MANILA, Philippines — It’s a truly merry Christmas for three returning overseas Filipino workers.
Not only did they get to shake hands and have a photograph taken with President Aquino at the airport but they also got to take home more than P300,000 each, in cash and gift certificates.
Edward Tezon, Menchie Eliseo and Carol Pangasian were chosen by labor officials to be the major winners of the “Presidential Salubong of the Pamaskong Handog sa OFWS (Presidential Welcome of the Christmas Offering for OFWs).”
The three OFWs arrived in separate flights Thursday afternoon from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Singapore at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal 1 in Pasay City.
They were surprised when they were informed upon their arrival that they were picked to be this year’s winners.
Tezon works in a company in Abu Dhabi while Eliseo and Pangasian are household service workers.
They were each given P200,000 courtesy of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and other private firms. They also each got P25,000 worth of gift certificates, as well as $1,500 worth of Duty Free gift certificates and one cellular phone from Microsoft.
President Aquino said that he was glad to see the OFWs and that he could feel that while they were tired from the long flight, they were excited to see their families.
“This also reminds us that we have to work doubly hard to provide more opportunities for them here so that they would not have to part with their families,” President Aquino told reporters.