The President’s son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, has pushed for the passage of the proposed Department of Overseas Filipino Workers and Foreign Employment.
Duterte co-authored the bill penned by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano of Taguig-Pateros and his wife, Rep. Laarni Cayetano, who represents the other district of Taguig-Pateros.
The bill, they said, called for the creation of a single agency to provide an integrated, more comprehensive and sustainable approach to address the problems and concerns of overseas Filipino workers and their families.
“The bill to create the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers and Foreign Employment to ensure that the agency would manage, harmonize and strengthen existing policies and programs on migration,” they said in a statement.
In the statement, Cayetano said that under the consolidated department the delivery of services and provision of assistance will be faster, better, more responsive and more efficient.
Currently, there are five major agencies that have mandates relative to overseas employment and overseas Filipinos concerns, namely the Department of Labor and Employment, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
“The absence of a single agency to address foreign employment concerns has made it difficult for the government to focus on the needs and demands of migration in general and of OFWs in particular,” Cayetano said.
The Speaker said he believes that with the growing needs and challenges faced by the overseas Filipinos, they need to put a higher Overseas Filipinos Assistance Fund compared with the existing Assistance to Nationals Fund and Legal Assistance Fund.
The bill proposes to provide P5 billion to address the needs of regular and irregular OFWs in distress, and those OFWs returning to the Philippines.
The proposed measure provides that the secretary of Department of OFW and Foreign Employment shall be assisted by six undersecretaries that will handle the following areas: Administration and Finance, Foreign Employment, Reintegration and Social Services, Overseas Filipinos, Assistance to Overseas Filipinos in Distress, International Labor Affairs.
Under the bill, an Emergency Response and Action Center Unit will be created as one of the major units in the unified agency, to be headed by an Assistant Secretary. It will operate a 24/7 call center and media and social media monitoring center to respond to the emergency needs of Overseas Filipinos, Overseas Filipino Workers and their families wherever they may be.
In order to make sure that the families of OFWs are given support and proper guidance, an Overseas Filipinos’ Family Welfare Unit will be created under the said Department. It will serve as the lead coordinator among all government agencies pertaining to the welfare and support programs for the family members of the OFWs.
To further expand the support mechanisms for OFW families, OFW assistance centers dubbed as “OFW Malasakit Centers” shall also be created in all provinces and major cities to ensure prompt and efficient provision of services to OFWs and their families such as acquisition of government permits, validation of overseas job offers, grievance and complaints desks and reintegration services.