News

Batch 1 of EDSP and Batch 4 of CMWSP Graduates

A total of twenty-three (23) Education for Development Scholarship Program and Congressional Workers Migrant Scholarship Program scholars were honored during OWWA’s 26th Founding Anniversary held last 02 May 2008 at the Palacio de Manila.

File photo of PGMA with then DOLE Sec. Brion, OWWA Administrator Roque, and NAIA Gen. Manager Cusi welcoming recipient OFWs of an OWWA facilitated mass repatriation last 04 April 2007.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has taken measures to facilitate the repatriation of a total of seventy-four (74) Filipino-deportees from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by April.

According to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Jeddah, the first batch of 27 deportees will arrive on 11 April 2008. Acting Labor Secretary and OWWA Administrator Marianito D. Roque has committed to provide financial assistance to the deportees upon their arrival. The overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who are active OWWA members shall be covered by OWWA while the rest shall be taken care of by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Eleuterio “Eli (pronounced as E-lai)” N. Gardiner, who hails from Tarlac, was born on February 20, 1939. He finished his elementary and high school at Lamao Barrio High School and graduated from the Far Eastern University with a degree on BS Business Administration.

Dubbed as the “Jerry Lewis” of the Philippines for his musical prowess, Eli Gardiner was a former Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who worked abroad as a member of the Five Brown Boys, the First Filipino band to play in Japan. He later formed the Eli Gardiner and the President’s Band which became very popular in Okinawa and Taipei.

DOLE Undersecretary Lourdes M. Trasmonte handing over the DOLE colors to OWWA Administrator and now Acting Secretary Marianito D. Roque in a turnover ceremony held last 24 March 2008.

The reward of hard work, perseverance and loyalty to the Filipino people is how Marianito D. Roque regards every success that has come into his career as a public servant.

Born on December 8, 1954 of Mauro J. Roque, a contractor-entrepreneur, and Eliza Dineros, a homemaker, Nitoy, as peers, friends and family call him, completed elementary and secondary studies at the Lamao Bataan High School in 1971, in Limay, Bataan.

He studied at the De La Salle College in Manila, obtaining his bachelor's degree in economics in 1975. In 1978, he completed his master's degree in business administration at the Ateneo de Manila University.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed today Administrator Marianito Roque of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) as Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).