Asean labor execs commit protection to migrant workers

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Key labor officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) renewed their commitment to protect and promote the right of migrant workers in the area.

Labor ministers from the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia gathered here to further discuss the details on how to implement the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers which was declared in the ASEAN meet in Cebu City 10 years ago.

“What we have decided to submit to the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers as an output brings us closer to the fulfillment of the dream that we have sown in Cebu 10 years ago. A decade after signing the declaration, we hope to bring it closer into full circle here in Davao and also fulfill the April 2017 Leaders Summit deadline for the development of the instrument to implement it,” said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, in his opening statement yesterday for the ASEAN Labor Senior Officials Retreat held at the Marco Polo Davao Hotel.

Bello stressed the progress that the ASEAN labor officials have scaled since the retreat started Sunday, indicates that they must now aim for an implementing instrument that is meaningful to the everyday lives of ASEAN migrant workers and one that can be claimed as morally-binding.

“Fellow ministers, we must now be of a mindset to complete our task to implement the Declaration. Out of mutual respect, we always agree by consensus. And once a consensus is reached, we ethically bind ourselves to implement an agreed set of commitments,” Bello said.

Bello likewise said he received word that yesterday, through a show of good will and a very open yet frank discussion, they have achieved a breakthrough on the principle issues of the instrument.

“We have gained a significant stride on how to move the process forward to be able to meet the April 2017 deadline,” he further said, adding, “I am very pleased to note the level of commitment that our senior labor officials demonstrated in yesterday’s retreat as well as the support that the ASEAN Secretariat and each member state’s respective technical teams have exerted.”

The mechanism by which the Declaration of the ACMW shall be implemented is expected to be submitted to the ASEAN Leaders Summit by this coming April.

“Our workers, in their individual roles as active agents in an ever-growing economic, socio-cultural and political community, give ASEAN integration a human face. They bring meaning to what we seek for as a people-oriented and people-centered region. They give value to all the efforts that we exert in our official mandates as ministers of labor,” Bello added.

Bello stressed that as individual countries, what is important is that they are coming up together with something that has great potentials: a meaningful guide, an instrument of change that is a product of our consensus and years of consultation.

“This will be a living document which will be continuously improved in future meetings,” Bello added.

Bello likewise said that on the part of the Philippines, they wish to assure all of the participating labor officials of the country’s highest regard in the roles that they have assumed to bring this instrument closer to its realization.