MANILA, Philippines -- The overseas Filipino workers group Migrante International yesterday expressed its disappointment over the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s decision to selectively implement the new regulations on direct hiring which, among other things, requires foreign employers to pay performance and repatriation bonds for the OFWs they hire.

The POEA board, chaired by Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, moved on Friday to selectively implement POEA Memorandum Circular No. 04, which has drawn criticism from Migrante and other OFW groups and prompted the Philippine Embassy in Singapore to suspend its enforcement.

“The board is acting without or [with] lack of reason by reaching a decision of selectively implementing MC-04. They did not listen to the popular demands of millions of OFWs in the Middle East,” said John Monterona, coordinator of Migrante’s Middle East chapter, in a statement.

Brion said the POEA might exempt employers from the bonds in Hong Kong, Italy and Canada since employment terms in those places usually included salary protection for the OFWs and provisions for their repatriation.

Monterona said making employers pay a US$5,000 performance bond and US$3,000 repatriation bond for an OFW is not a guarantee the OFW’s rights would be protected and his or her welfare advanced.

“Secretary Brion is naive of our real-life experiences abroad. The performance and repatriation bonds requirement could easily be passed on by the employers to the OFWs by deducting their monthly salary,” he said.

The United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil), Migrante’s affiliate in the Chinese Special Administrative Region, agreed, saying that even if Hong Kong, Italy and Canada were exempted, the gains the government and unscrupulous agencies would get from MC-04 were still “gigantic.”

“This is at the expense of millions more OFWs,” said Unifil chair Dolores Balladares in a separate statement, adding that reforms and exemptions to MC-04 “do not make the policy right or serve the interests of OFWs.”

Balladares said the protests by the OFWs and their families against MC-04 both here and abroad was the reason the POEA reconsidered the circular. They also showed the government it could not just do what it wanted.

“Obviously, opposition to MC-04 has created pressure for the government to turn its tail and offer exemptions. We claim this victory, however partial, as proof that collective actions can bring some relief to our condition. Still, OFWs deployed in the three areas are just a drop compared to the total number of OFWs affected by the guidelines,” she said.

Even if Hong Kong were exempted, the Samahan Laban sa Katiwalian ng Recruitment Agencies at Patakarang MC-04 (Skrap MC-04), a 65-member coalition co-convened by Unifil, would push through with its protest action today.

“We are one with our fellow OFWs around the world in opposing this policy. The issue here remains to be service to and protection of OFWs. No ploy or diversionary tactic will lead us away from this fight,” she said.

Migrante-Middle East said Brion should visit OFWs in the region to hear their sentiments about MC-04.

“The problem with a technocrat like him is that he can’t see the real-life effects of a policy as long as it is being implemented so that the government can evade its foremost responsibility to us OFWs and gain more money for the Arroyo government. If he sees a defect in the labor law pertaining to overseas work, by good reason he should not apply it at all, just like in this case,” Monterona said.