LILAC CENTER FORUM ON OFW WELFARE TACKLES PH-KUWAIT “DISPUTE”

The Lilac Center for Public Interest will conduct a multisectoral forum on Wednesday, May 2, to focus on the issue of welfare and distress resolution for OFWs, a relevant and nagging concern that has affected even the country’s diplomatic relations with some OFW destination countries, Nicon F. Fameronag, Lilac Center president, announced yesterday.

The whole day forum will be at the Best Western Hotel La Corona Manila along M.H. Del Pilar Street in Malate, Manila. The primary audience of the forum is welfare officers and frontline employees of licensed recruitment agencies, their owners, presidents, and general managers, as well as OFWs and migrant organizations.

“The matter behind the current diplomatic tension between Kuwait and the Philippines, which boils down to the issue of OFW welfare, will be one of the relevant topics for discussion at the forum,” Fameronag said in a press release.

The diplomatic tension has been simmering since the discovery of the body of murdered OFW Joanna Demafelis and the Philippine banning of the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait. It has come to a head with the expulsion last week by Kuwaiti authorities of Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa, who was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave in a week’s time after videos of the Philippine Embassy’s alleged clandestine rescue of OFWs went viral on social media.

“This is a diplomatic as well as a social issue protection-even economic-issue that OFWs and the Filipino people should be concerned about,” Fameronag, a former DOLE undersecretary for employment, said in a statement.

The former DOLE official said the primordial issue behind this sad development is the Philippine government’s steadfast pursuit of its avowed policy of promoting and protecting the welfare and interest of OFWs, which is the third pillar of Philippine foreign policy.

“This policy should have been clear to the Kuwaiti government so it should have a balanced response to the issue. More importantly, the policy should be clear to all Filipinos, hence, this forum,” he explained.

The Lilac Center, a private organization committed to expanding the realm of policy researches and studies to cover kitchen-table issues of the Filipino masses, thus contributing to making policy a domain of public interest, is holding “Care 101: A Forum on OFWWelfare Case Prevention and Distress Resolution”, because problems such as inhumane treatment; physical, emotional, and psychological abuses; workplace disputes; and other social injustices, even death, remain the weak links in the Philippine migration cycle.

Despite the existence of stringent laws, rules, and regulations that aim to safeguard the welfare, rights, and interest of OFWs, migrant protection continues to be a burning issue being faced by the government, civil society, and hu- man rights organizations, but most importantly, by OFWs themselves, particularly lowsalaried and vulnerable workers, such as domestic workers.

“OFW welfare is a shared responsibility, but in reality, licensed recruitment agencies bear the brunt of the obligation and blame when an OFW is in distress because of regulatory requirements. As a consequence, they face the grim reality of punitive sanctions-including heavy fines and the cancellation of licenses. This set-up breeds corruption,” Fameronag said.

“Following the Lilac Center’s belief that the efficacy of policies is best achieved if policies are understood, not by a few, but by many, we will, in this forum, highlight and provide clarity on government’s migrant welfare policy; provide practical tips on what to do when an OFW is in distress; and explain the minimum regulatory compliances for licensed recruitment agencies to avoid facing welfare cases. This is a capability-building forum,” Fameronag further said.