The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration revealed that the Davao region now has 35,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) working in various countries abroad.
The total count, OWWA-11 regional director Eduardo Bellido said is based on the records of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) in the region as of September this year.
Bellido added that OFWs registered with OWWA and the POEA are considered registered workers and are covered with benefits from the government, including insurance and assistance.
He also took note of cases where OFWs leave for abroad to work using the regular or tourist visa who he said are vulnerable to challenges and cannot receive assistance from OWWA and POEA.
“We do not have the records of workers who go abroad to work using regular or tourist visas. These workers are oftentimes vulnerable to abuses,” he said, adding that their agency has no way of monitoring their conditions to provide support and assistance in times of troubles and problems.
Bellido also called on residents in the region who are planning to work abroad to go through the correct processing and ensure that they are registered in OWWA and POEA.
OWWA-11 made the call after two Filipina nurses from Davao City working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met an accident last November 12.
Both nurses, considered by OWWA-11 as undocumented workers because they used regular or tourist visas, were bumped by a speeding BMW in said country.
One of the victims, Estee Banaag from SIR Matina died on November 27 while the other victim, Melissa Roble from Cabantian, Buhangin suffered injury in her spinal column.
Another case that Bellido brought up involved Vilma Lastima, an OFW working in Jordan who went home November 24 and left her three-month-old baby at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport .
Bellido said their office painstakingly looked for Lastima in her declared address in Maco town, Compostela Valley but they failed.
The local family welfare officer in Compostela Valley has no record of Lastima indicating that she was a documented OFW when she left the country.
Bellido believed Lastima used a tourist or regular visa when she went out of the country and worked in Jordan.
