Israel, Philippines to sign labor agreement: envoy

August 15, 2018

DAVAO CITY - Israel and the Philippines will sign a labor agreement on the welfare of overseas Filipinos there, one of several business deals and bilateral agreements awaiting the first state visit of President Rodrigo Duterte this month.

Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Effie Ben Matityau told reporters on Wednesday said the deal would improve the welfare of Filipino workers in his country, which is giving one of the highest wages to domestic helps.

He did not elaborate on the details of the labor agreement.

It would be the second labor agreement to be signed by any other countries after the Kuwait signed the first agreement

Some 4.3 million Filipinos work in the Western Asian countries of Bahrain, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, the Philippine Statistics Authority said, and Israel is estimated to host as many as 50,000 Filipino workers.

Matityau said  other contracts, deals and agreements touch on a range of issues, from business, information technology and education, to investments, electronics and the environment.

Defense would also be an important issue that would be discussed by the leaders of the two nations, he said.

“Numberwise, the contracts and deals is exciting, coming from this first ever visit by a President from the Philippines,” he said.

Matityau visited this city to sign an agreement on an information technology-based education assistance to local public schools here.

The program, dubbed as A Lighthouse Project, Israel would sponsor a group of as many as 15 teachers from a selected public school here to observe and learn the ICT-based teaching method of an Israel school for 14 days in November.

Teachers from the Mintal Comprehensive National High School, 15 kilometers west of downtown, were selected to become the trainers to visit Israel in November and to train more trainers when they come back.

Matityau said Israel has graduated as many as 6,000 Filipinos in various short-course fellowships and have contributed to the Philippines’ nation-building “not necessarily on the course that they were sent to study in Israel, but mostly in other ways while returning to their old work”.

“This time, the Lighthouse concept would ensure that the trainers would practice what they learned in Israel,” he said.

Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio signed the MOA for Davao City. DMS