June 7 is Day of Thanksgiving to new heroes

• Posted by admin on June 16th, 2008 filed in What's New

Tacloban City (June 7) — All throughout the country, simultaneouos activities are being conducted today to honor the Overseas Filipino Workers who are hailed as the new heroes of the Republic, remitting billions of dollars annually, thus helping prop up the national economy.

Just recently, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported to Malacanang that the global deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is on track to reach and surpass the one million mark in 2008.

This comes hand in hand with the report that as current trends sustain, global OFW remittances would likely approach, if not surpass, the $15 billion level this year.

The latest report of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that OFW remittances have already reached US$4.0 billion (more than P173-b at current rates) in the first quarter of 2008, with the highest month-on-month remittances reaching $1.4 billion in March, on top of $1.3 billion in February, and another $1.3 billion last January. In 2007, OFW remittances reached $14.449 billion, the highest in history so far.

As early as 7:00 o’clock in the morning of June 7, a Migrant Workers Parade, participated by about 1,200 Overseas Workers and their families, will be conducted in Tacloban City, spearheaded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Region 8 under the leadership of Director Evangeline Filamor.

The parade will be participated by past and present OFWs, OFW community leaders, agency partners and other stakeholders.

After the parade, a whole day Jobs Fair will be conducted at the Leyte Sports and Civic Center with five local recruitment agencies participating. The whole day activity will be a day of fun with games and big raffle prizes for the OFWs and their families, a way of saying thank you to their contributions and achievements.

This is in keeping with this year’s Migrant Workers Day theme, “Pasasalamat sa mga Bagong Bayani.”

source: Philippine Information Agency