Bello hopes POEA, OWWA to be part of proposed OFW dept

FILE: Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III, in a press briefing for the Philippine media delegation at the Orchard Hotel in Singapore on April 27, 2018. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III is hoping that its two attached agencies handling concerns of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) would not be abolished once a department of OFWs is created.

“What I would like to happen is that agencies such as POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) and OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) will not be abolished. Let them be included in the department of OFW as attached agencies,” he said Tuesday in a radio interview.

Bello’s remarks came after President Rodrigo Duterte renewed his call for the passage of a law creating a Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), saying the welfare of OFWs should be handled by a separate department.

Bello also reiterated his support for the measure.

“We support that. The President is right when he said that there should be a department that will solely look after the needs, welfare, and protection of our OFWs. A department that is fully dedicated to OFWs,” he added.

Once the Department of OFW is created, he believed that he will be letting go of a big part of his responsibilities.

“I will be only looking after local employment. I will be losing a huge part of my job,” Bello said.

In a taped address Tuesday morning, Duterte said the DOLE, despite having attached agencies, did not entirely focus on the plight of OFWs.

He promised the OFWs that there will be a more thorough review of policies “for your protection and that somebody should look after you.

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The POEA and OWWA are attached agencies of the DOLE, which also provide jobs and look after the welfare and protection of migrant workers.