MWO-OWWA WDC SERVES JAMAICA-BASED OFWS IN OUTREACH MISSION

PRESS RELEASE

WDC-58-2025

02 September 2025

Embassy Press and Information Section

info@phembassy-us.org

The Migrant Workers Office-Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (MWO-OWWA) of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. conducted an outreach mission in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica from 24 to 26 August 2025, to deliver services to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The MWO-OWWA Team provided employment contract verification and OWWA membership renewal services and held orientation on the programs of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and OWWA. 

Labor Attaché Saul De Vries said that the outreach mission is part of the continuing effort of the MWO and OWWA to deliver services at the doorsteps of Filipino migrant workers who are unable to travel to Washington, D.C. Eighty-seven (87) OFWs in the said Caribbean island nation attended the orientation that highlighted welfare programs and social benefits available for them including financial and other assistance from the DMW AKSYON Fund, scholarship and training benefits from OWWA, and social security entitlements from the Social Security System (SSS). 

The MWO-OWWA Team processed 29 OWWA membership renewal applications and verified 18 employment contracts during the outreach. They also visited some auto technicians and hotel workers at their jobsites to check on their working conditions and meet with their employers to find out how they are doing at work. 

The Philippine Honorary Consulate in Jamaica led by Honorary Consul Keith Russell assisted the MWO-OWWA Team composed of Labor Attaché De Vries, Ms. Freya Palad and Mr. Oliver Flores. New York-based SSS Foreign Representative Rigor Pantollano joined the orientation program virtually.

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