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Friday, March 29, 2024

Lawmaker cites House approval of OFW department measure

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The recent passage by the House of Representatives of the bill that creates Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment (DFO) is a concrete example of what will happen if advocacy groups and the legislature operates, a congressman said on Friday.

Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the House’s approval of the measure was in keeping with the commitment of President Rodrigo Duterte and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on the establishment of a Cabinet-level Office to protect and advance the interests of the country’s over 10 million modern-day heroes. 

 Voting 173-11, the House on Wednesday approved on third and final reading House Bill 5832 that creates a new department that shall be the primary agency tasked to protect the rights and promote the welfare of Filipinos overseas.

“We owe it to our over 10 million modern-day Filipino heroes, who have helped keep our economy afloat amid all external and domestic challenges, to have a line Department in-charge of protecting and advancing their interests, in keeping with the commitment to them of President Duterte and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano,” Villafuerte, one of the principal authors of the approved consolidated bill, said. 

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On top of revving up the delivery of sector-specific services for migrant Filipinos, Villafuerte said the proposed Department would have to undertake proactive measures to finally address the problems buffeting them, particularly illegal recruitment, sexual abuse by employers and inadequate work benefits, among others. 

The OFW sector has propped up the country’s fiscal position, having remitted a whopping $32 billion in 2018 alone, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data.

President Duterte called on the 18th Congress to establish a Department for OFWs in his 4th State of the Nation Address last July 22, 2019.

Prior to the chamber’s plenary discussions on this proposed DFO, Villafuerte, who represents CamSur’s second district in the chamber, has committed to OFW groups the speedy congressional approval of this Department, as earlier vowed by Speaker Cayetano.

Villafuerte, of Camarines Sur’ second district   met last year at the House with leaders of the Alliance of Bonafide Recruiters for OFW’s Advancement and Development, which earlier submitted a position paper to Malacañang and the Congress identifying points of agreements and discussions on fine-tuning this priority bill of the Duterte Administration.

Villafuerte welcomed the partnership with lawmakers of the recruiters’ alliance and encouraged them to gather testimonials and cases to buttress the broad and deep support here and abroad for the creation of a new Department catering to OFWs.

“The creation of this new department for OFWs is a top priority of the House leadership under Speaker Alan Cayetano, in support of President Duterte’s agenda for inclusive growth and in recognition by the House of the vital contribution to the domestic economy of the ever-increasing number of OFWs who are our modern-day heroes,” Villafuerte said in his meeting with ABROAD leaders.

Villafuerte told the ABROAD leaders then that the surge in OFW remittances was responsible in part for the increasing resilience of the Philippine economy in the face of international financial headwinds such as international protectionism, the US-China trade war and the global economic slowdown.  

“I have been with President Duterte in many of his official trips abroad at nakita ko na malapit talaga ang puso niya sa mga OFWs. He has heard many stories about the hardships of our countrymen while working abroad and I understand why he wants the Congress to speed up the passage of a measure creating an OFW department,” Villafuerte said.

“As we push for this initiative, we want to make sure that we also hear your voice. Collate all the files and submit them to us so we could share these with our colleagues during the upcoming committee hearings,” he told the ABROAD officials during their meeting.

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