Two senators have renewed their pitch for the creation of the Department of Overeas Filipinos, asking their Senate colleagues to support the proposed measure that will look after the welfare and interests of the OFWs.
Senators Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa noted that measures to improve the bureaucracy and protect the welfare of Filipinos wherever they are in the world are primordial concerns amid the ongoing pandemic.
G cited the need to streamline all related responsibilities concerning Filipinos overseas into one department so that decisions and actions can be made in the most expedient, most efficient, and most responsive mechanism possible.
He appealed for support to the passage of his proposed Senate Bill No. 1949, otherwise known as the Department of Overseas Filipinos (DOFil) Act of 2020, which seeks to safeguard the rights and promote the welfare and interests of overseas Filipinos.
SBN 1949 is the third version of a measure Go first filed in July 2019. The bill creating DOFil is one of the priority measures of the present administration as mentioned numerous times by President Rodrigo Duterte, including in his last two State of the Nation Addresses.
The President also certified this most recent version filed by Go as urgent.
The former presidential aide said the proposed department will be primarily mandated to formulate, recommend and implement national policies, plans, programs and guidelines that protect overseas Filipinos, including OFWs, as well as promote their interests and resolve issues concerning them in a timely and effective manner.
Dela Rosa also has sought for the establishment of a department tasked to look after the interest of Filipinos overseas without causing a “swell” to the state bureaucracy since it will be an integration of functions of existing concerned government agencies.
He authored Senate Bill No. 2110 (SBN 2110), to be known as “Department of Overseas Filipinos Act,” to rationalize and put “under one roof” the powers and functions of separate concerned offices.
This would also ensure a more effective implementation of policies and programs for the protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare of overseas Filipinos, especially the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
According to the the Commission on Filipino Overseas, thereare 10.2 million overseas Filipinos in more than two hundred destination countries and territories, of which 4.8 million are permanent migrants, 4.2 million temporary migrants, and 1.2 million, irregular migrants.
There are 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) working abroad, based on the 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos by the Philippine Statistics Authority.