|
A caregiver in
the United States and Hong Kong for 22 years and now anchorwoman of weekly radio
program segment OFW Action Line, Maxelinda Rebosura Ayco led the four Boholano
winners and special honorees in the 2008 Regional Search for Outstanding OFWs
that highlighted yesterday's marking of the Migrant Workers Day.
The
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) of the Department of Labor and
Employment (DOLE) cited Ayco's vital role in linking her fellow OFWs to their
families back home as host of the special weekly broadcast heard worldwide via
Internet.
The
service program on the air, a project of Rep. Edgar Chatto who is regarded here
as champion of the OFWs, reaches out to Boholano workers, especially those in
distress or critical conditions in foreign job sites, for whatever assistance
that can be provided.
Ayco
was the top choice for the Outstanding Achievement Award for Land-Based OFW, which
she received together with fellow Boholana honoree Laura Manuta, a nurse and OFW
returnee like Ayco.
| | | Seventy-five-year-old
OFW returnee Vicente Maca, Jr. of Malayo Sur in Cortes was honored as the Most
Senior Surviving OFW in Central Visayas.
DOLE-OWWA
also honored, in the category of the "Physically and Financially Challenged,"
OFW returnee Ignacio Cleopas, Jr. of Balintawak, Talibon who met an accident rendering
his health condition unfit to continue working abroad.
Chatto
witnessed the awarding and honoring in Cebu City yesterday, where and during which
were also held the Overseas Jobs Fair and Halad sa OFWs. |
Ayco, whose
husband still works abroad, had been away from her family for 12 long years in
caregiving in the US and nine more years in Hong Kong, where she frontlined the
cause and welfare of the OFWs as vice president of the Bohol Association of Hong
Kong.
She
returned home in Can-omay, Antequera, ran for barangay captain and is now the
municipal president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), an automatic
ex-officio seat in the Sangguniang Bayan (SB).
On
the hand, Manuta of Poblacion, Maribojoc now serves as a volunteer nurse for the
Parochial-Based Humanitarian Medical Clinic of Lourdes Parish in Tagbilaran City.
The
other regional awardees are Domingo Tome, third top choice for the Outstanding
Achievement Award for Land-Based OFW, Charlito Rombines, Maximino Bia and Anecito
Mantilla, Outstanding Achievement Award for Sea-Based OFW, and the Calawisan OFW
Organization for Outstanding OFW Groceria Project..
Except
for Rombines, the rest of the above awardees are Cebu-based.
Search
organizers also cited how Ayco effectively orients, thru the OFW Action Line,
those who yet dream of working abroad on the heavens---and hells---of overseas
employment.
The
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Office of the President
- Central Visayas partnered with DOLE-OWWA in this year's observance of the Migrant
Workers Day. (Ven rebo Arigo) | 
