The Filipino Profiles

Marianito Roque

Marianito “Nitoy” Roque is the secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). He was the former administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) before being named Acting Secretary of DOLE on March, 2008.

Marianto Roque was born to Mauro J. Roque, a contractor-entrepreneur, and Eliza Dineros, a homemaker. Nitoy as he is fondly called, completed his Elementary and Secondary education at Lamao Bataan High School in 1971 in Limay, Bataan. In 1975, he obtained a degree in Economics at the De La Salle College in Manila. Roque then completed his Master’s degree in Business Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University. Even at a young age, he is said to have demonstrated exemplary self-discipline and capacity for hard work and empathy.

Other Information

• Name : Marianito “Nitoy” Roque
• Birthday : January 27, 1914
• Schools Attended :
  • Elementary education, Lamao Bataan High School Limay, Bataan
  • High school education, Lamao Bataan High School, Limay, Bataan (1971)
  • Degree in Economics, De La Salle College, Manila (1975)
  • Master’s degree in Business Administration, Ateneo de Manila University (1978)
• Father : Parents  Mauro J. Roque
• Mother : Eliza Dineros

Career Highlights

• Secretary, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), (march 2008)
• OWWA Chief (September 1, 2004)
• OWWA Director (1986 to March 2004)
• Forerunner, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)
• Statistician and planning officer, Overseas Employment Development Board (OEBD), (1976)
• Marketing professor, Philippine Women’s University

Achievements

• The negotiation with the Kuwaiti government for the mass evacuation and repatriation of 28,000 Filipinos during the first Gulf war
• The development of the informal wage remittance program for OFWs
• The conceptualization of the assignment of Welfare Officers to Philippine Missions as frontline providers of welfare services
• The reinvention of OWWA as a public-responsive and demand-sensitive national government agency
• The improved delivery of services to migrant workers’ families throughout the Philippines
• The negotiation with the Saudi government which resulted in the release of 500 OFWs from the Kingdom’s jails
• The institutionalization of the 24/7 Operations Center to monitor crisis and distress situations involving OFWs
• Te co-managing of the evacuation of 6,000 Filipinos from Lebanon at the height of the Israel-Hizbollah conflict

Links

• dole.gov.ph