Libya gives priority to Filipino workers

[tolibya]

Filipino workers have been listed as “priority recruits” for a $765-million (about P40 billion) construction project in Tripoli following a bilateral agreement signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi.

In her opening statement at last night’s Cabinet meeting at the Palace, Mrs. Arroyo said the agreement will also facilitate the entry of doctors, nurses and caregivers to Libya.

“There is a P40 billion worth of construction projects being financed by the Bank of Libya, and their first priority for hiring will be Filipino workers,” said the President who arrived last night in Manila from her two-day state visit to Tripoli.

The multimillion dollar project is under the “Libya Build 2007” program where some 400,000 housing units will be built by 2010.

There are about 7,000 documented Filipino workers overseas in Libya.

Relations between the Philippines and Libya took a significant turn when they signed last Monday an accord that would expand trade and investments between them.

President Arroyo witnessed the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the chambers of commerce and industries of the Philippines and Libya. The agreement identifies four areas of cooperation—construction, furniture-furnishings, tourism and health services.

“The Great Leader [President Muammar Gadafi] of Libya has supported the Philippines since 30 years ago in our peace process and in the course of my administration in the war against terrorism since 2001. Now, let us move into a new stage of our relationship with the Libyan community as our new companion in our journey toward greater peace and prosperity between our two countries,” the President said at the signing of the agreement at the Al Kaber Hotel in Tripoli.

Donald Dee, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mohammed Kanoun, president of the Libyan Union Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Agriculture.

Under the accord, the Philippines will organize a main construction company in Manila in partnership with Libya, with the PCCI spearheading the recruitment of workers that Libya needs.

But instead of the Philippines sending nurses to Libya under the health services sector agreement, the government, according to Dee, would rather train Libyan nurses in the country since Filipino health workers are in demand in other parts of the world.

Dee said Libya wants the Philippines to help them remodel their hotels and offices. He said the PCCI will send two sets of furniture workers with the high-end servicing the hotels and the low end, the offices.

“Libya is opening up very rapidly. With accelerating economic development activities, it also needs to accelerate human resources recruitment in Manila,” the President said.

In this regard, she said, the Department of Labor and Employment will set up a special desk to assess the Libyan recruitment on a government-to-government basis. Libya, in turn, will assign a labor attaché in Manila within the month.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo thanked Gadafi for his full backing of the search for lasting peace in Mindanao as she called for an early and peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

In a meeting with the World Islamic Call Society led by its secretary general Dr. Mohammad al-Shariff at the WICS compound in Tripoli, Mrs. Arroyo said Gadafi had been supporting the Philippines long before the infamous 9-11 terrorist at tack on the World Trade Center in New York.

“Even as we thank Libya for helping us win the peace in Mindanao, we look at the world around us and we see that peace is not yet with us in the whole world. Today, therefore, the Philippines joins the international community in seeking for the peaceful resolution of the Israel-Lebanon conflict,” she said.

The President said that hostilities between Israel and Lebanon have made the Filipinos more appreciative of the support Libya has extended to the Philippine peace process since the signing of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement between the government and Moro National Liberation Front in the Libyan capital through the intercession of Gadafi.

Before returning to Manila, Mrs. Arroyo met with some 1,000 Filipino workers overseas at the Golden Tent Hall in downtown Tripoli.