Administrative Order No. 247

SECTION 1. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) shall execute a paradigm shift by refocusing its functions from regulation to full-blast markets development efforts, the exploration of frontier, fertile job markets for Filipino expatriate workers.

SECTION 2. Within the next few weeks, the POEA shall submit to the President a global employment map with emphasis on what can be called the Code Green areas, countries that are aggressively recruiting foreign workers, hence, natural deployment sites for Filipino expatriates.

SECTION 3. The Cabinet shall render full support to the POEA so it can aggressively deploy Filipino expatriates into the aforementioned Code Green countries with urgency and unbothered by institutional hurdles.

SECTION 4. The POEA shall update and expand its Rolodex on its country-contacts, global companies recruiting expatriate workers, international head hunters and manpower placement agencies with a global reach.

SECTION 5. The target shall be to increase the countries currently hosting Filipino workers and break through the 200-country barrier.

SECTION 6. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) shall recast its priorities in line with the aggressive labor marketing efforts of the POEA.

TESDA shall intensify its skills retraining and skills upgrading program

SECTION 7. TESDA shall intensify its skills retraining and skills upgrading program. Done in the City of Manila on this 4th day of December 2008 (Sgd.) GLORIA M. ARROYO By the President: (Sgd.) EDUARDO R. ERMITA Executive Secretary