Information Systems and E-Services for Overseas Filipinos – OFIS

5/5/2015
The Overseas Filipino Information
System
A Brief Introduction
Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs
Background: What is the OFIS
The OFIS is envisioned to be a web-based Overseas
Filipinos information system and database system to
be used as a tool by government for emergency
preparedness and response.
It aims to have a clear and accurate picture of the
number of overseas Filipinos, their profile,
whereabouts and movements in all destination
countries .
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Background: Why is the OFIS important
The Overseas Filipino Information System (OFIS)
project under the Overseas Preparedness and
Response Team (OPRT) as mandated by E.O. 34, is
the core element of the Shared Government
Information System for Migration (SGISM).
Background: Why is OFIS needed
1) It is mandated by law
 The Migrant Workers’ Act of 1995 and its amended
form of 2010 (a.k.a RA 10022) directs government
agencies to form the Shared Government Information
System (for migration).
 The SGISM aims to make available to member agencies
information contained in their existing databases and
enable the linking of computer systems in order to
allow free flow of data exchanges and sharing among
members.
 However, since 1995, no serious efforts have been
undertaken to ensure the implementation of the
GSISM.
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Background: Why is the OFIS important
2) It is will help in the delivery of social services to Filipino
overseas workers especially in times of crises
Fifteen (15) years after its inception, only the Aquino
Administration is serious enough to take on the task of creating the
GSISM and has thus initiated measures to implement it.
The Aquino Administration recognises that recent natural
disasters, civil unrest, armed conflicts and similar crises in foreign
countries expose Overseas Filipinos, workers and non-workers
alike to immediate hazards and risks. The Office of the President
under the direct supervision of Executive Secretary Paquito N.
Ochoa crafted and came up with executive order No. 34 (s.2011)
which became the legal basis of the Overseas preparedness and
response team (OPRT).
Under the OPRT, the capabilities and efforts of all government
agencies in the delivery of services and resources will be focused
and intense in order to ensure the security and safety of OFs in
times of crisis.
DATA TO BE PROVIDED BY EACH MEMBER
AGENCY
 Data be provided by each member agency are as follows:
- DFA: passport records of all passport applicants
- OWWA: OFW membership information, status of OWWA
membership, status of employment abroad and next of kin
- POEA: OFW contract details, such as date of contract,
duration, place of employment, employer, date of
employment, etc., as well as statistics on Overseas
Employment Certificates (OECs) and POEA Exit Clearances.
- BI: arrivals and departures, travel records, point of origin
and destination, category of returning status, point of origin
and destination, category of returning status, etc., of Filipino
travelers.
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Background: What constitute the OFIS
 The OFIS hinges on the completion of the databases
of each member agency, i.e. DFA, POEA, BI and
OWWA
 OFIS, however, requires the technical assistance of
other agencies, i.e. Advanced Science and
Technology Institute of the DOST, National
Computer Center (NCC) and the National Statistical
Coordination Board (NSCB)
MEASURES TO ENSURE DATA SECURITY
AND CONFIDENTIALITY
 The member agencies agreed to the following measures
to ensure security and confidentiality of information:
- The Interagency security infrastructure shall be
implemented among the members to safeguard
information on a 24 x 7 basis.
- Each member shall only access data or information in
the databases which are relevant to its requirements.
- Any information acquired through the system shall be
treated confidential.
- An Information System audit be conducted annually or
as may be deemed necessary
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Challenges
 Issues encountered in the development of OFIS
Version 1
1. Difficulty in data clean-up
2. Manual conversion of data from current database
format to OFIS prescribed database format (e.g.
Oracle, MS SQL)
3. Data are not harmonized
4. Margin of error in the data (If matching for First
Name, Last Name, Birth Date, Passport number is
not fulfilled, OFIS treats the data as null)
Challenges


Variations in the data structure of memberagencies affects the cross-referencing of data.
OFIS Version 1 requires complete data
matching between BI records and DFA passport
records
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UPDATE ON THE MIGRATION OF DATABASES
 The DFA’s passport database, comprising of some 55,000,000
records, has been successfully uploaded in the OFIS server,
which is currently administered by ASTI.
 The database on OWWA membership, consisting of 4,486,183
records of members and 2,819,698 record of beneficiaries, has
also been successfully uploaded on the OFIS server.
 The database on employment contracts submitted by the
POEA is only from 2010 to 2013 (around 800,000 records).
POEA has to submit its complete records, i.e. Records prior to
2010.
 The “destination” fields in the BI’s database of Filipinos’ travel
records, consisting of 55,641,519 travel records and
20,794,945 persons who travelled overseas indicated airport
codes instead of the required country codes. BI needs to
rectify this and resubmit its database to ASTI.
OFIS Phase 2 aims to rectify the flaw in the design of
OFIS 1
Standard data label for migrant information
Entails modifying databases of BI, POEA, OWWA and other
agencies concerned with migrant information
Use tools to determine that a person’s record in
database refers to the same person in another
database.
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E-Rehistro
 The e-registration feature of OFIS will be ready for
dissemination to Philippine diplomatic missions and
for online registration by overseas Filipinos as soon
as the four databases have been consolidated and
once the e–registration operations manual has been
finalized.
Way forward
The TWG will endorse the final proposed
budget for OFIS Phase 2 along with the
technical presentation to the Office of the
Executive Secretary.
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