Nueva Ecija fetes its overseas workers

Residents of Nueva Ecija in northern Luzon held a gathering yesterday to honour the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) at the capitol compound here.

Gov. Tomas Joson said the festival for OFWs has been held annually for the past six years, as a tribute to OFWs from Nueva Ecija.

"They have done a lot to uplift the economy of the local community," said Joson, adding that the local government unit believes it has a duty to look after the welfare of the family members of the OFWs from Nueva Ecija.

The festival relived the ethnic culture and tradition among Novo Ecijanos, their old leaders and also the OFWs who contributed to local government building.

Explaining on the programmes for the OFWs, Joson said he has offered livelihood training assistance and housing programmes to their family members.

"I have done this because of a study which said that many OFWs return home with nothing for them because their earnings were improperly handled by their dependents," said Joson.

"Members of the families of OFWs often enter into business ventures they know nothing about. That's the reason why they don't prosper," said Joson, adding that his local government unit has been training families of OFWs to handle small and medium business enterprise.

Joson said he has a campaign urging would-be investors to coordinate with the government agencies like the Technology Livelihood and Training Development Center (TLDC) and provincial entrepreneurship office, for assistance.

Joson has been praised for helping family members of OFWs to take advantage of the government's public housing projects for the OFWs.

"Many OFWs who send their money for building homes often come home disappointed," said Joson.