“IN THIS WEEK’S column opening of our OFW success story, we are presenting a unique and exciting personal experience of resilience and triumph of our featured Modern Day Filipino Hero by the name of Myrna Padilla.
The story of Myrna Padilla is perhaps the ultimate “rags-to-riches” narrative of the Filipino diaspora. Myrna’s journey from “the girl who dived for coins” to a leader in the global tech industry proves that our starting point does not define our destination.
Her story is a beacon of hope for every OFW currently feeling stuck in a foreign land. She is the living embodiment of the “fruition of sacrifice,” showing us that with a “Pinoy Heart” and a “Global Mindset,” no star is unreachable.”
Myrna Padilla’s journey began far from the digital world she would one day transform. Growing up in poverty in the coastal province of Bohol, she spent her childhood diving for coins tossed by tourists — a simple but harsh symbol of survival.
Destiny, however, had in store a far more demanding path. At just 14, she was trafficked and pushed into forced labor. Yet the girl who knew the taste of hardship also carried within her an unshakeable resolve to reclaim her future.
NO WAY TO SURRENDER
Despite life’s early cruelties, Myrna refused to surrender. In her late teens, she joined the millions of Filipinos seeking better opportunities abroad, working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong, Singapore, and eventually the Middle East.
The world she entered was unforgiving, but Myrna carried on with endurance shaped by necessity. She worked tirelessly, learning to navigate foreign cultures, languages, and expectations while sending home every peso she could spare.
But what truly set her apart was her unexpected love for technology. During her overseas employment, Myrna developed a fascination for computers — a tool she believed could change her life if she learned how to harness it.
With only borrowed devices and little formal schooling, she taught herself basic software use, online systems, and coding. Each new skill was a victory. Each line of code was a small declaration: I decide my future now.
SELF-TAUGHT JOURNEY
Her self-taught journey eventually led her to a calling far greater than she imagined — to build a digital platform that would help protect migrants like herself.
Witnessing the desperation and silent suffering of countless OFWs worldwide, she understood the magnitude of their vulnerabilities: exploitation, abuse, isolation, fear. No Filipina should have to endure what she endured. No migrant should disappear without a trace.
From this vision, Mynd Consulting and later the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) digital tools were born. Myrna transformed her personal trauma into a technological shield — real-time reporting features, digital documentation, and safety systems designed to protect migrant workers from trafficking, abuse, and modern slavery.
What started as the dream of an OFW with a borrowed laptop evolved into one of the most respected migrant-protection tech initiatives in the region.
SOCIAL TECH LEADERSHIP
As the company expanded, Myrna became the face of a new era of social-tech leadership — a woman who rose not through privilege but through perseverance, skill, and an unbreakable sense of purpose.
Her work gained international recognition, earning partnerships with global institutions, as well as nominations and awards that validated her mission.
But for Myrna, the true reward was never prestige. It was every OFW who found safety because the system she built known to the digital world as “OFW WATCH APP” who had helped them speak, be heard, and be saved.
Now a respected CEO, Myrna Padilla carries the same humility she had as a migrant worker, but her vision has grown as large as the world she once feared. She continues to develop digital tools that uplift the marginalized, educate communities, and shine light on abuses often hidden behind closed borders.
WATCH APP FOR OFWS
Her life is proof that greatness can rise from the most unlikely places — a child diving for coins, a helper working in faraway homes, a survivor who turned trauma into technological empowerment.
Today, thousands of migrants walk safer paths because she refused to accept silence as their fate.
Myrna Padilla stands as a powerful reminder to all Filipinos: that courage, when coupled with compassion, can transform not just a person’s destiny but the fate of countless others.
And in the vast digital world she helped shape, she remains the unwavering voice of the migrant who refuses to be unseen.