OFWs from Taiwan to be Deployed Elsewhere

      Thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Taiwan that will not be rehired or renewed by Taiwanese companies or employers will be deployed elsewhere, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The mass lay-offs or non- hiring of thousands of OFWs stemmed from the death of a Taiwanese fisherman that encroached in Philippine Territorial waters a few months back. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) tried to arrest the Taiwanese fisherman but it attempted to ram the PCG boat and ignored the warning shots, so the PCG personnel were forced to shoot him dead.

      Taiwan has demanded a public apology from our President, insisted on a joint investigation, ordered the payment of benefits to the Taiwanese fisherman’s family and pressed for the joint exploration of our territorial waters. Unless all of these conditions were immediately complied and obeyed by our Government, Taiwanese officials have threatened to lay-off and freeze the hiring of tens of thousands of OFWs in their country.

     Well, the Taiwanese can go screw themselves in the ass! Filipinos have been fed up of China’s bullying tactics and we are not in the mood for tiny Taiwan’s intimidations. If Taiwan no longer want our OFWs then so be it! The POEA said that skilled workers are now needed in New Zealand, Canada and the Middle East and OFWs displaced from Taiwan will be redeployed in those countries. Another option offered by the POEA is to give financial loans to these OFWs that would rather stay and put up their own businesses in our country.

       It’s not going to be an easy transition but we have to slowly start accepting that every Filipino all over the world would have to come home to the Philippines. Our OFWs cannot be “slaves” and domestic helpers forever. Just ask these unsung heroes, if given the opportunity to live and work in their own nation, most of them would prefer to stay in the Philippines. Let’s give these OFWs the opportunity to come home, work or set up a business here so that other nations will stop calling Filipinos as “slaves” and the Philippines as the “slave nation”!!!