OWWA Tambayan is a meeting place of a special group of OFW’s who give life to the economy of our country. This is the place where they can have heart to heart talks with their trusted ‘kababayans’ who provide sympathetic listening ears in times of difficulties, loneliness and longing to go back home.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Monday to set up an “OWWA Tambayan” in Hong Kong where overseas Filipino workers based there can converge on their days-off. She also urged the OFWs to sell Filipino products in the soon-to-rise OWWA center and even become franchise holders of the “Tindahang Pinoy.”

“Tindahang Pinoy” is a new entrepreneurship program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to promote and propagate native Philippine products. The decision of the President to set up an ‘OWWA Tambayan’ is an indication of how sensitive she is to the needs of our overseas workers.

Ironically the word ‘tambay’ has a negative connotation in both Filipino and Waray-Waray terms. It practically means a bum, a jobless, good for nothing homo sapien who lives on the generosity of others. ‘Tambayan’ is of course, the place of the ‘tambays’.


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