Polhynne Kate B. Raz 10-9 Mr.

Galante
Introduction
Philippines are one of the most countries that work overseas. Therefore Filipino/Filipina workers
cross a globe to feed their families or to help her /his father or mother with a disease. One of the vital
roles is to parents must consider is to be serious nowadays in facing the millennial learners. Due also to
the fact that not quite easy to send the income money to her children to formal education, it is also
difficult to watch them over and give them proper reinforcement because of the miles of distance
between them

Parents’ primary should be the sources of good values and the first teacher of her child to provide
and motivation of her children to achieve his/her goals in their life his/her responsibility to his/her
children that can’t be paid by money, gold, diamonds, etch. It wasn’t enough that parents and
counselling to her children.

While the Philippines has gained many advances in the deployment of manpower abroad policy-
and program-wise, and has enjoyed the benefits from OFW remittances, much has yet to be done. The
Philippines should have a polished system by now in terms of achieving economic and social benefits for
Filipino migrants, their families, communities and the country as a whole.

Among the government-initiated programs for migrants, the tracking record of reintegration
programs in the Philippines has not been very encouraging. The latest attempt to reinvigorate the
government’s reintegration program is the establishment of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs
in 2007. Acknowledging the difficulties faced by returning OFWs, the new reintegration program aims to
systematically gain more from the new attitude, skills, knowledge, assets and technologies of our
migrant workers to promote brain gain and drive the economy forward to a higher plane. However, the
program realizes different needs and resources of returning migrants.

Not all migrants succeed in their migration project. In many instances, the returning OFW find
themselves in worse financial condition than when they left the country and have more difficulties
getting a job.

This study analyzes the government’s economic reintegration livelihood assistance program and
how returning OFWs are economically reintegrated into the Philippines considering their circumstances.

The significance of the study on national security has been tackled thru the perspective of the
country as it defines it as “the state or condition where the Filipino national community’s welfare, well
being, way of life, institutions, territorial integrity and sovereignty are enhanced and protected”. The
Filipino community’s welfare, well-being and way of life started to be threatened when OFW gets
separated from their families as they work abroad. When they return to the country, their prolonged
absence gets them disoriented with the social conditions in the country coupled with problems of
economic dislocation. This condition threatens to spill over into the social instability that places Filipino
social fabric in weakened state. An effective reintegration program into the economic activities of the
country can prevent this condition from becoming threat to national security.

This study uses the framework of assessing the adequacy of livelihood projects for communities as
created by Cooperative Assistance Relief and Emergency (CARE) of the United States. This framework is
appropriate because it focuses on assessment livelihood assistance projects with respect to
effectiveness in changing the lives of people and their communities.

The research utilized both qualitative and quantitative research techniques with descriptive survey
and interviews in order to generate primary information on the state of the government’s program for
integration of returning OFWs into the mainstream of Philippine society. To generate more depth and
primary information, pertinent data was gathered from interviews with the participants to OWWA/
NRCO Livelihood Assistance Program. Interviews were limited to those readily accessible from Metro
Manila particularly in the three regions of IV-A, III and NCR.

The respondents were subjected to survey questionnaire. This questionnaire follows the conceptual
framework of assessment designed for livelihood programs by CARE of U.S.A. which has been active in
relief and emergency operations around the world.

Interviews were also conducted on officials of OWWA and NRCO as implementers of the economic
reintegration program. Data were culled from their reports and documents involving document analysis
technique in analyzing trends of effectiveness and performance of this government office primarily in-
charge with the reintegration of OFWs in the country.

The findings of the study determined that the economic reintegration program of the government
is a way of mainstreaming returning OFWs into the Philippine society. This consisted of on-site trainings
on value formation, financial literacy, Entrepreneurial Development Training (EDT), techno-skills and
capacity building. National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) under the cognizance of Overseas
Welfare Administration Office (OWWA) together provided mechanisms of social and economic
reintegration thru its Livelihood Assistance Program. The major thrusts are those overseen by NRCO: a)
Entrepreneurial trainings for OFWs, b) 10K Livelihood Assistance, and c) OFW Loan Program under
OWWA monitoring.

The Government Livelihood Program Balik Pinay, Balik Hanapbuhay is addressing distressed
returning women OFWs as well as men OFWs. Under the program, OFWs undergo training program with
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Technical Education and skills Development Authority
(TESDA) to avail of P10,000 capitals in starting a home-based business. Among these business are
reflexology, cosmetology, production of bath soap, scented oils, herbal medication and skin health
treatment, manicure/pedicure, fashion accessories repair and food process.

The NRCO reported 1,670 livelihood beneficiaries with total disbursement of P16.7 million. Despite the
size of the work and resource limitations, the government continues to intensify welfare and protection
measures for OFWs with concrete strategies undertaken with regards to legal, repatriation,
reintegration and other assistance.

The size of financial assistance may be enough as a starter but may be small for the OFWs who think big
about their capabilities. Since, there is no follow up assistance for the successful ones and that
monitoring is indeed lacking, the progresses of the livelihood programs were not adequately recorded.
Overall, the adequacy of the financial assistance cannot be conclusively determined because the OFWs
have different status in life and different level of livelihood plans. For some, this financial assistance is
only part of their need for capital funds to start a business as they may be thinking big. In which case,
the other livelihood programs of the government such as the loan programs administered by LBP, DBP
and NLSF may be more appropriate for them to pursue.

As far as the achievement of the mission of NRCO in reintegrating the OFWs to the economic
mainstream of the Philippine economy, the answer is also not conclusive because there are other
factors that interplay with livelihood assistance to make their reintegration successful. These include
social and psychological integration which also plays an important component in the successful
reintegration of the OFWs. It also factors in the personalities of OFWs because not everybody has the
business orientation and entrepreneurial skills which can be honed to make them successful
businessmen. However, the KII confirmed that indeed, many of the OFWs who participated in the
livelihood programs of NRCO have become self-employed and lived better lives that they have been had
the program been not available to them.