Deployment of OFWs may be cut by half
By Cher Jimenez
Reporter

INDUSTRY sources warned that the country’s overseas deployment would decrease by half a million if the government pursues its plan to enforce its capitalization policy on recruitment firms as close to a thousand of them have failed to comply.
       Manny Geslani, a recruitment consultant, said the cancellation of the license of many recruitment companies which fail to comply with the capitalization requirements of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will result in the “dislocation of the overseas recruitment industry.”
       Moreover, this will also derail the government’s target of one million annual deployment of workers, he said.
       In 2002 the POEA released a memorandum ordering the country’s estimated 1,300 recruitment agencies to post a P1-million escrow bond for existing firms and a P2-million capitalization fund for those applying for permits.
       Manpower companies were given until the end of May 2006 to comply with the requirement or face cancellation of license.
       In a previous interview with the BusinessMirror, POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said the government was not bent on extending the deadline for compliance of agencies and it appeared determined to revoke the permits of those who fail to follow the memorandum.
       Baldoz said the four-year extension given by the government for compliance with the policy was enough for manpower firms to generate the money they needed.
       She added the industry is capable to raise the funds for the escrow bond since many of the firms earn substantial money from fees asked from both employers and workers.
       The POEA intends to use the escrow bond as a standby fund for workers in distress that need to be compensated by their sending agency.
       More than 750 agencies have been reported by the POEA to be deficient in their escrow deposits and around 230 have capital requirements that have to be addressed by their owners.
       Geslani said these figures represent 90 percent of land-based agencies which deploy majority of the 500,000 new hires each year and employ thousands of workers for the industry.
       Arturo Limoso, an owner of a recruitment firm and former legal affairs head of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc., recently wrote the POEA to say that it could not enforce the new policy until a lower court lifts the injunction it imposed in June 2003.