Zamboanga City - Consistent with the mandate of Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello, III, the Department of Labor and Employment Regional Office No. 9 (DOLE RO 9) conducted a soft launching on the implementation ofOne-Stop Service Center for OFWs (OSSCO) held at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Regional Welfare Office 9 (OWWA- RWO 9), Zamboanga City on September 9, 2016.

The implementation of the One-Stop Shop Service Center for OFWs is the departments'mandate to ensure that all requirements needed by the public specifically the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are housed in one location for their utmost convenience so as to reduce transportation expenses, expedite and shorten the processing time of their needed documents. The OSSCO is temporarily housed at the OWWA office while the partner Local Government Unit of Zamboanga City is looking for a bigger and more conducive area.

The composition of the member agencies under OSSCO are DOLE, as the oversight chair, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF-PAGIBIG), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHILHEALTH), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bureau of Immigration (BI), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Zamboanga City.

DOLE Regional Director Sisinio B. Cano led the ribbon cutting ceremony together with LGU Zamboanga City CouncilorPinpinParejarepresenting the City Mayor and the member agencies. The soft launching was highlighted with the signing of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by all member agencies who were present during the said launching. Immediately after the MOA signing was the conduct of a press conference. All member agencies were able to disseminate the services offered to the expected clients.

Immediately after the launching, several clients have already availed of the services of the different member agencies.

Gay Iris T.S. Tangcalagan, TSSD