Sen. Drilon Stressed That It is Not Needed to Establish OFW Department
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon stressed that the plan to establish a Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) is not needed.
According to him, it will not address the problems faced by Filipinos working abroad. Drilon made the statement at the deliberation of the Senate labor committee on bills aimed at creating the OFW department, which is supported by President Rodrigo Duterte.
In his interpellation, Drilon referred to the “kafala” system in the Middle East, which requires employers to sponsor foreign workers such as OFWs. Drilon said such a system can easily be abused because a foreign worker can’t find another job for three years without the permission of the employer.
“The culture of kafala is something that is embedded in their culture so that your theory is that no form of a bilateral agreement or Philippine domestic laws can achieve full protection to our workers because their workplace is the residents of their employer,” said Drilon.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Sarah Arriola agreed with the legislator’s statement. According to Arriola, although other countries are implementing changes to such a system in the Middle East, many people are opposed to the reforms.
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Based on the article of GMA News, Qatar has reportedly scrapped the kafala system. Arriola said that they have to be able to give the people enough skills for them to work for other industries
“While we want to really stop the deployment, we have to first upskill our people before we decide to stop deploying household service workers because many of our people will not be qualified for other jobs than that,” Arriola said.
According to Arriola, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is currently providing training to OFWs in Philippine shelters in the Middle East. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that in 2019, up to 3,306 OFWs benefited from such training and it is still being done today.
However, Bello said the Philippines needs bilateral agreements with countries in the Middle East to ensure the protection of OFWs. Drilon stressed that such issues are being addressed by the DFA and DOLE even without the new department planned to be built.
“That simply shows that the problem is not solved by the creation of a department but by the promulgation of correct policies as in the case of the pursuit of bilateral labor agreements, of upgrading the skills of the domestic workers,” the senator explained.
However, Arriola supports the establishment of a new department for OFWs that will focus on the issues of Filipino workers abroad. “We still want to push that perhaps there’s a need for a single department to really address the issues for focus,” he said.
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