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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Villafuerte prods Senate: Approve House bill expanding legal aid for OFWs

Villafuerte prods Senate: Approve House bill expanding legal aid for OFWs

Published Feb 16, 2024 06:57 am

At A Glance

  • Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has urged the Senate to consider passing the House-approved measure aiming to widen the government's legal assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

Lray Villafuerte.jpgCamarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (PPAB)

Legal assistance covering the start of the investigation, detention, arrest or indictment, all the way to the trial proper, and at all levels of appeals that will follow.

Such is the extent of the government’s proposed legal assistance to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the House-approved measure that Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte wants the Senate to take up.

A lead author of House Bill (HB) No. 9305, Villafuerte underscored to the senators the bill’s necessity, as he noted that migrant Filipinos “deserve all the legal assistance they can get whenever and wherever they require such help”.

“The Congress can help do that by writing new legislation to amend our laws that presently allows the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and DMW (Department of Migrant Workers) to provide only limited aid of this type to them at any time they need to protect their rights or run into trouble with the law overseas,” the lawmaker said in a statement.

HB No. 9305, which the lower chamber recently approved unanimously on third and final reading, is seeking to expand Section 26 of Republic Act (RA) No. 8042 or the “Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995”. It likewise amends Section 14 of RA No. 11641 or the “Department of Migrant Workers Act”.

The amendments will help broaden the range of the DFA’s Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) and DMW’s Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo Para sa mga OFWs na Nangangailangan (AKSYON) Fund, respectively.

“The breadth of legal assistance that the DFA and DMW, respectively, can provide to our kababayans (countrymen) who are living or working abroad from the investigation stage up to the court trial and even after the resolution of every case,” the National Unity Party (NUP) president said.

With this, the expanded legal assistance shall be made available not only to OFWs but to overseas Filipinos as well.

Under the bill, legal fees that can be charged against DFA’s LAF and the DMW’s AKSYON Fund will include fees for hired foreign lawyers, expenses for the filing of labor and/or criminal cases against erring or abusive employers or other persons abroad, bail bonds to secure the temporary releases, and other litigation expenses.

Related Tags

Senate of the Phiippines overseas Filipino workers (OFW) lray villafuerte legal assistance
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