The government has set up a Saudi-based short message system (SMS), identified as a hotline for gathering an accurate data-base on an estimated 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the region, a senior official said.
Through the Al Khobar WelfareNet SMS Hotline, OFWs can text-message their personal data, including their employment record, to a dedicated number in Saudi Arabia, said Labour Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.
To use the hotline, an OFW must send a text message to number 00966-59252241 followed by the acronym, OFW and a comma.
The data that the OFW must enter includes the passport or Iqama number; full name; employer's contact number; occupation; address in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and name and contact number of next of kin in the Philippines.
The data will be relayed automatically to a computerised database administered by the Philippine embassy in Riyadh.
The labour department will soon replicate throughout the Middle East its Saudi Arabia WelfareNet SMS Hotline for all OFWs, said the labour secretary, adding that the projected SMS hotline across the Middle East will be an expansion of the WelfareNet SMS Hotline.
On February 7, the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Saudi Arabia launched the government's high-tech data gathering system in a forum, which the embassy and labour officials conducted for OFWs at the International Philippine School in Al Khobar.
The hotline was set up in response to the need to quickly establish an accurate and comprehensive database of the Filipinos in the Middle East.
"With the hotline, we will be able to fast-track the completion of an accurate and comprehensive listing of OFWs in the kingdom. This will help us in delivering the appropriate programmes of government to our workers," noted labour attache Jalilo de la Torres.
Sto. Tomas explained that the hotline will help the government provide welfare, personal and emergency assistance to the OFWs.
The system was set up as part of the preparations made by the government in case the U.S. attacks Iraq, said Sto. Tomas, adding that the hotline will also facilitate government preparation for emergencies, including the looming war in the region.
At the January 7 forum, Philippine officials focused on the preparations made by the government for the safety of the OFWs in case the U.S. attacks Iraq.
Members of the presidential Middle East preparedness committee, headed by former armed forces chief of staff, General Roy Cimatu, attended the forum.
Mubbarak Bubshait of the Saudi ministry of education, Col. Awad Al Qahtani, deputy chief for the Eastern Province of the Saudi office of civil defence, Philippine diplomats, other government officials, leaders and members of the Filipino community in the Riyadh were also present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jose Marquez of suburban Paranaque City said a city council passed a resolution, which called for the allotment of P1 million ($18,867) to fund the livelihood projects of returning OFWs.
"This will help the OFWs to start afresh or set up a business, however small, in their country of birth," said Marquez. "It will be very traumatic for anyone in the Middle East to lose their job in case of a war in Iraq."
Qualified to receive the cash assistance are OFWs whose families have stayed in Para?aque for at least one year. It is the first time that a local government unit in the country has come up with a definite livelihood programme for OFWs in the eventuality of a war between the U.S. and Iraq.
Gulf News 2003
