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According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a bill creating the Department of Migrant Workers into law on Thursday. He signed the Department of Migrant Workers Act into law at Malacaang, creating a completely new government body committed to overseeing the affairs and defending the rights of millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
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The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) was established to better track overseas Filipinos. (Photo / Retrieved from Pixabay)
Duterte has been pleading with Congress to adopt legislation creating a new OFW department for years. In March, he declared the bill to be urgent.
The new law aims to rename the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to the Department of Migrant Workers, which will be in charge of overseeing all policies pertaining to OFWs' welfare.
Other agencies' activities, which are currently split among numerous government ministries and deal with various OFW issues, would be unified and moved to the new agency. Meanwhile, the OWWA would be connected to the Department of Migrant Workers.
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A completely new government body committed to overseeing the affairs and defending the rights of millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was created. (Photo / Retrieved from Associated Press)
The Department of Migrant Workers would be in charge of regulating OFW recruiting, employment, and deployment, as well as investigating and filing charges involving illegal recruitment and human trafficking.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority's 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos, DWM is expected to benefit an estimated 2.2 million Filipinos living overseas.
