DMW as one-stop shop for all OFW concerns

Susan “Toots” Ople has been at it for decades, championing the rights and welfare of overseas working Filipinos (OFWs). Thus, her confirmation last month as the first secretary of the newly minted Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) is a fitting recognition of her commitment.

Her rapport with OFWs on many issues during her stint as undersecretary at the Department of Labor and Employment, and before that, assisting her father Blas Ople as senator and later as Secretary of the Foreign Affairs, will be invaluable.

But it is her genuine concern for the plight of over two million hard-working migrant Filipino workers that should assure us that better attention will be given to a myriad of issues and concerns facing OFWs, from a bureaucratic streamlining to the protection of their rights while working in a foreign country.

Over the last six months, Ople had been busy preparing to take on all of its mandated responsibilities that come with the merging of six government agencies and offices that deal with OFWs, many of them with personnel assigned abroad.

With a budget of P16.3 billion already approved for 2023, the DMW can now focus on ensuring a seamless transition of delivering uninterrupted service to OFWs here and abroad as it consolidates work under one roof.

Better coordination among the merged offices will be expected next year, mainly on maximizing human resources, but also on improving the delivery of services that have always been top on the list of OFW concerns.

Migrant worker abuse

Over and above the bureaucratic challenge of smoothing out the inner workings of a new DMW, coordination with governments in other countries in ensuring that our migrant workers abroad are respected and free of abuse should be given more attention.

Admittedly, this is a long process and requires specialized knowledge of the other countries’ laws and governance network on dealing with migrant workers. While agencies like the United Nations (UN) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) are hard at work on implementing a universal rights-based framework for labor importing countries, migrant worker abuses continue to be prevalent.

In many of the countries where a large contingent of Filipino migrant workers are found, but which have weak laws and institutions to deal with migrant labor, strengthening our own network of assigned government workers in terms of training and readiness is necessary.

But in countries where there are fewer Filipino workers who are at  risk the same oppressive environments, focus should be on streamlining migration policies under the strictest system to ensure that incidents of abuse are avoided and will not unduly stretch the Philippine government’s network of overseas labor and legal attaches.

Such are the realities that the DMW must contend with and its future policies must be guided by a strong database accumulated through statistics and lessons spanning more than half a century of work dealing with Filipinos leaving for temporary and permanent work abroad.

While cases of migrant abuse involving physical abuse and becoming high profile are still the minority, many Filipinos working in many countries cannot deny the existence of discriminatory policies that are more often reflected in the work they are forced to accept and the lower salary and abbreviated benefits that accrue.

Better jobs and wages

Even for seasoned OFWs who have spent most of their adulthood years outside the country, acceptance and recognition of their ability and worth do not come easy. More often, a migrant’s career progression has to be sacrificed in favor of locals who are less qualified.

Unlike the early decades when Filipinos sought largely menial work outside the country, famously as construction workers in the Middle East or as household help in Hong Kong, our deployment now are more in specialized fields that require at least a college degree.

The Philippines is not the biggest source of workers for jobs overseas, although it is the fifth largest recipient of overseas remittances. This is not just a reflection of the number of Filipinos living abroad, now at over eight million, but also the quality of jobs that Filipino migrants and migrant workers are able to secure.

Thankfully, the pandemic has not dented the amount of remittances that Filipinos abroad send to their kin in the Philippines despite the lower numbers of jobs in developed economies snagged by Filipinos. With the job market once again opening up in the West, competition will be fierce, especially coming from Indians and Chinese.

As more – and younger – Filipinos seek jobs abroad, the DMW must provide the necessary inputs to our colleges and universities on the skills and mindset required to become more competitive.

Giving seafarers better training

One related issue relates to our seafarers. While over 50,000 Filipinos employed in European ships are already in danger of losing their jobs if the Philippines does not pass the European Maritime Safety Agency assessment, which is the responsibility of the Department of Transportation, more are not able to qualify for higher positions because of a lack of competent training.

The DMW should take on a bigger responsibility in ensuring that our seafarers are able to acquire the skills they need to progress in international shipping, and in coordination with other government agencies and the private sector, come up with a better program.

Filipino seafarers are a large part of the migrant workers’ force, and while the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) is currently responsible for seafarers’ training, the DMW should have a bigger responsibility. This way, all our OFWs will have a truly one-stop shop for their concerns.

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