{"id":273095,"date":"2020-10-27T08:21:14","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=273095"},"modified":"2020-10-27T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:21:14","slug":"duterte-renews-call-for-passage-of-ofw-department-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/27\/duterte-renews-call-for-passage-of-ofw-department-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte renews call for passage of OFW department bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on October 26, 2020. ARMAN BAYLON\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday reiterated his call to Congress to pass a measure establishing a Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), saying the welfare of OFWs should be handled by a separate department than the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to hurry up Congress in this. One of my proposals during the campaign period was the creation of Overseas Filipino [department].\u00a0Iba \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0Department of Labor. It takes care of the internal\u00a0mga trabahante dito, \u2018yung nasa labas<\/em>\u00a0(The Department of Labor is different. It takes care of the internal workers. This will take care of concerns of those abroad),\u201d he said in a taped speech.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the DOLE, despite having attached agencies, did not entirely focus on the plight of OFWs.<\/p>\n

\u201cItong sa<\/em>\u00a0overseas workers,\u00a0ang ano nito ang<\/em>\u00a0rational or rationale (is), if you may,\u00a0na wala masyadong<\/em>\u00a0focus.\u00a0Kasi kalaki ng<\/em>\u00a0Department of Labor, isa\u00a0lang \u2018yan dito, isang<\/em>\u00a0department\u00a0lang \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(On overseas workers, the rationale is, if you may, it doesn\u2019t have so much focus. Because the Department of Labor is so big, that\u2019s just one department),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He promised the OFWs that there will be a more thorough review of policies \u201cfor your protection and that somebody should look after you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also wanted an agency to address the concerns of seafarers but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will also create another agency and that is the maritime, the seafarers,\u00a0kasi sinabi ko sa kanila iba-iba \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0treatment\u00a0ko doon<\/em>\u00a0(because I told them they have different treatment there) because of the so many international laws involved\u00a0dito<\/em>\u00a0(here),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duterte asked Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to look into reports that a Filipino has been \u201cstranded\u201d in Vietnam for two years. He did not mention the person\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve read that one Filipino has been stranded in — I think he is in Vietnam right now. I\u2019d like to ask Secretary Bello, if he\u2019s listening, to look into the matter. He has been there for two years. That is unconscionable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He instructed Bello to facilitate his return to the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot accept that kind of mistake of government. We should bring him home. No Filipino should be left stranded like a person with no nationality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a bill establishing an OFW department.<\/p>\n

At present, the DOLE\u2019s attached agencies, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration are in charge of protecting the welfare of OFWs and their dependents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday reiterated his call to Congress to pass a measure establishing a Department of Overseas …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":273098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273099,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273095\/revisions\/273099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}