MANILA, Philippines – Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) transacting in the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration may now avail of free freshly brewed coffee when they visit the OWWA’s central office in Pasay.

Television personality turned OWWA Administrator Arnell Ignacio could not hold back tears as he opened Migrant’s Brew, a small café in the OWWA lobby, on Monday, November 14.

“Ayokong bibigyan lang sila ng monoblock, papaupuin, at bibigyan ng assistance. I want them to feel na VIP sila sa OWWA – coffee of your choice, all for free,” Ignacio said at the café’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday.

(I don’t want to simply give them a monoblock chair, make them sit down, and give them assistance. I want them to feel like VIPs in OWWA – coffee of your choice, all for free.)

To avail of the free coffee, Filipinos transacting in the OWWA may get a coupon from the security guards outside the lobby. They must then present the coupon to Migrant’s Brew staff, register, and choose their coffee.

Rappler visited the café on Friday, November 18. The items on the menu were brewed coffee, espresso, and Americano.

The opening of Migrant’s Brew was emotional for Ignacio as he recalled criticism aimed at him for “engaging in this type of project.” The OWWA earlier said that the creation of café was criticized by some for “being insensitive to the needs of migrant workers.”

But Ignacio was set on putting up the project as a way of making OFWs feel “special.”

“It makes me want to jump for joy, because before, when I was new to OWWA, I just see the OFWs frowning, sitting there, carrying their torn-up envelopes. When you take care of people, you just don’t take care by giving them what they ask for. You give them something extra…. I take care of [how] they feel,” Ignacio said in an interview with Rappler on Friday.

The OWWA chief said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony that he hoped to open similar initiatives in more OWWA offices across the country and in Philippine posts abroad.

Ignacio first joined OWWA in 2018, but stepped down in February 2019, citing “personal reasons.”

He was reappointed OWWA deputy administrator in September 2021. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. then appointed Ignacio as OWWA chief in August 2022, replacing Hans Cacdac, who is now an undersecretary at the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).

The OWWA is an attached agency of the DMW. Ignacio’s emphasis on warmer treatment for OFWs is in line with one of the first pronouncements of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople, who said that in the DMW, “bawal ang masungit (grumpy people are not allowed).” – Rappler.com