The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said Sunday it would revive the “Hatid Saya” entertainment program for Filipinos working abroad. OWWA Administrator Arnell Ignacio told ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo in Filipino: “We will bring it back. Hatid Saya will be back.”
He said entertaining OFWs would be one of OWWA’s initiatives under his watch, aside from providing assistance to workers and their families.
Ignacio, who comes from the entertainment industry, announced this following his appointment as the new OWWA administrator by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Hatid Saya was first launched in the 1980s as a musical tour that featured Filipino performers, entertainers and singers, traveling to select cities abroad where there were large numbers of OFWs.
The program was conceived to help ease OFWs’ homesickness and culture shock, especially for those who had just migrated abroad for their new jobs.
Meanwhile, Ignacio gave assurances that OFWs’ concerns would be addressed by his office, as long as they are communicated through the right channels.
He asked OFWs to properly identify themselves and the countries they were in, and what their concerns were to allow welfare officials to attend immediately to their concerns.