CFO and CHED Formalize Partnership to Support Transfer of Skills, Credentials, and Talent from Overseas Filipino Students & Professionals Back to the Homeland
4 March 2026 | Quezon City
The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), led by Secretary Dante “Klink” Ang II, and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), led by Chairperson, Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis, inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 4 March 2026 to formalize collaborative initiatives in skills and expertise mobility.
Dr. Agrupis underscored the pressing challenges faced by the higher education (HE) sector, and emphasized the need to strengthen the ACHIEVE agenda toward expanding access to quality education and advancing human capital development. She asserted that government agencies and industry partners must collaborate in developing curricula that respond to and align with the evolving demands and needs of the global workforce. Further, she highlighted CHED’s role, in collaboration with the CFO, in harnessing the expertise of overseas Filipinos to help enhance academic systems, enrich curricula, and strengthen higher education reintegration programs that contribute to the country’s national development agenda.
Secretary Ang echoed this message by reaffirming the CFO’s commitment to cultivating the talents of overseas Filipinos, and providing platforms that encourage not just diaspora altruism, but also further engagement with the homeland. He emphasized that overseas Filipinos contribute not only through remittances but also through skills-transfer initiatives, medical missions, and other meaningful forms of service. Citing the CFO delegation’s recent visit to the United Arab Emirates last February to engage with Philippine Schools Overseas (PSOs), Secretary Ang asserted the CFO’s role as Secretariat to the Inter-Agency Committee on PSOs to ensure the ease of integration of overseas Filipino youth to local Philippine higher educational standards and requirements upon return, through the continued provision of the Philippine curriculum overseas. In closing, Secretary Ang expressed his optimism for CHED and CFO to work hand-in-hand in strengthening programs for overseas Filipinos and in further advancing the country’s higher education sector.
Following the MOU signing, the CFO conducted a meeting with CHED officials from the Office of Programs and Standards Development (OPSD), the Office of Student Development and Services (OSDS), the Office of Planning, Research, and Knowledge Management (OPRKM), and the International Affairs Service (IAS) to discuss technical alignments in the partnership’s ongoing, initial, and upcoming undertakings. These include, but are not limited to, Exchange Visitor Program (EVP) policies on departure and reintegration, the recognition of PSO alumni credentials in local HE institutions, and the tapping of Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas (PAFIOO) laureates in contributing their expertise to local HE initiatives that contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The MOU was signed on behalf of the CFO by Secretary Ang II and Usec. Borja. Representing CHED were Chairperson Dr. Shirley Castañeda Agrupis and Executive Director Atty. Cinderella Filipina S. Benitez-Jaro.
Also present at the signing ceremony were Project Management Division Chief Ms. Marita del Rosario-Apattad, Mr. Frencel Tingga, Ms. Kristine Gacer, Mr. Alvin Cabuco, and Ms. Angelika Paredes. Representatives from the Office of the Executive Director and the Office of the Secretary, Mr. Zian Eusebio, Mr. Diego Esguerra, and Mr. Jerry Carual, were likewise in attendance.
