Protecting overseas Filipino workers
(Second of two parts)
THE World Bank report “Migration to Opportunity: Overcoming Barriers to Labor Mobility in Southeast Asia” also cited the fact that the Philippines has many different agencies that “are devoted to different stages of the migration process.” It referred to the POEA as being “responsible primarily for migration management, and its Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) that perform “management tasks such as registering foreign employers and overseeing compliance with POEA policies.” They also noted the work done by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in protecting the rights of migrant workers.
It is of course true that these agencies do not function properly all the time. We still hear complaints from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) regarding the inefficiencies of the system. For one, we still need to address coordination problems. While multiple institutions are important to address multiple needs and problems, they sometime lead to problems in coordination and in the sharing of data and information.
It is for this reason that I have been strongly advocating for the creation of a cabinet-level, Department of OFW, that would have the central authority to coordinate all efforts — rights protection, diplomatic, economic — to advance the interest of OFWs.
But I am delighted by the fact that the World Bank has recognized the past efforts of the Philippine government to improve its governance framework with regard to protecting the rights of OFWs. For instance, it noted that of all ASEAN countries, the Philippines has competently relied on “a system of bilateral agreements to govern migration with many destination countries.” This was a problem before where OFWs fell victim to abuses in other countries where they were treated as second class citizens. Today—at least formally—the “existence of a bilateral agreement is one of the factors considered by the Philippines in determining whether a country will protect the rights of its citizens while abroad and so should be a permitted destination country.”
The study noted that the Philippines has signed MOUs and Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) with 23 countries and four subnational governments regarding land-based migrants and with six countries regarding seabased migrants, which range from facilitation of worker migration in very specific areas to broader frameworks covering required qualifications, worker welfare, and cooperation.
These agreement — which are not always perfect — are important tools to enforce basic, internationally accepted rights of migrant workers. There is still a lot of work to be done, for sure, like making sure the agreements are binding and making sure they are enforced, and are enforceable, but at least the framework for bilateral cooperation is already in place.
Another aspect that earned the World Bank’s praise is something I truly believe in — reintegration. For the most part, we think about OFW protection in terms of championing their welfare while they are abroad. There is no doubt that this is important. But of equal significance is ensuring their sustainability once they return to the country. The OWWA and the National Reintegration Center for OFWs are providing reintegration services in the form of livelihood and self-employment programs to returning Filipinos. But we need to strengthen and improve them by providing financial literacy skills, entrepreneurial training programs and capacitybuilding on savings and investing.
Here, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can help a lot by providing OFWs with the capacity to better manage the money they worked hard for. The saddest part of an OFW story is when you have one who earned a lot of money only to lose them in a blink of an eye due to bad decision-making.
We have been trying to help in this regard through the Villar Foundation by giving OFWs the opportunity to use their hard-earned money to build a better future. In our OFW Summit, for instance, we provide them with the capacity and knowledge to start a small business or enterprise. In this way, we make sure — slowly but surely — that the number of Filipinos separating from their families in order to get a better income will be reduced. That is the best way to protect them — keep them here, with their families, with income generating jobs or enterprises.