Manila committed to overseas workers

Welfare of Filipinos abroad a priority, says official

Manila: Protection and welfare of Filipino guest workers abroad will remain one of the cornerstones of the Philippine’s foreign policy in 2011, Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

In a statement announcing his department’s main thrusts in 2011, Foreign Affairs Secretary Romulo said improving services to the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continues to be one of the focal concerns of President Benigno Aquino’s administration alongside economic and national security.

“The President’s instruction to be ‘even more responsive to the needs and welfare of our OFWs’ is the department’s guidepost in improving its frontline services at the home front and overseas,” Romulo said.

The secretary said the country has made considerable strides in providing improved services to Filipinos overseas in 2010. He said the country was among the first in Southeast Asia to shift to the use of the electronic or “e-Passport”.

“Today, the Philippines is among only 60 of 192 countries and four among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations that issue e-Passports,” he said. The use of e-Passports greatly eases travel for OFWs and Filipinos travelling abroad, as it reduces immigration clearance time.

Aside from introducing the e-Passports, the Department of Foreign Affairs also actively takes part in efforts by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to address all forms of human trafficking and illegal recruitments, particularly of minors, women and other vulnerable individuals.

Romulo added that to prevent further victimisation of Filipinos as “drug mules” the DFA played a key role in the formation of an inter-agency task force targeting drug couriers.

The agency was also able to assist more than 22,000 OFWs and attended to 204 cases of human trafficking and illegal recruitment involving 559 victims.

New act

The DFA, Romulo said, had also helped secure the commutation of death sentences pronounced on 38 Filipinos, 16 of whom returned home in 2010.

Perhaps the most significant achievement of the government in the area of OFW protection is the enactment during the second half of 2010 of the Republic Act 10022 or the Amended Migrant Workers Act.

While the Philippines has a law providing protection to its millions of migrant workers for at least two decades already, the RA 10022 is significant in setting a clear mandate for the government to ensure the full protection of rights and welfare of OFWs.

Through a certification process, the government ensures OFW only go to countries guaranteeing their rights and welfare. –Gilbert P. Felongco, Correspondent, Gulf News