FILIPINO OVERSEAS REPORTING AND MONITORING SYSTEM (FORMS)

FILIPINO OVERSEAS REPORTING AND MONITORING SYSTEM (FORMS)


The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has required all Philippine Recruitment Agencies (PRAs) to build and maintain their own databases that would enable them to monitor the locations of their clients in case of emergencies abroad, regardless of where these clients are.


I am purposely using the term “client” here to highlight the fact that these Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are the employees of the foreign employers, and not the employees of the PRAs. In other words, the PRAs are merely acting as the service providers to the OFWs, so that they could work abroad under the employ of the foreign employers.


Although these PRAs are practically acting as the “agents” of the foreign employers, I think it is better for them to be called “service providers” because they are performing the very important service “connecting” the job applicants with their prospective foreign employers.


I commend the DMW for coming up with this requirement, because it is really much needed. Recently, we have seen how important this requirement is, because there have been some difficulties on the part of the DMWs to locate some OFWs in the midst of the war in the Middle East.

I think it is a good move on the part of the DMW to pass on the reporting and monitoring function to the PRAs, because they are the ones who are really responsible for knowing where their clients are, especially when their work requires them to move from one place to another.


In reality, the foreign employers are the ones who would know where their employers are, because they are the ones on the ground. However, since it is presumed that these foreign employers are always in touch with the PRAs, they could be jointly relied upon to always know where the OFWs are at any given time.


As a former designer, builder and manager of databases, I know how difficult it is for any PRA to comply with the requirements of the DMW. This is really a huge challenge for them, considering the work involved in programming the software for the database, encoding the data, registering the domain name, hosting it in a data center and securing the data privacy.


Due to the above reasons I have partnered with Yaramay Software to build the Filipino Overseas Reporting and Monitoring System (FORMS). By doing that, I believe that I will be able to help the government by absorbing the development and operating expenses, so that there will be no costs to them.


In addition to that, I believe that I will not only be able to help the government through the DMW, but I will also be able to help the PRAs, and most especially of course, I will also be able to help the OFWs when the need arises. That way, we are going to have a win-win solution for the good of everybody, again most especially for the good of the OFWs.


As we have designed the system together with my partner Yaramay President Ferdz Ibraheem Sabado, FORMS will be a cloud based, browser based subscription service, operated using the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model. It is free for the use of the DMW and the OFWs. Only the PRAs will be asked to pay the annual subscription fee.


As designed, the PRAs will have access only to their own data, and not the data of the other PRAs. Only the DMW will have access to all the data, in compliance with existing data privacy laws. Hopefully with this system in place, the government through the DMW will have a robust and secure reporting and monitoring system for the protection of our OFWs.


RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres iseneres@yahoo.com senseneres.blogspot.com 09088877282/05-14-2027

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