MANILA, Philippines—The government should go slow in its labor export policy amid increasing cases of rights violations, threats, and even deaths of Filipinos working abroad, a member of the House of Representatives said Tuesday.
Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said the decision of the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers to strike off the Philippines as a model country for workers protection should alarm President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “on her hustling to seek more jobs for Filipinos abroad, setting aside their protection and welfare.”
The UN Committee on Migrant Workers has deleted the Philippines as a “positive case study of state ratification and implementation” in the document “Guide on Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.”
Ilagan said she supports the UN decision and also noted that even the Omnibus Rules and Regulations Implementing the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, also known as Republic Act 8042, which was supposed to be the Philippine government’s translation of the said UN convention, has not fully protected the OFWs.
“While the Arroyo administration announces thousands of job orders abroad, more and more Filipinos have been victimized by illegal recruiters. This is a clear manifestation that the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs have failed to implement the law,” Ilagan said.
With the President off to another expensive visit to the Middle East for job deals, Ilagan said that the chief executive is “paddling in a sinking boat,” deliberately disregarding the UN Convention and continuing with her program of selling the Filipino work force to other nations.
“Hindi nilalako ang karapatan ng mga OFW, sa halip ito ay dapat pangalagaan at depensahan (OFWs’ rights should not be sold, but instead developed and defended),” said Ilagan, adding that Arroyo’s labor export policy has boomeranged.–Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos
July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines
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