Newly appointed Philippine Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Yemen Raymond Balatbat has made the upskilling of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) one of his priorities.

In an interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s digital show Usapang OFW on 27 February, Balatbat laid out his plans in support of the Filipino workers, especially in Saudi Arabia, emphasizing that financial literacy programs are needed for their eventual reintegration into Philippine society.

He also affirmed continued collaboration with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to provide training and certification for OFWs through the Overseas Assistance Program.

“They [OFWs] will be more competitive in the workplace,” Balatbat said, adding that they will continue working with the Professional Regulation Commission to provide special professional licensure exams for OFWs.

On the workers’ welfare, particularly for household service workers, Balatbat said the problems are being addressed, including contract violations, delayed salaries, poor working conditions and all sorts of abuses.

“We are trying to improve the protection of the workers by negotiating for bilateral agreements with our Saudi counterparts, such as the Ministry of Labor,” he said.

To improve working conditions, the ambassador cited the need for stricter accountability of employers and recruitment agencies.

“The employer should have a good track record, and they should not have a criminal record. We would also like to regularly monitor both Filipino and Saudi recruitment agencies to prevent illegal recruitment,” he added.

To date, based on immigration data provided by Saudi Arabia, there are some 743,000 OFWs, with almost 349,000 employed as household workers.