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MANILA, Philippines ? Family, friends, and former colleagues of the late Senator Blas Ople gathered for a mass at the Libingan ng mga Bayani [Heroes? Cemetery] in celebration of his 82nd birthday.
Ople served for nearly two decades and created the overseas employment program in the early 70?s, and then the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration, with the last earning for him the distinction of being the ?father of overseas employment.?
Continuing the legacy of her father, Susan Ople, president of Blas F. Ople Policy Center, is helping overseas Filipino workers by strengthening the programs designed by the government for them.
?He is a mentoring type of father and we grew up knowing the country first,? said Ople as she described what her father was like.
Ople said that the real thread right now was the ?localization of workers? due to global financial crisis. ?Everyone is hoping to get things better but let?s keep in mind [that] either things get better, or status quo or things decline.?
One of the proposals of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center to the government would be to provide OFWs with ?direct cash assistance? considering that most of them have borrowed money to pay the fees that they needed to go abroad.
?Maganda na may mga livelihood program sila for OFWs na bumalik [It is good that the government has livelihood programs for the OFWs when they return] but how does government make all these programs concrete and attractive to all the displaced workers,? Ople said.
?With the present crisis, it is time to review the role of overseas employment in our economic and national life because we may have been relying too much on overseas employment,? Ople said.
