Discrimination vs OFWs alarms senators
SENATE Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, during the plenary session, Wednesday, September 22, 2022, expressed disappointment over the unfair treatment that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) receive when they depart from the Philippines to their countries of employment.
“Unbelievable, I just cannot believe it. I’m sorry to say this , but they are trampling on the dignity of our Filipino workers,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva also called upon the Department of Migrant Workers under its Chief Sec. Toots Ople and other relevant government agencies and embassies to conduct an investigation on the issue and ensure that OFWs aretreated rightly and with pride.
“Hindi po natin hahayaan bigyan ng ganyan klase ng treatment ang ating kapwa Filipino lalo mga OFWs natin. Sobrang mali po ito,” Villanueva was quoted as saying
In a privilege speech, Senator Pia Cayetano bared the seeming discrimination against OFWs who are allegedly required by their recruitment and manpower agencies to wear additional personal protective equipment such as PPE, face shields, medical gowns, footsies and gloves on international flights, while regular travelers are not mandated to do so.
In the session hall, Cayetano presented photos taken a few weeks ago at the NAIA 3 of OFWs wearing PPEs.
“It’s like the height of ridiculousness that you have to wear those footsies because they are walking around the whole airport where thousand of people enter and walk around every day. So there is nothing hygienic about being in footsies, as opposed to being in their regular rubber shoes or walking shoes,” Cayetano said.
Senators said this must be investigated in order to know if certain OFWS are being made to wear PPEs as a travel requirement and called for an immediate inquiry on the matter.
“I hope we can help out our OFWs so that they wont have to pay extra to travel for work, and they dont have to travel in this kind of discomfort,” Cayetano said.
