OFW Rep. Marissa del Magsino (Photo from the website of the House of Representatives)
OFW party-list Rep. Marissa del Magsino has filed House Bill No. 8560, which seeks to institute a system of temporary guardianship for the minor children left behind by overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
In the explanatory note of the bill — titled “Overseas Filipino Workers’ Left Behind Children Protection Act” — Magsino cited two incidents of children of OFWs who were killed by their parents’ partners while the OFW was working abroad.
The lawmaker said the tragedies were “so serious that it prompted the Department of Migrant Workers to look at developing a program to care for the children of OFWs who are left to nonparents.”
HB 8560 proposed that OFWs leaving their minor children behind be required to designate in writing a temporary guardian who will exercise parental responsibility over the children.