Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Luis “LRay” Villafuerte has called on recently-appointed Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Abdullah Mama-o to focus the body’s efforts on offering legal assistance and welfare to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and on targeting illegal recruiters.
He underscored the DMW’s responsibility to track OFWs and to offer them legal and welfare assistance where needed.
"A key feature of the law that the newly appointed Secretary Mama-o should immediately set up is the provision of an online database system to share with other agencies so that the department and other offices can easily track and deliver timely legal and welfare services to our migrant workers, especially distressed OFWs,” said Villafuerte in a press statement on Friday March 25.
Villafuerte was a principal author of House Bill (HB) No.5832, now Republic Act (RA) 11641, which saw the creation of the DMW.
The measure was enacted last Dec. 30, 2021, President Duterte appointed Mama-o as the first DMW secretary last March 9.
Aside from the creation of an online OFW database, the DMW’s responsibilities include regulating the recruitment and employment of OFWs, blacklisting recruiters who violate the rights of OFWs, and investigating cases of illegal recruitment in collaboration with the Department of Justice (DOJ).