OFW FORUM

Jun Concepcion Which government agency offers the most substantial and helpful livelihood assistance to OFWs or overseas Filipinos?Is it OWWA’s stand-alone “Balik Pinas Balik Hanapbuhay” program that provides a maximum ₱20,000 as start up or additional capital for a livelihood project? Is it the Department of Trade unit Small Business Corporation’s HEROES program that provides up to P100,000 “interest-free,” three-year-tenor livelihood loan to OFWs who have returned home for good? Or is it the best livelihood support aid package the joint OWWA-Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) OFW Reintegration Program that provides up to P2 million to an OFW with a single proprietor company or P5 million to a group of OFWs? Up to ₱2 million for a single proprietor company operated presumably by a single OFW? Wow! This certainly looks impressive and enticing, especially at first glance. At face value, OFWs with plans to go home for good and set up an alternative to lucrative incomes abroad will certainly go for livelihood loans under the OWWA-LBP Reintegration Program. But just like many wonderful-looking things, enticing appearances can be deceiving. To a large extent, this is true with different government-sponsored livelihood programs for OFWs. While OFWs have various choices among government livelihood programs and assistance to OFWs, especially for those with plans to return home for good or, these options vary from one scheme to another. After speaking with officers and staff charged with running different government livelihood programs, I can’t help but conclude that DOST’s OFW-focused livelihood program is far more superior than all others, including those under the agriculture department and other agencies. While the OWWA-LBP livelihood funding program appears the best with its multi-million peso offer to aspiring entrepreneurs, access to it is the most challenging and difficult to hurdle compared to all other similar schemes. Notably, the OWWA-LBP lending scheme often requires loan applicants to present a three-year profit track record in an ongoing business plus collateral, often in the form of real estate. But who among OFWs are able to establish such record while at work abroad? Hardly anyone unless someone is a part-time OFW which is absurd. More often than not, start-up livelihood projects for first-time OFW entrepreneurs are not welcome to the OWWA-LBP livelihood lending program. In sharp contrast, DOST’s aid package to OFWs, whether still at work abroad or has already gone home, comes as a soothing whiff of fresh air. DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Pena told the Manila Bulletin that the agency’s livelihood assistance of up to ₱250,000 is open to all OFWs, including those who are still at work abroad but with plans to go home for good one day. “Our funding for OFW livelihood is limited, but it’s inclusive and it is open to all interested OFWs even to those who have not yet returned home,” he said. In sharp contrast, most OFW livelihood funding programs require intended recipients to have gone home for good and are no longer at work overseas. DOST’s livelihood loans to interested OFWs do not require payment of interest and are payable in three years, though special focus is on livelihood projects with some relation to technology, such as food processing and metal works, in which the agency has solid track record and in which it provides strong technical and advisory assistance. Start-up livelihood projects are welcome and proponents are to be trained very well for up to six months or more on how to become entrepreneurs and how to operate businesses. Extensive training and mentoring are to be provided by officers of partner companies and non-governmental organizations with actual experience in running businesses. A slight drawback though in the DOST program is the amount of loan that it provides recipients who need to be matched with counterpart funding to be provided by the project proponent. Requiring counterpart funding is by no means an unusual practice even in sovereign or government borrowings. In various infrastructure and large-scale development projects funded by the World Bank and other foreign institutions, the Philippine government is required by lenders to provide counterpart funding. DOST appears to be simply using this lending practice and principle though most aspiring OFW entrepreneurs very likely prefer to get nearly all working capital from government loans or grants. The beauty of the DOST livelihood training program is the fact that it is conducted online, enabling many OFWs still at work abroad to participate in it while gearing up and preparing for the day when they can quit their overseas jobs and run their own business back home. In contrast, the whole day entrepreneurship training required in the OWWA-LBP OFW reintegration funding program is often conducted in person, not online, and it is sorely inadequate to prepare participants properly for a drastic shift from being salaried employees for years into actual operators and managers of their own business. Contact this writer at jchk94@yahoo.com

Jun Concepcion

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