Manila, Philippines – WITH at least 10 percent of our population living and working overseas, is it time to create a Department for Migrant Workers? Senator Manny Villar, a staunch OFW advocate, believes it is and is pushing for legislation to do just that. According to him, the huge size of the OFW population merits the creation of a singular agency that would address their needs in a more holistic and seamless manner.
Right now, a Filipino working abroad has to contend with several agencies before he or she leaves the country, and or whenever he or she runs into trouble overseas. Before leaving, an OFW must apply with a licensed recruitment agency, defined simply as one that is accredited with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The foreign employer and/or the agency that represents his interest in the destination country, must have the job order and employment contract of the applicant concerned verified and approved by the Philippine Embassy through the Philippine Overseas Labor Office headed by a labor attaché.
That verified and authenticated contract would also need to pass through the POEA. The law mandates an overseas worker to undergo a pre-departure orientation seminar conducted by recruitment agencies and/or non-government organizations accredited by the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA). The applicant also needs to make sure that his or her recruitment agency obtained mandatory insurance coverage from an insurance company accredited by the Insurance Commission for this purpose.
Please note that an overseas worker should not pay for mandatory insurance. It is the recruitment agency that must pay for said coverage, and the onus is on that agency to explain the features of the insurance policy to the worker concerned. Failure to do so on the part of the agency, may result in the cancellation of its license by the POEA.
The POEA issues an Overseas Employment Certificate or OEC to the worker after making sure that he or she had fulfilled all requirements, and has paid all obligatory membership dues $25 or its peso equivalent to OWWA covering two-year membership coverage, R100 to Pag-IBIG Fund and R900 to PhilHealth (unless the PhilHealth’s plan to raise this to R1,200 and thereafter to R2,400 is approved.) At the airport, the worker is exempted from paying the terminal fee and travel tax by virtue of this OEC that gives him the status of a modern-day hero, or that of a legitimate OFW. An OEC may or may not protect the OFW from the offloading guidelines of the Bureau of Immigration. In case of doubt, under its new rules, the Bureau of Immigration must consult the POEA to ensure sufficient basis to bar an overseas worker from boarding the plane.
Such protective instincts brought forth a maze of steps and fees to pay. However, the less restrictive road is fraught with even graver danger. For those who choose the backdoor meaning, to consciously leave as tourists in order to work abroad with the aid of shadowy recruiters and human traffickers the road to perdition awaits.
All these agencies come into play when an OFW leaves for abroad, or is already abroad, or is about to come home the DFA (for passport services, authentication services, onsite community services and legal assistance, and repatriation of distressed undocumented workers), the POEA (to regulate licensed agencies, to open up overseas job markets, to deploy workers under a government-to-government scheme, to run after illegal recruiters and human traffickers, to educate workers through its pre-employment orientation seminars), OWWA (for welfare assistance and also repatriation services to and for its members), the Insurance Commission (a new player in overseas employment, but now involved because it monitors insurance companies that offer mandatory insurance packages for OFWs to licensed recruitment agencies), Commission on Filipinos Overseas (for Filipinos to be married to foreigners, and for emigrants as well as dependents of Filipino migrants), and then there are the membership-based pension and social insurance funds SSS, PhilHealth, PagIBIG Fund.
Having a Department for Migrant Workers need not supplant or tear down all the services that these agencies have to offer. It could, however, bring all OFW-directed services under one roof with someone at the top of the leadership chain that could shape policy and have a helicopter view of the world and our OFWs in it.
Senator Villar will undoubtedly encounter resistance from a bureaucracy so used to the co-existence of programs and and services for OFWs under different agencies and departments. However, the perspective that truly matters is that of the OFW sector.
The message behind the proposal is clear and unmistakable having all these various agencies working for OFW empowerment may not be beneficial in the long-run because of the sheer scale of our growing OFW population.
I have high hopes that this proposal can, at the very least, open doors to a more visionary approach to good governance systems and practices for the benefit of our modern-day heroes.
Source:http://www.tempo.com.ph/2012/a-dept-for-migrant-workers/#.T3GTA2HxqSo
