Separate OFW deparment may send ‘wrong message’ – Villanueva

Sen. Joel Villanueva (File photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)

MANILA, Philippines — The creation of a separate Department for Overseas Filipinos might send the wrong message, Sen. Joel Villanueva said on Tuesday.

“We might be sending a wrong message that it is the policy of the state to send Filipinos abroad, because our main goal is to actually bring them back here and create more jobs here, create more opportunities in the country,” Villanueva told reporters after an organizational meeting between the Senate labor committee, which he chairs, and officials of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Tuesday.

“So these are the issues that we need to address in the coming hearings,” he added.

During the meeting, the DOLE officials expressed support for the President’s call to create a new department that would focus on addressing the concerns Filipinos overseas.

“I think a lot of us are still in the dark as to whether or not the Department of Labor and Employment is supportive of this initiative,” Villanueva said. “This is the first time that we hear from them that they are supportive of the measure or initiative to create a new department.”

“It’s not so clear also as to the policy of the administration. They were saying [something about] right-sizing, but at the same time here we are we’re creating another department,” he added.

Labor Undersecretary Jacinto Paras said the proposed department would “streamline the bureaucracy by consolidating all the agencies that are functioning to serve and safeguard our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers).”

Villanueva also pointed out the there might have been a lack of consultation with other concerned agencies regarding the establishment of a new department.

Several agencies have mandates concerned with overseas employment and the concerns of overseas Filipinos — the DOLE, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“It appears there’s not much consultation from [the] CFO [Commission on Filipinos Overseas], from the DFA, etc. I think if you are to create a department of Filipinos abroad, then they should be consulted,” Villanueva said.

“Earlier, that was what came out: Things were not yet ironed out,” he said, speaking partly in Filipino. “Obviously, they’re not yet ready. So, we’ll find out in the next hearings their positions and even [those of] the [undersecretaries] of the different agencies.”

Villanueva noted, however, that there was definitely a need to improve government services extended to OFWs.

“There’s a huge room for improvement, I think all of us will agree with the statements of the CFO: If there’s an OFW whether a worker or Filipinos abroad needing assistance from the government, they still don’t know where to go,” he said.

But while there have been a lot of concerns raised, Villanueva said: “We are not closing our doors. We are all ready to listen to the arguments being raised by the different departments.”

President Rodrigo Duterte, in his fourth State of the Nation Address last July 22, called for the creation of a department of OFWs.

But Villanueva said the Senate was “an independent institution.”

“As a policy-making body, we have a mind of our own and we respect the positions and the policies of the President. In fact, we prioritize the position of the executive, especially the head of the executive which is the President,” he said.

“Perhaps, we need more substantial information coming from the executive department namely the different agencies attached to the [DOLE] including that of other agencies as stakeholders of this initiative,” he added.

/atm