A group of Filipino workers expressed elation over the passage of a measure that seeks to create the Department of Migrant Workers.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said this a rightful Christmas gift for the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and seafarers, who are considered the modern heroes.

TUCP party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza is one of the principal authors of HB 5832.

Before the Congress went on a month-long Holiday break, the House of Representatives had adopted and ratified the Senate version (SB 2234). It was sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for signature.

“It is high time the Government honors their courage, dedication, and service to our country by establishing this new Department that responds to and elevates the status of OFWs,” Mendoza said.

To date, the OFW personal remittances have kept the economy afloat before and during this pandemic. Their remittances are primarily allocated for basic goods and services, the education of their children, and are the real social safety net of our extended families.

Mendoza said these expenditures by OFW families have a multiplier effect that help generate local jobs; generate valuable foreign currency reserves at almost no cost to the government as it is these OFWs who are taking the cudgels of not just caring for their family, but also ensuring that our national balance of payment remains healthy.

“The pandemic highlighted the undramatic yet vital work of Filipino workers not just here, but in many parts of the world who risk life and limb just to earn an honest living. Filipino Migrant Workers have fought the great war on poverty, made great sacrifices at home and abroad, and made prodigious efforts to achieve personal and national wealth. Yet, they themselves languish in the uncertainties of a perilous and often fatal foreign labor market,” Mendoza said

The new law maintains the policy that labor migration is a choice and should not be a necessity, but recognizes the urgent need at this time to employ a one-country-team approach to efficiently respond to the needs of OFWs and their families by elevating their concerns to a department level.

The new Department of Migrant Workers (DOMW) will rationalize government functions as to the overseas employment of Filipino Migrant Workers and ensure that their human and labor rights are protected at all times.

It seeks to pursue the 23-point objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). It will address long-standing policy gaps on OFW recruitment, deployment, protection in the workplace, and reintegration.

It covers all Migrant Workers deployed and to be deployed, contract workers, seafarers and fishers on board, and excludes Filipinos living abroad.

The new Department will have an AKSYON Fund to address the needs of Migrant Workers. This will “provide legal, medical, financial, and other forms of assistance to OFWs, including repatriation, shipment of remains, evacuation, rescue, and any other analogous help or intervention to protect the rights of Filipino nationals.”

Overseas Filipinos will continue to be serviced by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and will still be covered by the one billion peso ATN fund, and the 200 million peso legal assistance fund. In this way, no one will be excluded, Migrant Workers will be protected through the DOMW while Overseas Filipinos will still be assisted by the DFA.