Duterte tells OFWs: You can come home soon

President Rodrigo Duterte

In his first meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, President Duterte promised that in three to four years’ time, those working overseas could come home.

“Just give me time, I’m doing my best…In three to four years pwede na kayong umuwi,” Duterte on Saturday said in a more than an hour’s speech in front of thousands of Filipinos who were invited to attend the event at Grand Ballroom of the Regal Airport Hotel.

Duterte also said he will order Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to study a replacement for the overseas employment certificate, the document required from OFWs before being allowed to board their flight from the Philippines to their destination country.

“I will give him until the end of the month to study it,” he said later in a press conference with Filipino journalists.

Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre told Hong Kong News they are looking into the possibility of issuing an OFW card to do away with the OEC.

There are some 210,000Filipinos working in living in Hong Kong, and about 180,000 of them are domestic helpers.