medical report are shown. Migrante-Middle East said this type of benefit was very important considering that many low-paid OFWs, especially the domestic helpers, are not provided health insurance by their employers. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANew.TV