Philippine Embassy, Rome launches Technology Programs for OFWs  

14 March 2007 – Philippine Ambassador to Italy Philippe J. Lhuillier reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Embassy launched two technology-based programs that would benefit Overseas Filipino Workers on 11 March.  

In a ceremony attended by 200 Filipino Community leaders and Embassy officials, Ambassador Lhuillier led the ribbon-cutting to launch the 15-computer Community Technology Learning Center (CTLC) in the presence of Microsoft representatives headed by Microsoft Italy Government Affairs Director Peir Luigi Dal Pino. Rev. Fr. Albert Guevara, Sentro Pilipino Chaplain, celebrated Holy Mass and blessed the Center.  

The CTLC, generously sponsored by the Philippine Embassy, is a joint-project of software giant Microsoft, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Pilipinas-OFSPES, an Italy-based Filipino NGO.  

The center offers free computer lessons to the OFWs and their dependents from basic to specialized computer skills as well as free internet and Wifi usage time. It was designed to respond to the need for better and cheaper means of maintaining communications with loved ones in the Philippines and for possible job/salary upgrading at jobsite.  

Another service launched was the “One Follow Me Service” for OFWs, which was conceptualized by OWWA Administrator Marknito D. Roque. Designed by Microsoft, the Service provides a Global Dual Phone that would significantly reduce communication and remittance costs for migrant workers.  

Community leaders lined up to avail of the service after a comprehensive orientation to the service was delivered by Microsoft technology specialists Manie Tolosa, Jomar Geronimo and Tank Mostert, together with RCBC Italy Manager Guia Santos.  

“OFWs would now have the chance to make free cellphone to PC calls or chat in Wifi areas using the VOIP function of the mobile phone,” Ambassador Lhuillier noted. “They could also easily control their finances through their RCBC account with just a few clicks on the phone with no remittance charges.”  

Ambassador Lhuillier added that these technologies would “evidently bring Filipino families closer and surmount the fundamental social cost of migration, which is the physical separation of families." "Likewise, the skills acquired by our kababayans would eventually provide them with opportunities for higher paying jobs", he concluded. END

/jay

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