Arroyo orders OWWA to set up ‘tambayan’ for OFWs in HK

MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Monday to set up an "OWWA Tambayan" in Hong Kong where overseas Filipino workers based there can converge on their days-off. A Malacañang statement said President Arroyo issued the order after having coffee with representatives of five Hong Kong-based OFW groups Sunday night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. She directed acting Labor secretary Marianito Roque to set up the “Tambayan" "as soon as you locate a place." She also urged the OFWs to sell Filipino products in the soon-to-rise OWWA center and even become franchise holders of the "Tindahang Pinoy." "Tindahang Pinoy" is a new entrepreneurship program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to promote and propagate native Philippine products. On the other hand, President Arroyo also accommodated the OFWs' request for the government to set up OFW Affairs Desks in local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines. Also approved was the request of the OFWs for the setting up of OFW wards in government hospitals which President Arroyo said could start with the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Present at the coffee conversation were Foreign Affairs secretary Alberto Romulo, Press secretary Ignacio Bunye, Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady, Consul-General to Hong Kong Alejandrino Vicente, and Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone, secretary-general of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP). The OFWs represented in the coffee with the President came from the ranks of the "PGMA Pa Rin," or "Galing Manggagawa Pinoy Abroad," WoMed HK, Federation of Visayas Associations in HK, Black Panther Consolidated HK, and the World Organizers of Martial Arts HK. - GMANews.TV