IMAGE: Daniella Agacer
MANILA, Philippines — Through its plan to digitize some of its processes, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) aims to trim down the deployment process of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from three months to three weeks.
DMW spokesperson Tony Nebrida bared this plan during the Laging Handa Briefing on Friday, noting that the department’s digitization agenda can help eliminate bottlenecks in processing OFWs.
“If we can digitize this process alone, ang laking bagay po na mapuputol iyong length of processing and the time of application to actual deployment,” Nebrida said.
(If we can digitize this process alone, it’ll significantly help reduce the time between their application and processing to their actual deployment.)
The average time between the application and deployment of OFWs is currently 90 days or three months, according to Nebrida.
“Kung maari, tabasan natin as we digitize the processes na pwedeng i-digitize ay magiging ano na lang siguro, we’re targeting maybe about three weeks from application to actual deployment,” he added.
(As we digitize the processes that can be digitized, we’re eyeing to reduce that to about three weeks from application to actual deployment.)
Nebrida said DMW chief Susan “Toots” Ople has already raised this digitization agenda with Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy.
“Secretary Uy has assured us that it’s very doable, so it’s something that we’re really looking forward to operationalizing within the next months or weeks,” he further noted.
Aside from the DMW, the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government have also expressed intention to shift their systems online to streamline information and fast-track services.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also mentioned this in his first State of the Nation Address last Monday, where he stressed the need for the government to digitize to bridge the broadening digital divide among Filipinos.