House OKs bill creating new OFW department on third reading

Voting 173-11 with no abstentions, the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third reading House Bill 5832 which calls for the creation of the Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment.

The measure tasks the new department to  formulate, plan, coordinate, promote, administer, implement policies, and undertake systematic national development programs for managing and monitoring the overseas or foreign employment of Filipino workers.

The measure also puts the P5-billion Assistance To Nationals Fund or the Legal Assistance Fund currently under the purview of the Department of Foreign Affairs to the OFW Department.

In addition, the bill also places the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration under the jurisdiction of the new Department of Filipinos Overseas and Foreign Employment.

At present, OWWA is an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment.

The bill, however, does not provide a permanent existence for the OFW department.

Under the measure, the Congressional Oversight Committee can abolish it 10 years after its establishment in the event that Congress deems it unnecessary at that point.

But for those opposed to the bill, the creation of a new department did not address the country’s longstanding problems of creating enough jobs and the cases of female household service workers being abused, if not eventually killed by their employers.

“Mga kapwa mambabatas, ang totoong dapat tugunan ng lehislatura at ng pamahalaan ay ang kalagayang kailangan iwan ng maraming Pilipino ang kanilang pamilya para makipagsapalaran sa ibang bansa. Nilalagay sa pedestal ang mga bagong bayani na nagpapasok ng remittances sa ating bansa. Ngunit ang totoo, napakalaki ng sinasakripisyo ng ating mamamayan para sa napaka-payak na pangarap para sa kanilang pamilya,” House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna said in casting his no vote.

“Hindi Department of OFWs ang kahilingan ng mga migranteng Pilipino kundi ang pagtatapos ng labor export, ang makasama ang kanilang pamilya, at ang sapat na trabaho at nakabubuhay na sahod sa sariling bansa,” Zarate added.

Zarate’s position was echoed by Representatives Edcel Lagman of Albay, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Gabby Bordado of Camarines Sur, France Castro of Alliance of Concerned Teachers, among others.

“This bill does not reverse the fact that 55.8 percent of overseas Filipinos are women, and that fact aggravates the cost of labor migration since children are deprived of their mothers’ love and care,” Lagman said.

“Hindi nito matutuldukan ang mga kwento ng karahasan at pang-aabuso na dinaranas ng ating mga kababayan,” Brosas added.

The bill’s counterpart in the Senate, authored by Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, is still being discussed in the committee on labor, employment, and human resources development. — with Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News