Deployment of 36,000 OFWs in Malaysia set in KL-ARMM pact

Here’s good news for domestic skilled works-seeking Filipinos, especially from the lagging and troubled communities of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The ARMM government and the G20, a group of prominent recruitment agencies in Malaysia, have sealed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) prescribing the latter to employ 36,000 household skilled workers (HSWs) from the component areas of the autonomous region within six-year period, acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong announced yesterday.

Adiong said a team from the ARMM’s Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) led by regional secretary Myra Mangkabung-.Alih inked the MoU with the G20 headed by chairman Dato Sri Maharaja Di Raja Zulkepley Dahalan in Kula Lumpur last Feb. 3.

Under the Mou, the G20 will recruit 500 HSWs from ARMM every month with free placement fees, flight fares, and board and lodging in Malaysia, an arrangement crafted especially for the economically-gripped communities in the five provinces and two cities of ARMM, Alih said.

ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo said Secretary Alih would brief Adiong on the details of the MoU before she meets DOLE Secretary Marianito D. Roque this week in Manila as a prelude to the fixing of a “win-win” wage rate in the MoU.

The prevailing government monthly wage rate for overseas household workers is US$400, but the G20 would want a minimal adjustment for it to accommodate OFWs in magnitude, Alih said.

Alih said a follow-up meeting with the G20 officials within this or next month will fix the agreed monthly rate for the recruits from ARMM.

The fixed rate will be observed religiously by employers identified by the G20, contrary to other prevailing arrangements where OFWs have not actually been receiving fully what they signed for in contracts, Alih explained.

In her Feb. 3 meeting with G20 officials, Alih said, participating Malaysian recruitment agencies have also assured to help in the employment in Kula Lumpur of jobless graduates of technical and skill trainings under the ARMM’s Technical Education and Skill Development Authority.

Over 4,000 residents in ARMM have already graduated from TESDA-ARMM trainings in recent months, Sinarimbo said. (Ali G. Macabalang/bpi-armm)