Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) advocate Susan "Toots" Ople will be good for the relatively new Department of Migrant Workers, a foreign affairs official said.
When sought for a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on the possible appointment of Ople as the secretary of the new agency, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said "it is a very good appointment."
Presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has recently bared his intention to appoint Ople to head the Migrant Workers department.
"I think it's a very good appointment. The Department of Migrant Workers will be in very good hands," Arriola, who is the current undersecretary for DFA-for Migrant Workers’ Affairs.
"Si Ma'am Toots, she's been a long-time advocate for OFWs, even yung Blas Ople Center talagang has been the partner of the DFA, especially in trafficking cases," she said in a press briefing Friday, May 20.
"We are very supportive with the appointment. I think she will do very well for the OFWs," Arriola added.
During the press briefing, Arriola reiterated that at present, the deployment of OFWs remains under the Department of Labor and Employment until the requisites for the new department are complied with.
These requisites are the implementing rules and regulation (IRR), staffing pattern, and budget.
"Until ma-satisfy lahat yung requisites na yun (Until the requisites are satisfied), the law says that all the subsumed agencies for the Department of Migrant Workers will proceed with their work," Arriola explained.