IRR on OFWs’ law out

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), released last Friday the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10022 or the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995.

“The amended law would protect the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and intensify the criminal liability of erring recruitment agencies,” POEA Deputy Administrator Hans Cacdac said.

The modified law took effect 15 days after its implementing guidelines had been published from two newspapers with a general circulation last July 23 and would be executed by the DoLE, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Health, National Labor Relations Commission(NLRC), and the Insurance Commission.

However, Cacdac said some of its provisions, particularly about the deployment of OFWs to countries that have been certified by the DFA and the mandatory insurance coverage of migrant workers would still not take effect.

Under R.A. 10022, the DFA would have to subject the host countries where OFWs would be deployed, to a criteria provided by the law.

It stipulated a 90-day review period after the amended law has taken effect for countries, where the Philippines has an embassy and 120 days for countries without one.

Until the DFA has finished its assessment, the status quo would be implemented on the country’s migrant deployment procedures.

Countries which have no bilateral trade agreement with the Philippines or have no law protecting its migrant workers would be flagged by the DFA and removed from the list of possible destination for OFWs.

Among the countries which would be examined are high-risk areas like Iraq, where hundreds of OFWs were recently repatriated by some US recruitment agencies.

Cacdac said there are at least 197 countries where OFWs are deployed.

Meanwhile, the implementation of the provision on the mandatory insurance of OFWs would also be delayed for 30 days after the IRR has taken effect until the Insurance Commission has finished its ongoing meeting with concerned stakeholders on the development of its more detailed guidelines.

The law would require recruitment agencies to pay the premium of the following insurance coverage for OFWs: $15,000 in case of accidental death; $10,000 in case of natural death; $7,500 in case of permanent disablement.

Some of the other provisions of R.A. 10022 which have taken effect include the following: Repatriation of OFWs if necessary at the expense of their recruitment agencies; prohibition of act of reprocessing or alteration on an OFW’s contract; inspection of medical clinics screening Filipinos before they are deployed.

It also emphasizes on the provision which bars foreigners from owning majority of the shares of a recruitment agency.

The section was included in response to the reports from some members of the recruitment sector that a number of land-based recruitment agencies, are mostly owned or managed by foreigners, which is against the foreign ownership law, Cacdac said.

DoLE, with the assistance of the Department of Justice (DoJ), would file criminal cases against the erring companies even without the testimony of the victims through the accounts of government operatives who conducted the inspection of the said establishments.

The administrators or owners of the companies would be penalized with 12 to 20 years of imprisonment and pay a fee of P1 to P2 million. –SAMUEL P. MEDENILL, Manila Bulletin