Salceda urges incoming DOLE, DMW chiefs to lift OFW deployment ban

Albay Representative Joey Salceda on Tuesday called on incoming Labor chief Bienvenido Laguesma and Migrant Workers secretary Susan Ople to lift the deployment bans for healthcare workers and and other overseas jobs to address the local currency depreciation.

Salceda, chairman of the House ways and means panel, said "when the peso is cheap, the easiest logical choice is to earn more foreign currency."

"There is no easier way to do that, in our case, than to allow OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to work wherever they wish. Labor mobility is a human right, after all. And in this case, it’s good economics, too,” Salceda said in a statement.

“I appeal to Secretary Laguesma, who has been my friend since the Estrada administration, and to Secretary Ople. Just lift the deployment bans. It’s contrary to sound social policy. It’s also bad economic policy," he added.

The lawmaker mentioned that he had tackled with incoming Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Felipe Medalla the management of peso's deprecation. He stressed that it is "not to artificially support the currency, but to just earn more dollars."

“That way, the depreciation benefits the economy. It’s not something that scares me. Depreciation has been national policy in so many of our export-oriented neighbors," Salceda said.

“OFWs should have the right, barring obvious security and legal reasons, to work wherever they think will help them and their families. It so happens to be good economics, too," he added.

The Philippine peso had strengthened against the US dollar on Monday, after closing at a 16-year low last week, reports said. The local currency gained 20.5 centavos to close at P54.78:$1.

Further, Salceda said the policy on the suspension of the deployment of healthcare workers was hideous.

"Imagine forcing health care workers to stay at home and just suck it up if they have complaints about low pay here. If the point is to keep them during a health emergency, the best way is to pay them right," he said.

"Besides, if you don’t pay them enough, they won’t work for our hospitals. They’ll just stay at home. So, as a policy, it’s set for failure," he added.

GMA News Online has reached out to Laguesma and Ople for comments regarding the matter but they have yet to reply as of posting time.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier said it will propose raising the current 7,500 deployment cap of healthcare workers due to increasing supply of nurses and easing of COVID-19 protocols abroad.

In May, POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said the number of nurses who were deployed from January to May this year already reached more than 2,000.—AOL, GMA News