WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT?

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT?

Dear Mr. President: According to Microsoft Copilot, “a virtual assistant is a remote worker who provides administrative, technical and creative support to clients”. The operative word here is “remote”, and that is what makes the worker “virtual”, meaning that he or she is not physically present. I do not have the numbers right now, but I do know that there are already thousands of Filipino men and women who are already doing some kind of virtual work or another, mostly working out of their homes.

As I understand it, Mr. President, the term “client” as used in this context could be liberally interpreted to also mean a patient, a customer or a student. In many cases however, a “client” could be a “permanent” boss in the same manner that an executive assistant could have an actual or physical “boss” in a real office. Take note that the “worker” in this example is not simply a low paid “secretary” but a highly paid executive assistant.

Again Sir, I do not have the numbers right now, but I personally believe that this trend or phenomenon if I can call it that, is so huge that it could even replace or take over the OFW phenomenon. The difference between the two however, is that in the “work at home” (WAH) phenomenon, the worker does not have to leave the country, unlike the OFW phenomenon. I could only imagine what impact that could mean for our country in the long run, in terms of not having families separated because of OFW departures, and in terms of parents leaving behind their children to work abroad.

My question now, Mr. President, is how will the Philippines take advantage of this this huge opportunity? How will the government ride this “bull” by its horns? How will it tame this “bull” to be able to ride it? It seems to me Sir, that this challenge is beyond the capabilities of either DOLE or DMW. I think that this task must be broken down into several components, probably “production”, “financing”, “packaging”, “financing” and “marketing”. Perhaps the “production” side could be jointly handled by DEPED, CHED and TESDA. Perhaps the “financing” side could be handled by the Congress and by DBM. Perhaps the “packaging” side can be jointly handled by PCO and PTV4. And last but not the least, perhaps the “marketing” side can be jointly handled by DFA, DTI, DOLE and DMW.

By the grace of God, Sir, Filipinos are so intelligent, creative and hard working and those are some of the reasons why our foreign “clients” are so happy about being serviced by our “providers”. In my own family circle alone, I have about six relatives who are teaching English to students who are abroad. They are earning well, and they continue to live with their families. I could just imagine how many other Filipinos are in this happy situation.

I believe however Mr. President that the DICT must do much more, so that our internet signals all over the country will become not only faster, but also faster. Without this better internet infrastructure, it would be difficult to make this WAH phenomenon grow. Sir, this WAH phenomenon could be one and the same as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, if and when these WAH practitioners would work under a local employer or agency. IKE SENERES/10-12-2024

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