Senator Joel Villanueva said that the creation of the proposed department for migrant workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) should optimize government service to Filipinos abroad.
On Tuesday, May 25, Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, sponsored to the plenary Senate Bill No. 2234, which seeks to establish a Department of Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos (DMWOF) to respond the needs of over 10 million Filipinos around the world.
The bill consolidates all proposals on the creation of a department for OFWs, which they earlier called the Department of Overseas Filipinos (DOFIL).
In his speech, Villanueva said the structure of the DMWOF should meet the needs for "navigating a world full of challenges to overseas Filipino workers, such as the post-pandemic world."
‘’Given the proper orientation and mandate, it will be instrumental to the transition towards a strategic post-COVID-19 Philippine economy,” he added.
“The world will have changed when this department gets operational, and the last thing we need is a new bureaucratic accessory. What we should have is an agency that is a toolkit for the future,” he continued.
Senator Christopher ‘Bong’’ Go also delivered a co-sponsor speech on SB No. 2234.
‘’This proposed measure has been a long time coming. The President has called for this numerous times in the past several State of the Nation Addresses, and I am happy that we in Congress are finally heeding this call,’’ the long-time Duterte aide said.
"Our goal is simple in this measure: to give our migrant workers and all other Filipinos abroad the best government service that we could give them’’ Go added.
Citing government data, Villanueva said that about 6,092 Filipinos leave the country every day to work abroad before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Five percent of all labor migrants globally are Filipinos; we are ranked number seven worldwide. In-demand po ang mga Pilipino abroad (Filipinos are in demand abroad),” he noted.
“Despite their contributions to our economy and the love and respect they get from other countries and nationalities, problems continue to plague our overseas Filipinos, especially OFWs. While there are metrics for the economic returns of migration, there is none for its social costs. And the sad truth is that OFWs risk their limbs and lives abroad because of a lack of employment opportunities at home,” he added.
The bill, he explained, included a provision mandating a review of the department 10 years after its creation.
He reiterated that the “policy of the State to not promote overseas employment as means to sustain economic growth and to achieve national development.”
“We are optimistic that there will be no more need for this department in the future that we included a sunset provision. We believe that ten years is a reasonable amount of time to evaluate the need to overhaul or abolish the DMWOF should circumstances prove that its existence is no longer necessary,” he said.
The bill merges the following government offices: the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), National Reintegration Center for OFWs, Philippine Overseas Labor Offices, some functions of the International Labor Affairs Bureau, National Maritime Polytechnic.
Also transferred to the DMWOF are the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs of the foreign affairs department, and the International Social Services Office of the social welfare department.
The bill also proposes to move the Commission on Filipinos Overseas from the Office of the President to the DMWOF.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), meanwhile, will be an attached agency of the proposed DMWOF.