A BINAY administration will give priority to providing jobs to the thousands of Filipino workers abroad affected by the continuing slump in oil prices and the war in the Middle East, the United Nationalist Alliance said Friday.
The group said employment abroad would be a matter of choice and not of necessity for the Filipino workers.
Migrante International earlier warned that at least 50,000 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia would be jobless by March as a result of the oil crisis in the Middle East.
Thousands of Filipinos are working at Bin Laden Co. and Saudi Oger Ltd., two of the biggest contractors hired by the Saudi government for construction projects.
Binay worked closely with distressed Filipino workers when he was presidential adviser on Overseas Workers Affairs.
Binay’s running mate, Senator Gregorio Honasan II, said a Binay presidency would provide better job opportunities to encourage Filipinos to stay home.
Honasan said that while improving government support and making legal assistance available to migrant workers, these were short-term solutions to the problem of unemployment and underemployment in the country.
He said the Aquino administration had no contingency plan to help the distressed Filipino workers abroad who would be coming home but could expect nothing from their government.