Peba Inbox From Nelson Asking for more signs -admin fashionista- ***** Petitioning DFA - Phnom Penh Embassy Man the embassy on local holidays The Embassy is the principal representative of our government in the conduct of its relations with the host country. In this capacity, the Embassy promotes the foreign policy thrusts of the Philippines, to wit: Promotion of closer and mutually beneficial bilateral ties between the Philippines host country Promotion of national security; Promotion of economic diplomacy to support national development; Promotion of rights and welfare Filipinos overseas; Promotion of Philippine culture; and Promotion of a positive national image I am an OFW, and what concerns me the most is the third amongst the list. I have noticed the Philippine embassy office here in Phnom Penh is exerting very little efforts to reach out to promote the rights and welfare of OFWs. I have talked to some people and confirmed that we shared the same perceptions; OFWs are having difficulty reaching out to the services of our embassy. And I’ve got an impression why this happen; first, because the embassy office is closed during local holidays, i.e. they religiously observe host countrys public holidays. Second, they also faithfully observe Philippine public and legal holidays. Lastly, Office hours is 9am - 12nn & 2pm - 5pm only and doesnt have weekend (Saturday). We don’t have whale of a time as oppose to our embassy people. Some of the OFWs are working from dawn to dusk (Monday to Saturday) and the one day supposedly for rest and recreation goes to offset the one fine weekday spent applying for passport renewal or applying an affidavit for a family members. Just so you know, the most convenient time for us to deal with embassy matters is during weekends and local holidays (host country public holidays). Nobody wants to compromise his/her weekdays and get salary deductions. I don’t mean to put pressure nor deny our embassy people of their leisure time, I know they deserve holidays just as normal workers do. However, in their case, they are catering to a group of people (OFW) who values holidays and off from work as an opportunity to attend to matters concerning the legality of their stay, like renewing visa, passports, and other documents that they deem important and necessary in order to avoid impending hassles from authorities. We ask a favour therefore from DFA to be more considerate to the plight of Filipino workers. Our embassy should make themselves available during weekend (at least Saturday) and host countrys holidays (at least 1 day) because most of OFWs are free at that time. Who cares if you are in a beach on sunny Monday, drinking till you drop until Tuesday...you dont have or perhaps very minimal clients to attend to on these days anyways. The embassy is like a fine-dining restaurant, as a manager, you know that people are coming in for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you wouldnt allow all your staffs to go on regular breaks and leave the restaurant unattended during meal times...else, you will be out of business sooner or later. I dont want to be rude but you are forgetting something...we (OFW) form part of your customers...we generate part of your income...we contribute to plunderers loots like you do. I believe it isnt too much to ask to lighten our burden. N.B: we have nothing against any of our embassy people, we just want to improve the system and make it work for both us. Change is always difficult, but what is difficult, more often than not, offers real gain and genuine satisfaction.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 07:21:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015