In a news briefing in Malacanang Wednesday, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said repatriated Filipinos will find difficulty looking for jobs in the county in view of the rising unemployment situation. The overseas Filipino workers are being repatriated from conflict-laden Middle East countries and calamity-hit Japan.

Lacierda said Labor Secretary Erlinda Baldoz has been busy looking for other countries that can host the repatriated OFWs while the Technical Education and Skills Development Administration (TESDA) is busy training Filipinos for livelihood programs they can adopt should they decide to stay here for good.

Lacierda said repatriation has been mainly from Libya. “The DFA has been very effective in monitoring the situation on the ground regarding situations in Bahrain, Libya and other countries where there is unrest going on,” he said.

Lacierda said there have been concerns over the displacement of some 90,000 Filipinos from Taiwan as a result of the temporary strain in relations with the Philippines over the deportation of Taiwan nationals to China. But Taiwan has re-absorbed them and the processing of travel documents to Taiwan has been resumed.

Baldoz said she had available employment opportunities for them even as she continued to search for other host countries, Lacierda added.

According to Lacierda, the DOLE Secretary “is fully aware of the concern and she is trying to make sure that as much as possible we do not displace all the Filipino workers who are being repatriated.”

On whether the executive branch is looking at a special funding to provide gainful employment to repatriated Filipino workers, Lacerida said “right now there is none yet but this is being studied by Baldoz.”

On whether government will issue a deployment ban for Bahrain, Lacierda said Baldoz will issue the necessary advisory depending on the assessment of DFA on the ground.